Earlier this month, I blogged about all the reasons that I don't do reviews. And then, as I went to my local library with my mom, we were browsing the stacks together and she found The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Life and Works of Stieg Larsson. Being a fan of the Millennium trilogy, and knowing that I liked the books too, Mom picked it up for me and I checked it out.
Big, big mistake.
To be fair, Forshaw devotes... oh, maybe two chapters to Larsson's life, including one or two pages of out-of-context quotes from Larsson's father and brother, and another two pages of quotes and gleaned-from-the-newspaper reports of Larsson's long-term partner, Eva Gabrielsson.
And that's it.
Most of the book is reserved for Larsson's works; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. The copyright page (and honestly, who reads that?) states that the book contains spoilers and should therefore only be read by the people who have already read the Millennium trilogy.
Spoilers doesn't even come close. Each novel gets its own chapter, and the chapters read like college book reports; detailed storyline recaps, character notes, and the chapters leave no bit of information unturned. After all three novels are dissected, the next two chapters (the last two in the book) are still devoted to the books and their legacy, not to Larsson himself. The next-to-last chapter is devoted to other writers talking about the trilogy, and the last chapter discusses the "Millennium Tour," a walking tour that begins at the home of one of Larsson's characters, Mikael "Kalle" Blomkvist and winds through the places used in the novels.
Google Stieg Larsson, and you will learn more about the man and his history than you did by reading a book that is supposed to be about him, and yet turns out to be nothing but a thrown-together mess that hopped onto the bandwagon of the American clamoring for anything about Larsson, whose untimely death in 2004 makes him a sought-after celebrity.
Your time is better sent reading the Millennium trilogy or by checking out "There Are Things I Want You To Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson.
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