Hannibal

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Summary: Amazing twist
Review: A unique plot with an amazing twist. Keeps you in suspense and begging for more.

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Summary: Paradise Regained
Review: Readers must by now be conscious that, in this novel, FBI agent Clarice Starling neither arrests nor kills the escaped murderer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter. With him, she turns her back on the world, joining him at table and in bed and in the varying glories of human artistic achievement. Naturally, such an outcome offended many, and the makers of the film-version accordingly chose to leave her a champion of justice and idealism. But no small part of Mr. Harris' book consists of quiet damnations of mankind. Criminals and police, bureaucrats of all sorts, the rich and the poor in their multitudes, present themselves in the unrecognized narrowness of their souls and in the despicable ignobility of their ambitions. Exceptions are few. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, it would be too much to say that Mr. Harris is a master at compelling the reader to feel what his characters feel. Horror, if one perceives it at all, derives from horrific images more than horrific feelings. Perhaps that is as well. To combine compelling horror with subtle emotion is to write not necessarily a bestseller but a masterpiece; and "Hannibal" is not a masterpiece. It ranks about equally with its motion picture incarnation, competent and interesting. It is thus unlike "The Silence of the Lambs," where the film often surpassed the book. In the present novel an attempt is made to account for Lecter's extraordinary personality. Some of the generalities are meritorious, but the truth is that Lecter puts one in mind less of a war orphan who saw his sister eaten than of a Gail Wynand in "The Fountainhead", an idealist who failed, or a "Little Bill" in the film "The Unforgiven", a moralist so revolted by what he has seen that he has in effect ceased to be a moralist at all. In "The Silence of the Lambs" Mr. Harris remarks, with regard to Hannibal Lecter, somewhat to the effect that it was as if committing murder purged him of all lesser sins. This element, though less prominent in the sequel, remains, and, having created his "memory palace", haven and heaven in one, Lecter teaches Starling how to start construction of her own, a palace where at will she can visit with her murdered father and others whom she has loved. It is remarkable that in neither mansion are rooms reserved for the torture of those who offend. But to what degree, Starling's salvation is due to, or dependent on, Lecter's ministration of medications is far from clear, and regrettably leaves open the possibility of another sequel.

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Summary: Thomas Harris is a Lunatic-This book & movie should be baned
Review: I went to see Hannibal cause I was bored. What I saw disgusted me! Especially the last part. I hope Thomas Harris reads this as well as the publisher, MGM, Ridley Scott, Dino DeLaurentis and others involved in making this film and book. YOU SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. TO the ACTORS in this film: HOW COULD YOU ALLOW YOUSELVES TO BE DEGRADED LIKE THAT, ESPECIALLY THE ACTOR AT THE END OF THE FILM WHO GETS HIS HEAD CHOPPED UP. Society does not want or need this utter horrible garbage! It leaves scars on the minds of people who were unfortuante to watch the film. How dare you make such outright gore. The film degrades all human beings and makes them weak in the face of this scum Hannibal. What really upsets me as well is the calmness that you put forth in this character hannibel adn the classical musci that accompanies all the gore. You are romanticizing sickness! The American people don't want this! You must stop publishingthis crap and even worse making films depicting graphically gore! You are giving people a false sense of reality and scaring people. YOu need to censor these types of books and films adn outright banish them. I am now scarred by the disgusting things you showed in this film. You have sparked a fire in me now to fight against hollywood and publishing houses' irresponsible and dangerous initiatives! We need censorhip in north america to make sure that garbage like this does nto get published or shown on the screen.

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Summary: Nothing but a setup for another sequel!
Review: I really wanted to like "Hannibal." I had read many negative customer reviews before reading the book, but then I seem to be in the minority who likes "Red Dragon" more than "Silence of the Lambs." Different strokes, and all that. This time, the naysayers are right. True, "Hannibal" starts fast, features an intriguing, if over-the-top new villain, and gets us up to speed on Starling quickly. Her character still rings true, and she's very well written. Starling's battles with Paul Krendler move well, too, and this was a pleasant surprise to me. Too bad the ending's not only unbelievable, but just plain silly. I can only guess at what kind of Hannibal-and-Clarice redux will appear, and wonder how we'll keep a straight face (sic) while reading it. Will Ardelia Mapp track Clarice down? See her face in the background photo on a travel brochure, and take up the quest? And how about Barney? It must be easy to get cheap steroids in Rio, etc. I understand that life doesn't offer many tidy endings, and I don't appreciate simplistic writing. But I'm afraid that Thomas Harris really let me down this time. That's a shame, because the guy shows he's still got it in many parts of "Hannibal." But the payoff just doesn't make it. Seriously, if anyone would like to discuss this with me, I'd like to consider your differing points of view. I'd like to be wrong, and I really want to like "Hannibal."

