Desire Avenue

Just finished reading the wonderful Larsson trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tatoo etc) and was struck by similarities between his heroine Salander and Stina. Both Stockholmers, diminutive, and both obsessively secretive and uncommunicative. And of course both geniuses in different ways!
So could Stina have sparked ideas for Stieg Larsson?
We'll never know, just like, I suspect, we'll never know why Stina went to ground.

I haven't read the books so I can't judge it. But I doubt it if Stina is part of the left-winged circle of friends that Stieg Larsson had. As far as I recall she made it clear she wasn't happy about the upbringing by her communist parents.

Having read the books, I don't see any obvious link between Lisbeth and Stina, except maybe for being unconventional.

Btw, I read the books in french, very gripping, but poorly written and/or translated. Anyone saw the movies?

I haven't read these, but they look superficially similar (in my mind anyway) to a book I loved to bits, 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'. Can anyone confirm that they are similar?

Not sure about the books but the film version of Salander (from the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) looks a little Stina-esque circa 1996/ Dynamite era!

sound world wrote:I haven't read these, but they look superficially similar (in my mind anyway) to a book I loved to bits, 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'. Can anyone confirm that they are similar?

I thought exactly the same Dave. I've been thinking about this recently because I've been watching an absolutely excellent Danish series called 'The Killing' on BBC 4 the past couple of months, which has two female characters in lead roles - one the mother of a girl who's been killed, the other the detective leading the case. What struck me is that both these women are presented in very similar ways, as outwardly quite contained and calm, but with a sense of very strong integrity and independence underneath. You get a sense that they really are lionesses, you wouldn't want to mess with them despite the outwardly reserved demeanour. It made me think of Smilla and Stina, and got me wondering if maybe this is a cultural thing in Scandinavia, that this is how women are brought up to be there and hence that is the perception of women that filters into their creative fiction.