acaleyn reviewed Hannibal by Thomas Harris
Review of 'Hannibal' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
As always, one of my favorites
Paperback, 564 pages
English language
Published Feb. 26, 2001 by Arrow.
Seven years have passed since Dr Hannibal Lecter escaped from custody, seven years since FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling interviewed him in a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane. The doctor is still at large, but Starling has never forgotten her encounters with Dr Lecter, and the metallic rasp of his seldom-used voice still sounds in her dreams. --back cover
Chris reviewed Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter, #3) by Thomas Harris
None
3 stars
The other Hannibal on my shelves is a historical novel by Ross Leckie, and the other book of Leckie’s I have is The Gourmet's Companion. Harris's Hannibal however hovers between horror, highbrow and humour, giving the reader an unsatisfactorily fairytale ending - Clarice Starling is a cop, dammit, and Hannibal Lecter for all his culture and urbanity is not only a murderer but one who murders because very largely he feels like it - and they're not supposed to end up in a loving relationship. In the last resort then Harris is refusing to give the reader what the reader thinks they want. It isn't a cop thriller Harris is writing, no matter what the reader may think to be reading, and Harris feels under no obligation to provide the 'death in a hail of bullets' ending that the cop thriller genre requires as one of its cliches. …
The other Hannibal on my shelves is a historical novel by Ross Leckie, and the other book of Leckie’s I have is The Gourmet's Companion. Harris's Hannibal however hovers between horror, highbrow and humour, giving the reader an unsatisfactorily fairytale ending - Clarice Starling is a cop, dammit, and Hannibal Lecter for all his culture and urbanity is not only a murderer but one who murders because very largely he feels like it - and they're not supposed to end up in a loving relationship. In the last resort then Harris is refusing to give the reader what the reader thinks they want. It isn't a cop thriller Harris is writing, no matter what the reader may think to be reading, and Harris feels under no obligation to provide the 'death in a hail of bullets' ending that the cop thriller genre requires as one of its cliches. The brain-eating scene was funny, though. Maybe that's the problem. It's all so Grand Guignol and overdone that it loses any sense of reality. [the film changed the ending, having her under sedation and having alerted her colleagues to come after her if she doesn't return].
