Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT
Review: I thought this was the best book of the trilogy. A vivid, surreal, roller coaster ride, which I found compelling. It was thrilling and unpredictable to the very last page.

Some of the elements I enjoyed most seem to be the very aspects that others detested. I found the historical, musical and literary references evocative and thought provoking, (many readers seemed to think they were snobbish and/or too intellectual). I enjoyed the excellent and detailed descriptions of Florence (which many readers seemed to find boring). I was also impressed by the author's extensive culinary knowledge.

I thought the ending was perfect. I think I was subconsciously hoping for this ending all along, but never thought Harris would have the nerve to do it. I thought there was definite chemistry and an element of erotic tension between Starling and Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs", and that aspect is further explored in "Hannibal". It worked for me. I also think that some who have reviewed the book seem to be reading elements into the ending that aren't necessarily there.

The feelings about this book seem quite strong, in both directions. There aren't many "medium" reviews, most seem to have loved it or hated it. I would be fascinated to know if the discrepancy between those readers who loved it and those who hated it is gender based, and if so, what that signifies.

I think there is a much deeper sub-text to this work that many readers seem to be missing entirely. That, and a sense of whimsy...

Rating:
Summary: About the ending: interesting yet unbelievable
Review: First off I will admit that I have not read Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs. I do plan on reading both novels though after reading this one since I enjoyed it so much. The reason I did read it is because I felt that The Silence of the Lambs is the best film of the 1990's and assumed that Hannibal would follow in its footsteps. Personally, I think The Silence of the Lambs (the movie) had a better plot than the book and therefore believe that the novel itself must be better too. Red Dragon, being the original, must be better too even though it lacks the character Clarice Starling. He didn't need to make an art in his killings though. The detail made me sick to my stomach. I feel horrible for actually feeling sorry for Hannibal at times. When they introduced his sister, Mischa, through a nightmare on the plane I actually felt like I understood why he grew up the way he did.

Rating:
Summary: A bone chilling outlook on society in whole
Review: I listened to the book and lost some sleep over this sequel. It fleshes out the characters so well and left me wondering if, under the right circumstanes that any person can become a monster at the right time, under the right circumstances. The narrator did a terrific job.

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Change
Review: I can't figure out what so many reviewers are complaining about. I thought it was great a book finally ends without some big shoot-em-up scene and the bad guy going off to jail or being killed at the last while "justice" prevails. I found myself despising the animal abusing, child molesting Verger much worse than Dr. Lecter, who I did not despise in "Silence of the Lambs", but rather found a fascinating character. The serial killer Gumb and the faceless Verger were much worse than Lecter. As the subliminal plot and Lecter himself suggested(he didn't like rude people) most of the people Lecter killed needed killing. The other characters in the book claimed more victims worthy of pity than Lecter's. I also came away feeling that the author is much like Dr. Lecter and tries to lend that feel to the book. I thought it was a great read, as long as you have a strong stomach, and I liked the ending!!

Rating:
Summary: Who is using Thomas Harris's Name and writing books?
Review: I was forced to read "Red Dragon" by my mother who thought it was the best book ever. I agreed with her and kept my doors locked at night. Also stopped using my 8mm camera for family events...Only kidding. I eagerly awaited "Silence of the Lamb".....Outstanding is all I can say. It kept me awake for hours just to finish it. I now have waited all of these years for "Hannibal". What a waste of time, money and paper. Wait until you can pick it up in a USED Book store and even then I wouldn't waste my money.

How in the world could Harris think we could actually believe that Starling would end up that way?Is he more insane, than Hannibal?

It also seem as if he had a deadline to reach and just finished the book off with gibberish to get it to print. DON'T WASTE MONEY ON FULL PRICE.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this novel the day it was released at the bookstores. Like many, I had anxiously waited to read the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs." This book was slow in the beginning, middle and end. The first half of the book contained too many Italian words, I mean way too many. If there is a movie lets hope they change the ending, it was just too silly.

