Hannibal
by Thomas Harris

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Book Reviews of Hannibal

Book Review: The novel "Hannibal," reconsidered
Summary: 4 Stars

"Hannibal the Cannibal" was an exotic figure in "Silence" because he was incarcerated, and with Buffalo Bill out skinning his humps and Dr. Chilton being an insufferable ass, there were better people to fear and hate in the book. The various effronteries that caused Lecter to kill and fillet his victims are not always quite clear in "Silence," but Harris provides ample justification for Mason Verger's drug-induced self-mutilation way back when. Lecter leaves Mason alive, not just because his punishment is to live with what he has become, but also because otherwise there is no story. As Lecter's only living victim, Mason has a claim on revenge and as one of the filthy rich he has the means to create his own revenge fantasy fit for inclusion in Dante's "Inferno" by having Lecter eaten alive by giant pigs. But for the reader the true villain of the piece is Deputy Assistant Inspector General Paul Krendler, who might be helping Mason track down Lecter but who also take too much pleasure in ruining Starling's career. Krendler is more than Chilton's evil twin because his actions threaten Starling and everything she hold dear, so it is not surprising that he becomes the most particular target of Lecter's final act of insanely inspired appropriate action in the novel.

Although it is not as clear in the film version as in the novel, there is a love triangle dynamic at work in "Silence" between Clarice, Lecter and Crawford. But this is more than the heroine caught between the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, because for each man the conflicting loves of a father for a daughter and a man for a woman are both at play. The emotions between all three are strong even if they are not precisely quantifiable. However, while Lecter is free to roam it is Crawford who is effectively removed from the picture by a heart attack. The problem is that one of the key ironies is that Lecter is more fascinating in captivity. In "Silence" it was his whispering to Meggs all night long and the photo of what he did to the nurse that provide the undercurrent of horror to his conversations with Clarice. In "Hannibal" he does the same thing to some degree only with Mason's sister Margot. The sense of restrained power is gone and in its place we have a Lecter who simply sends his mind elsewhere as he bids his time. Meanwhile, Starling is left in even worst shape as one she is slowly but surely stripped of all support. Her vulnerability is part of a complex ploy to lure Lecter to her side, but it also echoes the climax of "Silence," where it is Clarice alone who has to deal with Jame Gumb. However, this time she is painfully aware going in that she is all alone on this one, with no clear idea of what to do if and when she rescues Lecter. However, that choice is forever taken from her.

At the end of "Hannibal" what we have is not an ultimate meeting of the minds between Clarice and Lecter but rather a perverse role reversal. Through the circumstances of her attempted rescue of Lecter from Mason's plot, Clarice essentially becomes his captive and then his ultimate act of creation. From this vantage point we look back on Clarice's life and see that her psychological struggle has indeed been a search for a father figure and not for a lover. Being freed from the psychological trauma of her anger over his death--as a trained F.B.I. agent she knows that he got himself killed by being stupid--might not make her a suitable lover, but Lecter is clearly more interested in a consort. The objections by those who see the pair of them living out the rest of their lives as a happy couple misses the mark, and projecting a worst case scenario onto the novel's ending is just plain wrong. Under girding this all seems to me to be a desire by Harris to put the characters to rest. There is certainly not as much promise of another story to be told as there was at the end of "Silence."

Starling always proved herself capable of playing by Lecter's rules, but the idea that she could surprise him seems insufficient to suggest while she becomes so important to him. After all, on one level is she is simply the first woman he has seen in eight years. Ironically, in trying to explain Lecter, the author seriously undercuts the character. We find out the "why" behind Hannibal the Cannibal, but in justifying this grand creation Harris takes away a large measure of the mystery and the fear. Explaining Lecter takes away from our fascination. Naming his childhood trauma might create some sort of equity between Lecter and Starling, but in the final analysis the idea that they should or even could be equals is what many readers have been rejecting. By the end of "Hannibal," Starling has become an empty vessel into which Lecter pours his essence. If this is a perverse love story it is "Pygmalion" with a touch of "The Bride of Frankenstein." Starling does not live happily ever after with Lecter. By the end of this novel she no longer exists.

Summary of Hannibal

Years later, posing as scholarly Dr. Fell, curator of a grand family's palazzo, Hannibal lives the good life in Florence, playing lovely tunes by serial killer/composer Henry VIII and killing hardly anyone himself. Clarice is unluckier: in the novel's action-film-like opening scene, she survives an FBI shootout gone wrong, and her nemesis, Paul Krendler, makes her the fall guy. Clarice is suspended, so, unfortunately, the first cop who stumbles on Hannibal is an Italian named Pazzi, who takes after his ancestors, greedy betrayers depicted in Dante's Inferno.

Pazzi is on the take from a character as scary as Hannibal: Mason Verger. When Verger was a young man busted for raping children, his vast wealth saved him from jail. All he needed was psychotherapy--with Dr. Lecter. Thanks to the treatment, Verger is now on a respirator, paralyzed except for one crablike hand, watching his enormous, brutal moray eel swim figure eights and devour fish. His obsession is to feed Lecter to some other brutal pets.

What happens when the Italian cop gets alone with Hannibal? How does Clarice's reunion with Lecter go from macabre to worse? Suffice it to say that the plot is Harris's weirdest, but it still has his signature mastery of realistic detail. There are flaws: Hannibal's madness gets a motive, which is creepy but lessens his mystery. If you want an exact duplicate of The Silence of the Lambs's Clarice/Hannibal duel, you'll miss what's cool about this book--that Hannibal is actually upstaged at points by other monsters. And if you think it's all unprecedentedly horrible, you're right. But note that the horrors are described with exquisite taste. Harris's secret recipe for success is restraint. --Tim Appelo

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