Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Loved It
Review: I loved Hannibal - the whole book was great!! Talk about a mind numbing ending....for 10 minutes after finishing I went from smiling to myself to mouth open in amazement. The ending alone is worth the full price of the book. There are not too many books that I have read that make me feel so many different ways, once I have put it down. There are some slow spots and some of the characters I really didn't care about...but the two that I do care about.....WHAM!!!!!!!! Read the book!!!

Rating:
Summary: If you have to buy Hannibal, wait for the paperback!
Review: I waited a long time for the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs- and I should have waited a lot longer. I was angry as I forced myself to finish this story but I found some comfort at having bought it at a 50% discount. If I had paid full price I would have sent it back to the publisher and demanded the return of my money. Silence of the Lambs is a great novel because it is scary and believable. Hannibal is a poor novel because it is neither scary nor believable.

Rating:
Summary: Still shaking my head
Review: What can I write that hasn't already been said? After reading the reviews posted previously, I can only rehash what others have written through my own words. First of all, I was totally engrossed in this book even up to the surrealistic ending. The scenes in Italy and the history of the Italian characters was truly engrossing. And for Mr. Harris to give us a "victim" that rivals the "villian" in delusions of self-granduer and misanthropic attitude is truly orginal. When I read the synopsis of the book, I thought here is an interesting idea, a victim survives and wants revenge. Little did I know how unsympathetic that victim would turn out to be. Given the brief glimpse of Hannibals history, it is not suprising the manner Hannibal adopts with Margo, and you feel he will not be paying a call on her anytime soon. As for the ending, the ending, gees! I was far more disturbed by the ending than any of the violence depicted in the three hundred pages before hand. I did feel like I was reading those final scenes through a dense fog, and that maybe some of the drugs Hannibal had where somehow seeping into me through the pages. Like others, when I first read Mr. Harris was working on a sequel I hoped it would include the character of Will Graham in it, along with Clarice and Dr. Lecter. For the person who wrote earlier about using Will Graham to help Clarice catch Hannibal, I want to say that was the sequel I was envisioning. That way we might have also gotten flashbacks on how Will caught him the first time. But maybe that is a story for the new millenium.

Rating:
Summary: Astonding, makes you want to never put it down!
Review: Though not finished the Author has you at the edge of your seat. By taking you back to parts of the first book, I find myself going back and forth between the first and second book. I find myself going all over the world with the main character. I almost want to root for Dr. Lector. This story has everthing from action to horror and is done in a very believable way!!

Rating:
Summary: A sloppy effort by an otherwise great storyteller...
Review: I was disappointed with this book not because it didn't meet expectations, but because there was such a major fall-down in the style. Harris' past books have been characterized by both enormous restraint in graphic detail and consistency of character; this book had neither. At the end, he completely discards everything about Clarice Starling's character that he has carefully developed over two books just to pair her (absurdly) with Dr. Lecter. The graphic details in the book, while not approaching the level of say Stephen King, were disappointing because Harris had shown himself in the past so willing to leave these things up to the imagination of the reader. I had the feeling the whole time that the book was written to be transformed into a screenplay, and not as novel.

Rating:
Summary: Tom Harris' joke on the public
Review: Here's a guy who's written four books in 25 years, made millions and now has the freedom to do whatever comes into his head. He takes some of his style from Dickens' Bleak House (not, alas, the contents); adds a dash of Stephen King (no wonder King loves this), and wanders on with whatever comes into his head.

But ... It entertains. Harris is an entertainer, a smart one. He invented Hannibal Lecter, Johnathan Demme and Anthony Hopkins made Demme into one of the world's most marketable commodities villain and now Harris is free to indulge himself and write what he wants. Good for you, Tom, you've made yourself into an institution and the joke's on the buying public.

By the way, the ending wasn't that bad. It fit with the rest of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Almost feels like Thomas Harris is making fun of us
Review: When I finished this book, I felt cheated. As if Thomas Harris held me in some sort of contempt, for buying into his world, for rooting for Clarice, for caring about this book. As if I had been tricked into spending my money and my time and my emotions on something so cruel, so callous, so sickening.