Rating:
Summary: I've never dreaded reading a book before
Review: I'm a quick reader, but I just couldn't get through this book. Instead of not being able to put it down, I just couldn't get myself to pick it up. I began dreading each next paragraph. Finally I decided to stop pushing myself to read it, so I don't know the ending and I don't care. I loved Silence of the Lambs, but this book was just too gruesome and boring for me.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect resolution
Review: It was fantastic.

There is no other way this saga could have ended. A true exploration of the light and dark sides in all of us. No one person was all good or all bad--with the possible exception of Clarice's housemate.

Harris is wonderful with words and the scenes were truly evocative of the settings. I could see Florence (and Muskrat Farm--ugh).

Can't wait for the movie. Casting Barney, Mason, and Margot should be interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely disappointed
Review: While I thoroughly enjoyed Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs this book took me about 200 pages to really get into & start to enjoy and then when it got to the end I was extremely disappointed and thought that the last page would say something to the effect of it "being a dream sequence"! VERY DISAPPOINTED!!! Hannibal & Clarice, a couple !!! What nonsense

Rating:
Summary: Yet Another Review...
Review: I read Red Dragon before SOTL (the movie) was even a twinkle in a scriptwriter's eye, and found it quite superb, with psychological representations of the characters that really felt like you were inside their skulls. I moved on to SOTL and read it about three months before the movie came out. I found it, once again, to be excellent - perhaps not quite reaching the peak of intensity that RD did, but still several cuts above the standard psychothriller. I saw the movie and was vaguely disappointed (although Jodie Foster was spot on) in its lack of analysis of the characters. I finished "Hannibal" this morning in a total of six hours, reading straight through from cover to cover. Some people have said that it dragged in certain parts; I found that it flew by. I haven't read a book at that pace for a while, and yet I remembered almost every detail of Harris' writing. He surpasses himself in depth of research; the Italian sequences are really quite marvellous. The Doctor is explained in a little more detail (although that explanation doesn't quite have the depth of that of RD).

Now for the bad parts: More than ever, Harris flaunts semi-intellectual elitism at the reader, often to the point of overbearance. However, if you consider that to be part of the Doctor's peculiar "flavor" (ie, his contempt for the "normal" people who make up 99.9% of the population of any country), then it fits (remember, the book is named after him). Also, Harris doesn't quite pull off the finale to his Florentine set piece; it was a slight anticlimax compared with the tension of Lecter's escape from jail in SOTL.

Okay, enough half-baked critical analysis: my gut reaction to "Hannibal" was as if I had been caught in a particularly nasty car accident, where through no fault of my own, the occupant of the other car had died a messy death. In other words, it left me feeling rather shellshocked, vaguely guilty and more than a little queasy. It also made me want to hold my eight-month-old son for a while.

Now, as for the ending, which had been collecting so much vitriol here - I found it surprising, rather unsettling, and difficult to predict from the content of SOTL, but I DID think that Harris was being honest in his choice of outcome. After how he set it up, there were four ways he could have finished it plausibly (ie "to the satisfaction of the average thriller fan"): 1) Hannibal eats Clarice Starling. 2) He kills himself. 3) Clarice Starling manages to take him in alive. 4) Clarice and the Doctor go their separate ways.

Ending 1 would have allowed a continuation of the series with Hannibal given top billing. Ending 2 would have wrapped the series up nicely. Ending 3 would have returned us to the beginning of the series. Ending 4 would have left it wide open for a sequel starring everyone's favorite characters.

And NONE of these endings rings true to me. I think Harris did all he could to give us an ending that wasn't a sellout, that didn't submit to the demands of Hollywood (go on, I dare you - try and make a movie that remains faithful to the book AND gets funding), and that didn't leave me feeling cheated. Of course, nothing's perfect, and there were places that could have used the (light) touch of an editor, but I think Harris has done a truly fine job.

Now, that's not to say that after I finished reading it, I didn't feel like taking a hot shower and scrubbing myself clean...