Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I Have Ever Read
Review: I am amazed at how many people just don't get this book.

First of all, let me say, setting aside the plot for a moment, Harris' use of language is absolutely beautiful and lyrical. In this book, he uses storytelling devices which I have never seen used by another author, and they really blew my mind.

Now to the plot. The end of the story is what most people have issues with, especially since Hannibal Lecter is given a very happy ending. It is not a conventional ending, especially according to Hollywood's standards (which may account for why the movie version failed so miserably), however, it is very unique, and very powerful. "Hannibal" does not, as some would suggest, look to excuse Lecter's killings. Instead, by looking into his history we see some of the explanation as to why he has become such a disturbed human being, and we see some of the Lecter's motivation for committing such horrible acts. At the end of the book, Hannibal's triumph is that he is finally able to set his madness aside. I thought it was wonderful, and very uplifting.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: Thomas Harris follows up his Hannibal Lecter trilogy with a disappointing last effort. Having just finished the book, let me share some of my thoughts with you about it: This book is fairly well told until the disastrous ending. For those of you who haven't read it, I won't spoil the ending for you, but the thing that made me most mad was that Clarice just deserted Ardelia without explanation or anything. They were portrayed as best friends in The Silence of the Lambs, but I suppose Thomas Harris thought their relationship wasn't strong enough to survive a serial killer who appeals to Clarice. Now, on the issues of Hannibal Lecter's motives for killing: It really didn't bother me that much that Mr. Harris explained why Hannibal killed, but I think that he only did a half-way job of explaining it, which left me in a state of confusion. Maybe Mr. Harris would've done better if he wrote another book about a serial killer on the loose (besides Hannibal Lecter), which he is famously exceptional at. For those of you who had seen the movie before reading the book, I think that the movie somewhat does the book justice, but in reality there wasn't much for the movie to do justice for. My final piece of advice is this-if you want Clarice and Hannibal to remain to you as they were portrayed so brilliantly in The Silence of the Lambs, then do not read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Worst book I ever read
Review: I read *Hannibal* when it first came out--bought the hardcover ASAP, because Harris' other books had been so good and the characters of Lecter and Clarice were so fascinating. I'm writing this note about *Hannibal*, years after reading it, because I think it's noteworthy that *Hannibal* remains the worst book I've read in my whole life, and I've been an avid reader for 30 years. It's desperately gross and stupid, and an unforgiveable betrayal of both characters.

Oh the irony! Ad nauseam, Harris noisily worships how subtle, artistic, and exquisitely sensitive Hannibal is, while his own storytelling demonstrates all the opposite traits.

Hannibal Lecter had a bad childhood. Though he still murders without compunction, he's basically a prince (after all, the people he kills use poor grammar, so they deserve to die). He just needs a good woman to understand him. Right, that's believable. That's original. Of course, the good woman has to be turned into a sociopathic zombie to make this work, but hey, a hack's gotta do what a hack's gotta do. What HAPPENED to Thomas Harris? He used to be so good!

Rating:
Summary: Neurolinguistic Fun
Review: This book really gets into the minds and mental processes of the characters, especially the final chapters which will either thrill or mortify you. In this book, nothing is surface. Every character has an agenda and wishes to bend the others to it. It is the interaction between the characters, and within the conflicting aspects of the characters, that makes me love this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A literary failure
Review: In Hannibal, Thomas Harris found himself challenged to produce a thriller that was more shocking and frightening than his previous two works, Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. Rather than producing a truly frightening and terrifying sequel, however, Harris has served up a literary gross-out that isn't frightening, merely repugnant. There are no real chills or surprises in Hannibal, only distasteful scenes of mutilation, culinary lobotomies (the much talked-out ending of the book that Jodie Foster refused to duplicate on film), and evisceration. To make matters worse, Harris tries to make his book intellectually shocking by adding philosophical quips that are anti-white male, anti-Christian, anti-middle American, and even anti-heterosexual. The result is a verbal gross-out mixed with asinine, politically-correct sermonizing one expects from a Vermont college professor. The overarching message of the book is that it's okay to kill people who are sexist or lack cultural sophistocation. Harris may think that by repulsing people that he's succeeded in being delightfully shocking, but I say revulsion is no substitute for genuine thrills. Hannibal is a grotesque, insulting, and not particular scary book. A thoroughly disappointing end to the SOTL trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Can I give my mind a shower?
Review: I very much enjoyed "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs" and so was very excited when I saw that "Hannibal" was being published.

