The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson (Trans. from Swedish by Reg Keeland, Penguin 2010)
This is the third and last of Stieg Larsson’s highly successful Millennium series, featuring anti-social super-hacker Lisbeth Salander and hyper-moralizing rogue journalist Mikael Blomkvist. With Hornet’s Nest, we hit the ground running immediately following Lisbeth’s assault on Russian defector Zalanchenko at the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire. With a bullet in her brain—no small peanuts—Lisbeth is transferred to hospital and operated on. Wanted for the murders of two journalists whose report on underage prostitution lies at the heart of the previous book, Salander now waits as others argue over her fate and Blomkvist plots to free her.
With this volume, Larsson moves heavily into conspiracy theory territory, briefly recruiting even the Swedish PM as a character while focusing on a secretive government cabal believed to have covered Zalachenko’s existence. The book vacillates wildly between action and rhetoric, between swiftness and inertia, but without Salander’s outrageous unpredictability at its centre much of it feels oddly flat.
A total of ten books were planned for the series, including fragments of a fourth left incomplete at the time of Larsson’s death, so perhaps others will appear in future. (If Mahler’s tenth symphony could be successfully reconstructed after his death, then why not Larsson’s books?) At times, the current volume threatens to implode from the weight of its sub-plots and secondary characters, as well as a lot of overwrought expounding on issues of sex and sexuality. Though the odds are always heavily weighted on the side of the good guys, nevertheless you still feel inclined to cheer as the would-be tension builds to a rather predictable victory for Our Side. In spite of everything, the series ends with a considerable bang rather than a whimper, and the conclusion makes it well worth the ride. Thank you, Stieg Larsson.
June 23
June 12
Another stellar evening for Proust & Company. Our Pride Poets evening over Glad Day Bookshop featured some fantastic readings by Keith Garebian, Maureen Hynes and Billeh Nickerson. (If you think poetry readings are dull, you should have been there last night. That was some talent!) Keith read from his newest book, Children of Ararat (Frontenac), while Maureen read from a collection of new and older work, including Harm's Way (Brick Books), as did Billeh Nickerson with his inimitable sense of humour, giving us selections from McPoems (Arsenal Pulp). And of course the stalwart musical stylings of Omel Masalunga rounded out the event. Thanks, all!
May 29
Whoever said awards ceremonies were dull never went to the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards. Of course, it didn't hurt that I got to sit with the Sheilahs: Sheilagh Rogers of CBC hosted the evening in her inimitable style and Sheilah Kauffman of Another Story Bookshop was a presenter along with me and a number of others. Also at our table was incoming CBA president Mark Lefebvre, whose amusing manner kept us all at ease. And I'm happy to say that my very own editor, Marc Cote of Cormorant Books, went home with the award for Editor of the Year.
May 7
Nearly famous. Went to the Churchmouse & Firkin for a quaff with my friend Enrique yesterday. While I was downstairs in the loo, the server came by and asked where she might have recognized me from. E pointed to the cover of Xtra! on the table and asked, "Does he look like that guy?" She pondered my photo for a moment, then shook her head. "Sort of, but not really," she said, and went off to fill E's order.
Apr 28
F-U-N. That's a word I haven't used in a while. Today I even had some, modelling for Toronto arts scene photographer, David Hawe, for an upcoming issue of Xtra! Xtra!'s new managing editor, the charming Marcus McCann, was on hand to make sure we didn't get too carried away while I posed for the article on my symbiotic existence with sexy super-sleuth, Bradford Fairfax. For those who don't know, Brad is currently preparing for his upcoming adventure, Vanished In Vallarta, due out in June.
Apr 12
What's better than a short mediocre review in the New York Times? A great, full-page review in the Literary Review of Canada. I'll be sure to post the link to Steven Hayward's review of The Honey Locust, "Battles Foreign and Familial", when it comes on-line!
Apr 5
News flash! I'd heard that the normally genteel and diplomatic Canadian mystery writer, Anthony Bidulka, author of the Russell Quant mystery series, has been writing about me in his blog. The very idea brought me to my knees in despair! How could I have sunk so low that a nice guy like Anthony would gossip about me? So I checked out his site, and there it was in black and white, and a few other colours, for everyone to see. And so can you: http://anthonybidulka.com/blog/. But then again, if it's all true, does it qualify as gossip?
