Lisbeth Salander: Character Connection

We all have characters we love. Let’s spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too!

Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie’s arms. The possibilities are endless.

Be sure to post the book’s title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.

Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.

I must confess here that I am one of the few readers in this world who did not fall in love with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It was okay, but I didn’t think it was all that everyone makes it out to be. The character of Lisbeth Salander is probably the only thing that made me read the next book. What an enigma she is.

I’m working off memory because I don’t own the books, but I think I’ll get everything right.  I’m sure Fiona at The Book Coop will keep me honest! 😉 From my review:

But speaking of Salander, I am hopelessly intrigued by her. She was really the big draw of the book for me. Asocial, a little goth, super-intelligent, mysterious, and with a preternatural ability to sniff out someone’s deepest, darkest secrets, I always wanted to know more about her. There are little clues here and there, but we don’t find out too much of her personal story. I’m hoping that we’ll learn more as the trilogy goes along.

Salander looks almost asexual. She’s 24 when the book opens, tiny, flat-chested and has no other curves to speak of. People mistake her for a boy at first glance.

She’s come to the attention of the authorities through some brushes with the law, but when they try to question her, or even find out how well she functions, she just shuts down.  She doesn’t feel that she has anything to prove to them, so they decide that she must be mentally deficient in some way.  They couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t think genius even begins to cover the level of her intelligence. She’s a world-class computer hacker who basically just likes to learn about people as a hobby. She’s in there, poking away at all these private files and accounts on computers, but she never blackmails anyone or steals their money. She’s just curious and she just likes the challenge. She’s landed a job as an investigator at a prestigious security firm in Sweden. They might not like the way she dresses, but they are impressed with the results she produces.

At Salander’s heart though, is a woman who hates “men who hate women” (the book’s title in Swedish.) Once she catches a whiff of something like that, she doesn’t let go. It’s not like she just goes head-to-head with these jerks, or even “just” escalates matters with them. No. She annihilates them. Salander’s bad side is not a place anyone wants to be. Luckily for the rest of the world, she has a fairly long fuse. Well, maybe not long.  Longer than you would expect, let’s say.  She’s been treated badly all her life and she doesn’t ever expect anyone to treat her any better. In fact, it throws her way off balance when someone treats her with kindness. She doesn’t know what to do with that. She can shrug off mean words, but kindness puzzles her. She tries to figure out the angle they’re working and when she doesn’t find it, she throws up her hands in defeat, basically thinking that this person is a weirdo.

I went to see the Swedish movie last weekend, and it was excellent.  I actually liked it better than the book.  The actress who played Lisbeth, Noomi Rapace, was absolutely perfect.  Hollywood is in the process of casting for their own version, but I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job than Rapace did.  She became Salander.  Maybe I’ll eat my words, but sometimes you should just leave perfection alone.

Oh, and if you’re wondering?  I really, really liked the second book, and learned a lot more about Salander.  She is such a great character.

Who did you connect with this week? Write a post and link up! Be sure to visit everyone else’s posts too–you don’t want to miss out on any great characters!

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