I read the book with mounting distaste, and once I finsished it, I felt almost ashamed that I hadn't had the integrity to put it down half read. I wondered if perhaps I should force myself to read an entire series of Christian Romance novels as penance.

The violence was over the top, but I can handle that. What was more distressing was the fact that I got the impression that I was to be cheering on a sociopathic monster, simply because he's genius-level-intellegent, a good cook, doesn't molest children, and knows a lot about perfume, makeup and cutting a woman's hair. Lecter goes from being Evil Sociopath to Cannibal with a Heart, and the character of Clarice Starling is twisted beyond all recognition or sense. No wonder Jodi Foster refused to do the film, and no wonder the ending of the book was changed in the movie version.

I'm wavering between giving this book five stars, because it is well written, and affected me so strongly on a number of levels, and one star, because it's so violent, cruel, and contains images I didn't need in my head. I'll compromise with two stars.

This is a well written book, but very disturbing. In my opinion it ruins the characters Harrison spent time creating in his previous novels.

Rating:
Summary: Real Dumb
Review: This book reads like Hollywood screen play. It certainly has enough stiflingly Politically Correct stereotypes to keep any of Hollywood's Cultural commissars happy. (if you've noticed, since the 1980's, Hollywood's leading men have become leading ladies; while the leading ladies have become leading men.) Occasionally interrupted with acts of completely tasteless violence. Not worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Hooray for the villian!
Review: I'll start off by saying that I've read all three books in the Hannibal Lecter series ("Red Dragon", "Silence of the Lambs", and "Hannibal"). Characters in Lambs appear in Hannibal - and some are quite significant. Clarice Starling is still the main protagonist for most of it, and I was a bit disappointed that the agent in the first book, Will Graham, didn't come back for closure. I really came to like him in Dragon.

Of the three I definitely have to pick "Hannibal" as the best. I felt that the first book asked me to sympathize with the murderer way too much, and the second didn't ask me to sympathize with him at all. The third, with its established character, Lecter, seems the best mix of the two. It reveals his past, pieces of his mind, and his desires without specifically asking me to feel anything. His character doesn't want for understanding. His character just is. I'm not expected nor forced to react a certain way to his crimes or his personality.

I haven't seen the movie version of Hannibal yet - but I probably will before long. I've seen the other two movies - and I liked Lambs better. The Red Dragon movie was a bit disappointing compared to the book. Actually, I've heard that they changed the ending of Hannibal for the movie - and that is a big let down since my favorite part of Hannibal is the end!

