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A review by thedoctorreads
Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
5.0
Everybody needs a good villain.
Like good coffee, the perfectly good villain is a creature hard to define and even hard to find. Fortunately, in the hands of the good Dr Hannibal Lecter, we're perfectly taken care of.
For the purpose of this discussion, we're going to forget the movies and TV show: I'm a purist in matters of the heart and Dr Lecter is very, very close to my heart.
I actually read the series out of sequence, my first read being Hannibal which is the third novel. Fully enraptured by the poetic and dark plot, I nagged my Dad into buying me the rest of the set wherever he could find it. Dad found this fat little gem stalking the old book bazaars of Karachi. I was doing my house-job in Surgery at the time, that being my first ever actual job as a doctor. Understandably, I went crazy with my 'official' Daktaarrr saa'ab stamp (WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND STAMPS, SUBCONCIOUS?!) and proceeded to mark my ownership over all the novels Dad would bring for me from Karachi.
There is a marked progression of Thomas Harris's interest in Hannibal as a character when you look at the books sequentially. In the first two, he's more of an accessory villain in contrast to the more grotesque monsters presented in the novels. He serves to put their crimes into context with his calm, rational discourses, first with Will Graham then later with Clarice Starling.
Ah, but who provides context for the good doctor?
Hannibal's enduring power lies in the mystery that surrounds his origins and his almost vampiric demeanour. The guy is a genius, a physician, a mass murderer and finally a lover to Clarice Starling. Hannibal as a character is like a really good bass guitar that's initially humming in the background but later forms the core of the entire song (listen to Swingin' Party by Kindness on Soundcloud. Thank me later).
ONLY, and I repeat, ONLY a writer of Thomas Harris's narrative brilliance could pull that off. Perhaps that has to do with Harris's first job as a crime-scene reporter. His prose is surgical in its precision, haunting and heavy with poetry that forms from every image he carves. Like Frank Herbert, Harris does not judge, only narrates. His plot never descends into the kind of sensationalist hyperbole other crime and suspense writers fall victim to. Harris like Hannibal isn't conventional and can't be pigeon-holed. Like reaaaaaally good, dark coffee.
Like good coffee, the perfectly good villain is a creature hard to define and even hard to find. Fortunately, in the hands of the good Dr Hannibal Lecter, we're perfectly taken care of.
For the purpose of this discussion, we're going to forget the movies and TV show: I'm a purist in matters of the heart and Dr Lecter is very, very close to my heart.
I actually read the series out of sequence, my first read being Hannibal which is the third novel. Fully enraptured by the poetic and dark plot, I nagged my Dad into buying me the rest of the set wherever he could find it. Dad found this fat little gem stalking the old book bazaars of Karachi. I was doing my house-job in Surgery at the time, that being my first ever actual job as a doctor. Understandably, I went crazy with my 'official' Daktaarrr saa'ab stamp (WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND STAMPS, SUBCONCIOUS?!) and proceeded to mark my ownership over all the novels Dad would bring for me from Karachi.
There is a marked progression of Thomas Harris's interest in Hannibal as a character when you look at the books sequentially. In the first two, he's more of an accessory villain in contrast to the more grotesque monsters presented in the novels. He serves to put their crimes into context with his calm, rational discourses, first with Will Graham then later with Clarice Starling.
Ah, but who provides context for the good doctor?
Hannibal's enduring power lies in the mystery that surrounds his origins and his almost vampiric demeanour. The guy is a genius, a physician, a mass murderer and finally a lover to Clarice Starling. Hannibal as a character is like a really good bass guitar that's initially humming in the background but later forms the core of the entire song (listen to Swingin' Party by Kindness on Soundcloud. Thank me later).
ONLY, and I repeat, ONLY a writer of Thomas Harris's narrative brilliance could pull that off. Perhaps that has to do with Harris's first job as a crime-scene reporter. His prose is surgical in its precision, haunting and heavy with poetry that forms from every image he carves. Like Frank Herbert, Harris does not judge, only narrates. His plot never descends into the kind of sensationalist hyperbole other crime and suspense writers fall victim to. Harris like Hannibal isn't conventional and can't be pigeon-holed. Like reaaaaaally good, dark coffee.