It's a good job I don't eat much meat...
Years ago I found an incredibly battered copy of
The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter book number 2)
on my mum's bookcase - and I mean so well-read that the lettering on the
spine is pretty much invisible, and there were quite a few blanks I had
to fill in whilst reading because of the holes which have some how been
worn into the pages! Obviously I'd heard the title before but had no
idea what the book was about, so I read it, and it became without
question one of my favourite books of all time! Only recently however did I learn that it's part of a series on the legendary sociopath that is Dr Hannibal Lecter, and so I was dying to read more...
I love the idea of Hannibal Lecter - this crazy-smart psychiatrist who worked to help the police whilst at the same time cooking up his patients to feed to them - and it's something that the recent TV series focuses on brilliantly. One thing that persistently irritates
(well not 'irritates' but definitely frustrates) me about Harris' books though, is that Lecter is made out to be a terrible monster, yet the novels never show him as the legendary criminal that he's publicly portrayed as. In fact, he hardly appears in
Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter book number 1) at all, and by the end of
Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter book number 3), though there are definitely some pretty sinister ideas portrayed, he's practically glorified as a saviour!
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| No. 4, I am curious... |
Strictly speaking there are currently four Hannibal Lecter novels, however after the nuclear disaster that is the end of Hannibal - which we'll come to - I'm not sure I can bring myself to read Hannibal Rising, which I think is supposed to be some kind of prequel - Thomas Harris' version of The Hobbit, essentially. If I ever get round to it, maybe I'll write a post on whether or not Harris has redeemed himself. We can only hope...
I'm reluctant to rate the trilogy as a whole because, based on the final 10 pages alone, I would probably put anyone off ever wanting to read these books. Therefore I think I'll address them separately...
Red Dragon (8/10)
One utterly brilliant thing about Harris -
which I think is a bit of a 'marmite' thing; you either love it or you hate it - is that he jumps straight into the middle of the plot. Harris doesn't feel the need, like many writers, to bore us with 200 pages on the tedious context of his characters and their relationships and experiences, even if it could be paramount to later developments in the plot! Instead he takes us immediately right to the centre of the story and allows for the novel's context to reveal itself. In this genre especially, this technique can be incredibly sinister and does to a certain extent demonise Lecter as he is always an invisible presence but we're not told anything about him directly...Mainly though it just makes us actually want to read the book instead of being bored to tears with facts!!!!
All that said,
Red Dragon is a brilliant opener to the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, and indeed is an excellent crime novel in itself - Harris knows how to write a twist, and it seems he is a devil for never giving you the ending you expect...
The Silence of the Lambs (10/10)
I'm such a murder mystery/ detective/ serial killer buff, it's probably unhealthy, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if one day I crack and slaughter my entire family, but I remain hopeful that I do at least still have a little bit of sanity left...
I can't pretend that, having read and re-read this book,
The Silence of the Lambs isn't still one of the best books I've read in years.Clarice Starling is such a brilliant character -
such a brilliant woman. You have to applaud her balls in fighting against all the men who clearly think she's incompetent, but also the way she's fought her way up through, and out of, a system of institutions that would damn those with even the slightest complacency of character.
Even more so though, there's something about the plot of this novel that persistently grips me; it's just as brilliantly written as
Red Dragon but with something a little bit extra. I don't know if it's the more direct interaction with Dr Lecter that is so enticing, but Harris creates something scarily haunting here.
If you're going to read one book from this trilogy -
read this one.
Hannibal (3/10)
Thomas Harris was quite clearly high when he wrote the end of this novel. I felt so optimistic when I read the 'praise' on the back cover and saw that Stephen King thought
Hannibal was
even better than the preceding two novels...My only conclusion is that he hadn't yet finished the damn thing! If you're willing to read this novel but leave the last 10 pages and make your own conclusions as to how it
should end, then please do - you will be much less disappointed and confused than I currently am. There are probably two reasonable conclusion that this novel could come to, both of which you could foresee and be happy with, and neither of which are the chosen denouement of Mr Harris.
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| 11 years... |
For the life of me, I cannot understand why Harris decided to write this novel. Clearly he had some big issues with Clarice Starling, issues which I'm sure Freud would have something to say about...
The Silence of the Lambs definitely leaves itself open for a sequel, a sequel that has the potential to be unspeakably good -
and it has to be said that Hannibal
is, in places, pretty good - but why one earth would Harris wait over a decade and then present us with
this?!? The man has totally destroyed Starling, and the hunt for Lecter is no where
near as gripping as it should be! It's worth a read, but please leave the ending to your own imagination - I wish I had!
Pull yourself together Harris!!!
Despite his poor finale though, these are pretty good books and definitely definitely worth a read if you, like me, love a good thriller!
Harris will keep you guessing until the very, very end.
Rox
xx