Rating:
Summary: Hannibal - Roller
Review: I have recently completed the novel Hannibal by Thomas Harris. The great story line continues from the part of the trilogy, Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal is the prelude to Red Dragon.
One of the two main characters is the highly intelligent physician Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Always telling the truth and a strong interest in fine arts. Dr. Lecter has one large draw back, he's a cannibal. Cannibals are people who thrive on human tissue and organs. He prefers to consume the weak and the corrupted. By doing so he had gotten himself involved with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a bad note.
Clarice Starling is the other main character. An FBI agent with lots of ambition and a hard worker. She was assigned to interview the infamous Dr. Lecter. Over the many interviews with him during his stay at the asylum he told Clarice the deepest things about herself. For that she respected him. The respect between the two of them was mutual. Clarice lives with her African American friend Ardelia Mapp.
The great novel opens to Calrice Starling arriving at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Fire Arms to begin a SWAT raid. The purpose of the engagement was apprehending the drug and firearm smuggler Evelda Drumgo, who was connected to the Trey- Eigth Crips. The raid went sour when Starling ended up saving her own life and the squads. To do so she had to shoot the Drumgo carrying a baby in her arms. It may have seemed cruel and outrageous, but Evelda had possession of an automatic weapon.
After the unsuccessful raid Starling is sent on a leave with pay from the Bureau. The copperplate written letters begin to appear more recently for Clarice. She notifies the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is reassigned to the physicians most wanted case.
The soul survivor of Dr. Hannibal Lecter's cannibal phetish is a crippled inheritance of a wealthy father. Mr. Mason Verger had hired his own bounty hunters to track down his attacker. Mason's plan was to capture and film the torture and soon after death of his former physiatrist. The chase continues through Europe and the United States. Various problems occur in the Bureau and for the bounty hunters hired to capture Lecter.
Thomas Harris uses a wide array of literary elements in Hannibal. He uses characterization to creat each and every one in the book. Each one is expand through the course of the novel. The figurative speech, imagery, metaphors, and similes are outstandingly ingenious. At some sections in the story the imagery was horrifying and to some extent sickening. Since Dr. Lecter is so intelligent, figurative speech, complicated similes, and metaphors are stunningly strung through the story like sprinkles on a cupcake. The sensory language much like the imagery is often stomach churning. It's like that of Marilyn Manson's controversial music videos. The whole story line with its extraordinary level of suspense. It makes the whole novel one enormous, never falling climax.
I enjoyed Hannibal immensely. It appealed to all of my senses and pulled me in. I read this masterpiece in three days. I recommend this to anyone who has a lust for interesting and somewhat disturbing sense of literature. If you loved the movie then this book is for you. The details are ten times more explosive in the book. They are superior to that I have ever seen or watched. Read the book and you'll get the parts the movie didn't have.

Rating:
Summary: A triste occasion, as Truman would say...
Review: "Now that ceaseless exposure has calloused us to the lewd and the vulgar, it is instructive to see what still seems wicked to us. What still slaps the clammy flab of our submissive consciousness hard enough to get our attention?" (Hannibal, 144)

What indeed, Mr. Harris. Is it the image of a man watching as others eat his brain? Or perhaps that of another removing his face and feeding it to his dogs-themselves patients of his sadism-stopping only to consume the nose himself and remarking that it "tastes just like chicken"?

This is the nature of glimpses seen through the keyhole to the doorway of nightmare; here they are offered as affairs in the realm of popular fiction.

Our antihero is a serial killer, whose genius is matched only by his unbounded cruelty. His antagonist is his victim, now paralyzed and disfigured beyond recognition, whose thirst for revenge has fashioned a plan to slowly feed the killer to a group of eugenically-enhanced swine.

With such a premise, one would be correct in expecting there to be little in the way of constancy and optimism in this place. Mr. Harris gives us a perverse literary landscape indeed, where sadism and pederasty are treated with surprising nonchalance. It is a place where Law enforcement and politics are inconsequential and unavailing. It is a place without mercy, where the weak and stupid are punished and the strong and cruel thrive.

Hannibal is not justifiable as a self-sufficient novel. Conflict is between those who are cruel and sadistic, and those who are more so. Cartharsis is attained only through the unfathomable suffering of the merciless, suffered at the hands of the merciless. In the end, evil triumphs over evil, and all that we took to be good is defiled beyond redemption.

Hannibal must be read as the third installment of the so-called Hannibal Lector trilogy. When weighed in this fashion, it is merely the final act in a long and violent narrative commenced in Red Dragon. Hannibal is grotesque and fulsomely violent; however, it is logical in the fictional universe Mr. Harris has created and maintained.

Comparatively, Hannibal is the weakest of the three. Lector's motives are offered in clumsy exposition, and the finale makes a mockery of his supposed sociopathy, as well as Clarice's supposed lack of it. Characters are permitted to change, but the reader must be made aware.

In many ways, the novel invalidates any moral system attempted within the first two novels. Perhaps it is meant as a lesson that there are times when evil is too willful to be vanquished; or, perhaps that we all have enough evil in us to become monsters. Either way, Hannibal fails to capture the power and precision of its predecessors.