[/media-credit]Lisbeth and Mikael's first cup of coffee in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."
“It had been two months and I had to do something with the sadness and rage,” Eva Gabrielsson told Mad Moviegoer Monday night during a Q&A at the Tattered Cover LoDo. The architect, author and architect was talking about a curse she crafted after the death of Stieg Larsson, her partner of 32 years and the writer of the blockbuster “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy.
The woman who knew the best creator of hacker-genuis Lisbeth Salander and muckraking journalist Mikael Blomkvist was in Denver to discuss her memoir: “‘There Are Things I Want You to Know’ About Stieg Larsson and Me” (out on paperback).
The curse — or Nid — she performed New Year’s Eve 2004 is one of the most potent and poetic moments in her book. The nid is based on Skaldic verse poetry.
This nid is for you
Evil, sly, cowardly
You who think yourself above others
You who lead them to misfortune and death…
It goes on, for another 14 stanzas.
Gabrielsson makes a compelling argument in her book for the tug of the curse for Scandinavians. That gave Mad Moviegoer a slightly different — more culturally specific — insight into the dark scene in which Lisbeth exacts revenge on rapist Nils Bjurman. I’d wanted to ask her about that.
But one always has to build into a Q&A the likelihood that it will go where it must. Mad Moviegoer also hoped to ask her thoughts about the differences between the Swedish and American depictions of Mikael Blomkvist. (Is Daniel Craig too butch?) Alas, Gabrielsson hasn’t seen David Fincher’s version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” She did promise that once she had, she’d share her reaction. Hope so.
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Prior post
Coffee. Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson drank it by the gallons, she recounts in her intimate, often searing memoir “‘There Are Things I Want You To Know’ About Stieg Larsson.”
So a photo from David Fincher’s big-screen version of the first book in Larsson’s posthumously published, mega-selling trilogy, showing the indelible crime-fighting pair, has a bittersweet flavor.
[/media-credit]In her memoir, Eva Gabrielsson writes about life with --and without -- Stieg Larsson.
After Larsson’s sudden death in 2004, his partner of more than 30 years was denied rights to his estate because Swedish law doesn’t recognize childless, common-law marriages.
Instead the Swedish author and human rights activist’s estate is controlled by his father and his younger brother, Erland and Joakim Larsson. For fans of Larsson’s trilogy, the battle over the author’s literary legacy will resonate with themes of capitalism, mendacity and the abuse of women so central to the novels.
Gabrielsson will be on hand at Tattered Cover LoDo tonight (Monday night) at 7:30 p.m. for a book signing and conversation about her memoir.
