I had a few people discourage me from reading this book with warnings of how it will impact my opinion of Starling. I decided to ignore their advice and read the book anyways. I like my characters to be dark and if that’s what was in the cards for her, I wanted to experience it myself.
The basic plot is that Hannibal has been on the run for 7 years. Mason Verger, his first victim who was left alive has been searching for Lecter. There is a reward, worth millions. Verger is supposed to be working with the FBI towards this goal, but he is only in it for himself and only shares the information when it becomes useful for him to share it with the FBI. Verger catches wind of Lecter’s location and his manipulations and deceptions continue to build in his attempt to capture Lecter. Starling, of course, is unwillingly wrapped up in all of this given her history with the great Doctor.
I basically only have good things to say about this book. It was written just as well as Silence of the Lambs and we get to see a good deal of recurring characters throughout. The story leaves you guessing, giving the reader just enough to make them want to keep reading to find out if their guess is correct. Even at 520 or so pages, I wanted more Lecter and more Starling.
This book provides a darker look at Clarice Starling, which I loved. She is such a strong character with a huge history. There is a passage where Barney is describing the description that Dr. Lecter gave of Clarice, and he compares her to a lion cub. Something that has the instincts and capabilities of its parents, but does not yet have the ability to use them. By the time the events of Hannibal take place, Starling has grown from being a cub to a full grown lioness. It’s a perfect description for her. Her entire career has been impacted by Lecter and their lives impact each other in a big way during the events of this novel.
Lecter is as deliciously intelligent, witty, conniving and brutal as ever and it is always wonderful to read from his perspective.
The only section I did not enjoy in the book were the ones written from Pazzi’s (Italian detective) point of view. It felt like it dragged and went on for far too long, but the ending of his section was incredibly shocking and satisfying, which made all of the slow parts worth it.
I know many people have problems with the end of this book, and I will attempt to discuss it without divulging in any spoilers. I loved the ending. As extreme as it was, it felt appropriate and made sense. I felt satisfied after reading the ending, knowing the outcome of the major plot points had such a resolution. If people attempt to dissuade you from reading the book, citing that it will “ruin” Starling for you, don’t listen. It only makes her better and more interesting. I know that there is one more book beyond Hannibal, but it occurs long before the events of Hannibal. Hannibal serves as the end, of what we, the readers, see of Lecter and of Starling and I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate and satisfying ending.
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Reviews with images
Great comic novel "beyond good and evil"
With Hannibal, Thomas Harris has given us a great comic novel that is "beyond good and evil." In this highly entertaining novel, Mr. Harris demonstrates the ability to say terrible things and present horrific images with a verbal delivery so "deadpan" and swift (in its economy) that for the reader it is like being raped before we realize any of our buttons have been undone. The author's "neutral" stance on inter-species and human cannibalism, for example, can only be seen as a great comic vision that "this too does not really matter."****** SPOILER AlertHarris, the ironist, identifies God as the master sadistic ironist whose games of human cruelty pale into insignificance Hannibal's "own modest predations." This realization comes to Dr. Lecter as a six year old, after seeing the baby teeth of his cannibalized sister, Mischa, in the "reeking stool pit" of her anonymous predators (end of Chapter 48).The final "dining scene," so finely wrought with its elegance and sophistication, once again is best understood as comic ---- given the incongruity of the highest "cuisine aesthetic" juxtaposed with the gentle feeding on a living human brain.Dr. Lecter's ruthless and powerful seduction of "goodness" (Starling) is greatly aided by the ever-presented documentation that the universe is unbelievably cruel, arbitrary, or at least profoundly indifferent and uncaring. That the highly educated and brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, knows this (as does the author) is his only redemption. This terrible knowledge, it must be said, would not be redemptive if it were not so very true. The refined feast of evil presented to us in such an orderly and dispassionate fashion in this great novel is the comic cover for the dark, limitless, and terrifying process of entropy that we as readers are allowed to apprehend only from a distance. Our comprehension from the comic/aesthetic distance of Thomas Harris's vision is necessary (the distance I mean) for us to maintain our sanity and yet grasp some of the true horror of human existence, and still be entertained. I give this book 5 stars.