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Summary: You may never eat bacon again
Review: Thomas Harris has reached a climax with this breathtaking sequel to"Silence of the Lambs". If you thought it couldn't get any better than Dr Lecter and "Clariiissse" when you first met them....THINK AGAIN!!

Robert Harris presents Dr Lecter as a learned and scholarly figure with an afficianados taste for the arts, culture and cuisine. The shocking contrast with his true nature is the counterpoint of the maze through which Starling must tiptoe.

This one is a must and coincidentally provides yet another reason why you should read the book and flick the movie!!

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Summary: Great Book! Read it
Review: It was much better than Harris' first books, which was a relief. Read the book instead of seeing the movie, the book was so much better!

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Summary: Yuk!
Review: I saw the movie and then read the book - usually the wrong way to go about things - in the hope that the book would be better than the movie. Unfortunately, overall, it wasn't.

In some aspects, admittedly I found the book to be better than the movie: a greater number of characters interact to move the plot along. But in the ending especially, the movie is an improvement on the book.

I think that the problem with "Hannibal" for most of those, like me, who disliked it, may stem from the loss of the menace that was portrayed in "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs". In the earlier books, the fear came from the very fact that Lecter was caged, and therefore had to act through other people, using their (and our) own weaknesses, failures and personal terrors. Letting Lecter loose means that this device is lost, and what the reader is left with is a mere parody: Lecter becomes so unbelievable I was actually laughing at sections of the novel - and this only increased as the story wore on and became more ludicrous. In fact, the bedridden Mason Verger carries more menace and invokes more revulsion in "Hannibal" than Hannibal himself, but this was not sufficient to sustain my interest.

Overall, I do not think that any of the books in the Lecter trilogy are good horror or crime novels. This is because they rely too much on the caged Lecter, and that device has a pretty short shelf life: another novel along the lines of the first two would have given the reader too much deja vu, yet moving from that format exposes how thin it actually was as a plot device.

What one is left with in "Hannibal" is a roll in the dirt - Harris spares us little in the number and types of cruelty and perversity he describes - his use of similie and metaphor are, like the plot, almost wholly dependent on these (for example, he describes tourists "orbiting" Michelangelo's David's testicles - really Thomas!!). If you really like to indulge in this kind of stuff (and if you do, you probably count "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" among your favorite movies) then this is the book for you. My copy is to be donated to the local charity shop in the hope that something good will come out of it.

Rating:
Summary: The Ending Ruin the Book for Me
Review: I only read this book because I was intrigued about all the gossip surrounding the movie and how the movie was changed. I wanted to read the book to see how it actually ended. It was a total disappointment. The Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs and the Clarice Starling written in Hannibal are two total different characteracters. Now I see why Jodie Foster didn't do the movie.

One thing that I did enjoy about the book is that I found the movie was very close to the book, except the ending.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book - Lousy ending
Review: The entire book is good and keeps the reader on the edge. Some how towards the end the story looses its grip. I feel that another sequel is expected.

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Summary: Raises some interesting questions.
Review: I think people in general are accustomed to thinking of morality in "purely good versus purely evil" terms. Whether he intended to or not, Harris totally skewers this worldview. Dr. Lecter is a monster, yes, but he's a monster for a reason. And in Hannibal you'll find out what that reason is.

"Anger presents as lust, lupus presents as hives," said Dr. Lecter in Silence, and grief and horror present as murderous behavior. And can it be, at the end of Hannibal, that such a simple cure is possible for such a longtime affliction? Some of you might not think so. Perhaps even Harris was amazed at himself for writing such a thing. But as he said, sometimes you just have to let your characters go and do what they will, according to their own natures.

Moral absolutists, people lacking imagination, and those of simple mind will not "get" or enjoy Hannibal. As for the rest of you, if you haven't already, I'd skip the movie and get the book.