I'm not a squeamish reader. I loved Red Dragon and Silence. I found Harris' writing so poetic and precise that it made the violent acts almost palatable -- which seemed to be one of his themes, that violence can be almost seductive; you could understand its pull and see why the struggle against it is so complex.

But here he goes absolutely, completely, utterly over the top: not because it's gross (though it is) and not because it's violent (though it is), but because it's mean-spirited and nasty, in a very personal way.

Mr. Harris, I apologize if I missed your point. Or perhaps this was your point: that the world is horrible and cruel and those who care about anything are to be condemned and held in contempt, or should simply give up. Perhaps you think this is a cool and sophisticated and modern way to approach our world. If so, shame on you.

Rating:
Summary: What's with Steven King's review?
Review: After reserving my copy in advance, devouring it the minute that it arrived, what can I say? Rarely have I ever been so disappointed. I agree with the other 1-star reviews and just want to add two points:1.The front page review in the Sunday NY Times by Steven King really threw me for a loop. I love suspense, mystery, horror and read them by the dozens. This one was just not engaging, not to mention far below Harris' other work. Even the worst King was far superior to Hannibal.2. As a professional writer and editor with over 20 years in the field, the errors in the book appalled me. In addition to the points mentioned by other reviewers here, I found that there were sentences that I had to read twice or three times to try to grasp their meaning. Sad, sad sad.

Rating:
Summary: A rich black comedy in search of an editor
Review: Funny. Dark. Over-the-top. Extravagant. Unpredictable. Messy. Brilliant. If you don't like Dennis Miller and are annoyed by his smarty-pants allusions and pop-culture references, you'll probably miss much of the intelligent fun in this book. Yes, the tense and point of view shift without warning. Yes, there's gore. But there's also some damn fine writing -- and a lesson to be learned from the public's hunger for this book and all its gore, and then the backlash against it. We've all helped create a world that makes Dr. Lecter, though revolting, all too possible. What if this is the novel we deserve?

Rating:
Summary: Maybe unexpected is what makes it so noteworthy.
Review: For those wanting a recap of Harris' Silence, I understand your disappointment. Rather that re-live the first novel, the characters have evolved into their more dark and cynical counterparts. The line between good and evil that seemed so bright within Silence has become blurry. No longer is Dr. Lecter so easily hated. He has a"taste," (pun intended?) that rivals most, a love of fine things declared by the obvious and unlikeable villan Krendal to be "artsy-fartsy." It is almost with an obvious sensation of being punched in the stomach that the reader discovers Hannibal is still the consciousless murderer that he ever was. The reader feels dirty because of the desire to like, or at very least admire him. This change makes the story more interesting to me, as the prototypical serial-killer has now become such a common place event. Rather that give Hannibal his old, now less shocking persona back, Harris has deepened it and made it more complex, so as to maintain his mythical quality. Hannibal is no longer simply "the Cannibal," but also "Lecter the Protector."

Starling herself has also undergone a change. She is no longer the "star" of the FBI, nor is she as optimistic and green as she once was. She now has become a killer, and this goes to further blur the line between good and evil.

Even Crawford, the wise seeming sage of the former novel, has changed. He has eroded into a shell of what he once was, now a sad and pitiful character.

As for the ending, I must admit is was very troubling to me. I believe, however, that therein lies its beauty. There is a sense of impending doom overshadowing all of the lovely things, giving it a dreamscape style. You feel as if you are drugged with Starling.

Also, at times I felt as if the novel intended to poke fun at those who made such a big deal of the connection between Starling and Lecter in Silence... As I remember it, there was even a time when Anthony Hopkins stated he would not appear in a sequal because of the heroic qualitites the audience attributed to Lecter. "Hannibal" seems to draw upon the darkness that we as a human race must have within us if we are able to make a cannibalistic serial-killer into a hero.

Aside from the rich characterization, the visual attributes of the scenes are wonderful, almost poetic. One really sees the literary quality of this novel, putting it above most of the action-suspense genra.

In closing, I must admit that although it troubled me greatly at times, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. Though I was expecting Silence Pt. 2, I got a novel which was equally great, but essentially different. (Please excuse my spelling... I ws in a hurry when I wrote this!)