Pretense reviewed The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (Hannibal Lecter, #02)
Review of 'The Silence of the Lambs' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The old definition of moth was ‘anything that gradually, silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.’ It was a verb for destruction too…
If I may be vain for a moment, I am perhaps in the minority among readers of this novel, namely those who have not seen the film adaptation. I was vaguely familiar with it from pop culture, but I never knew all the details, aside from small details here or there about Hannibal Lecter. I had been seeing his name come up a lot lately and decided, why not, the penultimate day or so before my thesis is due is a perfect time to start a book! (Note: heavy sarcasm.) This is a novel that grips you as soon as you start, which made it hurt to simultaneously read and finish my thesis… so it was a bit slowgoing, at first. Despite that, it did not …
The old definition of moth was ‘anything that gradually, silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.’ It was a verb for destruction too…
If I may be vain for a moment, I am perhaps in the minority among readers of this novel, namely those who have not seen the film adaptation. I was vaguely familiar with it from pop culture, but I never knew all the details, aside from small details here or there about Hannibal Lecter. I had been seeing his name come up a lot lately and decided, why not, the penultimate day or so before my thesis is due is a perfect time to start a book! (Note: heavy sarcasm.) This is a novel that grips you as soon as you start, which made it hurt to simultaneously read and finish my thesis… so it was a bit slowgoing, at first. Despite that, it did not detract at all from my engagement with the story.The Silence of the Lambs is popularly known as one among a series of novels about Hannibal Lecter, and this is surely the case—but the novel’s main subject is really Clarice Starling, our protagonist and soon-to-be FBI agent. She’s just a mere trainee at the Academy, but that doesn’t stop her from somehow being handpicked by the head of Behavioral Science to team up with everyone’s favorite sociopathic villain to solve a serial killer. The gist of the plot is such, and it isn’t entirely novel as far as the thriller genre goes, but Harris is perhaps old enough in the game to have been innovative once. I’m not a huge thriller reader, but I do admit that Harris manages to keep the plot actually… you know, thrilling, which modern ‘thrillers’ often fail at. Everyone likely knows the story, it seems, so I won’t delve into that too much—suffice it to say that the ending was actually surprising for me, and though I had figured out some pieces, I never fully anticipated where exactly the story would go.As for characters, the entire cast of characters is charming and has a believable amount of depth. Clarice is obviously the star, a brilliant investigator, but also with some lingering trauma that makes her extremely vulnerable to Lecter. Her supervisor, Jack Crawford, is also an interesting enigma—he isn’t on-page much, but Harris has put at least some effort towards crafting his backstory. Ardelia Mapp was also a fun character, bringing levity into her scenes—and it was great to see Clarice and Ardelia have relatable moments like stressing out over tests, or staying up to talk in the middle of the night. Hannibal Lecter, last but not least, was of course incredibly interesting—but also, in this novel, you don’t actually get to know too much about him. I suppose I have to go back to Red Dragon for that, which I definitely plan on doing, but it was a bit disappointing. Of course he’s a cannibal. He spares a few cannibalistic jokes here and there, but aside from his major moment in this book, he’s mainly just a very chaotic and evil psychologist for hire. (That scene was awesome, though.) As for the villain, if anything, he could have used a little bit more development—he felt a bit cartoony at times, and even like a prop to move the plot along; Harris definitely built up his backstory, but perhaps it wasn’t enough.A brief note on style—Harris’s style is fairly unconventional, at least for literary fiction. It seemed strange at first, but I warmed up to it quickly, and I can definitely see why this book translated well to film. It’s punchy and paints a picture without getting lost in exposition; I’m not a visual thinker or reader, but even I couldn’t help but note how vivid Harris’s descriptions were. Moreover, his weird nuances help the reader get even closer to the inner minds of the characters, which was very interesting—especially when we had POV chapters for Buffalo Bill.Some minor criticisms I would point out is that the ending seems fairly lackluster, after what is an extremely exciting amount of third act buildup (I stayed up until 05:00am to finish this). Some of the secondary storylines, like that of Clarice and the zoology guy, seemed a bit random and unnecessary. I was in a reading slump part of my time reading this, largely because of impending deadlines, so I don’t know if this is entirely me or also the book in part, but some of the middle felt less exciting to read than the first and last thirds. I was stuck around the halfway mark for a good week or so. There are also a lot of reviews calling out the language for being misogynistic, which is interesting, and considering the time period this was written, likely accurate. However, when reading, I got the complete opposite sense—Clarice’s strength was precisely that she was a woman in a world full of men. It gave her an edge, and her femininity was a strength, not a hindrance. Sure, Harris depicts men who objectify and mock her being a woman, but isn’t that (unfortunately) a realistic depiction? On an unrelated note, it was also quite charming reading a book written in the 80s and seeing such technological marvels as a telegraph for fingerprints and car phones. It’s really incredible how much technology (and forensics) has progressed in just a few decades since.Do I regret starting this book while being nowhere near to done with my thesis? Sure, but that’s also a classic me move, and this book was well worth it. I should have gotten around to it ages ago honestly, and now I am excited to finally watch the film adaptation and see what everyone else has been raving about since 1991. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the other books in this series, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll even take a gander at the relatively more recent TV series. In either case, I’m curious to learn more about this odd Hannibal Lecter fellow… even though his presence in this book is like the shadow of a moth’s wing, it nevertheless leaves an indelible imprint.
