It’s been a while since I read Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, so most of the details of what happened when and why were gone and I was able to be surprised at some of the twists. I mean, anyone who’s heard of Hannibal Lector already knows who did it, but that doesn’t mean the mysteries aren’t intriguing reads.
The Silence of the Lambs is the better of the two books, to be honest. It’s brutal and original. A lot of the gristly mysteries I’ve read since then owe a lot to this book. It’s got the twisted serial killer story layered with the chilling intellectual game between Lecter and Clarice Starling. With what I remembered of the plot, I ended up reading the book in a very different way from the first time through. (This book was published in 1988, so I’m not going to worry about spoiler alerts. The statute of limitations has expired.) This time, I could see hints of Lecter’s big plan before Harris drew aside the curtain on what the doctor was up to at the end of the book.
On this read through, the twisted serial killer plot actually seemed a little flat compared to what was happening between Lecter and Starling. This time it was like I was reading Silence as part of the larger story about the two, continued in Hannibal. Because I knew that Lector was using prior knowledge to give Starling dribs and drabs of clues to catch “Buffalo Bill,” I wasn’t so impressed with his oh-so-profound insights. I supposed with enough preparation, anyone can seem like a psychological genius. (Not that I would say that to Lector’s face. Even though he’s fictional, he still gives me the willies.) This was just another piece on the chess board for Lector. It’s still pretty impressive to watch him mostly improvise his escape by taking advantage of those small bits of preparation. Apart from his utter lack of morality, the thing that makes Lector such a terrifying opponent is that he can see the larger game board, he can see further than any of the other characters.
In Hannibal, we learn more about what makes Lector tick. I know that readers really wanted to know this. Everyone wants to know where evil comes from, especially if we can spot infallible warning signs. However, this is more than a little odd considering Lector’s line from Silence, about the futility of trying to reduce him to influences. Part of what made Lector so terrifying in that book was his control. No matter what the situation, Lector was in control.
But in this book, horrific memories from his World War II childhood cause Lector to start slipping. He has flashes of his murdered and cannibalized sister at inopportune moments. Ultimately, he tries to brainwash Starling into someone like his sister. It’s very surprising flight of fancy, I thought–almost out of character. And the very ending strikes me as out of character for Starling as well. Maybe it’s because I read the books back to back this time, I noticed it more. In Silence, the overriding impression I got of Startling was that she would do right no matter what the cost to her career. I never in a million years though she would get so fed up with bureaucracy that she would go over to the other side.
I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Lector stands head and shoulders above other villains in serial killer novels, who are usually so messed up by their own psychology that they seem more like animals than rational creatures. But Lector, who apart from his lapses in Hannibal, is highly rational and is just that much scarier for it. He’s pragmatic. He’ll flee to fight another day if things don’t go to plan. Because he’s not locked into a modus operandi (apart from his taste for the finer things), you never know quite what he’s going to do next.
I’m kind of glad that Harris decided to stay away from writing the further adventures of Lector and Starling, especially considered what happened with Hannibal Rising. These characters work much between when they remain mysterious.