Ron Does Stuff

Oh my god I’m finally reading the final book in the Hannibal series. Gotta admit, Thomas Harris? Not my favorite writer! But I’ve been having an okay time so far and I’ve kinda taken it as a challenge to complete this series so here we go!

If what I remember from when this first came out is correct, this novel was actually put out by Thomas Harris so that the studio could come out with another Hannibal film, specifically Hannibal Rising starring Gaspard Ulliel, who I’ve had a crush on since A Very Long Engagment and Paris, je t’aime. Lemme just show everyone Gaspard’s segment in Paris, je t’aime in case they haven’t seen it yet.

However, books that get written like that don’t usually get a good reception from readers, because they start to think that it’s just a cash grab from the author. And to be honest, given how big Hannibal Lecter was by the time this book and the movie tie-in came out and how much money The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Red Dragon made, it’s kinda hard not to see this book as really nothing more than a cash grab.

In Thomas Harris’ defense, the guy has to make a living. He’s got bills to pay. And the book — or at least its prose — isn’t much of a departure from much of Harris’ previous work. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you to decide. And it’s not like Harris hasn’t hinted at this story before, because some snippets of it were already revealed to readers in Hannibal the novel.

The book starts off okay enough, pretty much following the revelations that were made in Hannibal. I’m even going to say that Thomas Harris’ prose has gotten better over the past few books, this time around achieving a flow that was pleasant for me to read. I especially liked the imagery of Hannibal’s recurring nightmare, especially the sound of that deer skull clanging against Mischa’s bathtub. It’s like I could hear it in my head.

The story moves along as expected during the World War II years, where Hannibal goes through some horrific things that change him and is by now a boilerplate origin story for serial killers. Not World War II but the trauma. But that’s also where the cracks start to show for the book.

Because of Hannibal’s outsized fame at this point in time, everybody and their grandma has an opinion on him and felt a sense of ownership when it came to the character. I feel like whatever story Thomas Harris came up with at the time would have been divisive or ridiculed in one way or another. And while I wouldn’t exactly say that this origin story of Hannibal is a masterpiece, I don’t think it’s that bad either? Harris isn’t doing anything different from the way he outlined Francis Dolarhyde’s development back in Red Dragon, but since people now expect something from a Hannibal Lecter story I can absolutely understand why this book would feel like absolute trash to them.

One thing that I do feel the book should be called out on is what seems like pretty stereotypical representation of Lady Murasaki Shikibu. And to have her actually be a descendant of the author of The Tale of Genji? It’s a little too on the nose, especially for what Lady Murasaki represents to Hannibal. But then again the past Hannibal books have also been on the nose if you think about it.

Much like in Hannibal, Hannibal comes off more like a superhero in the book rather than an actual flesh and blood character. It’s not like 13-year-olds can’t kill, but with the skill that is described in the book? For a moment there I thought years had passed and that this was an older Hannibal but nope, still a teenager.

Inspector Popil also doesn’t come off as a good match for Hannibal, at least in the beginning. He seems to action hero-y, if that makes sense? He’s too charged to fight the bad guys and is lacking the world-weariness of Will Graham or Clarice’s fear coupled with determination. It seems like making the book more cinematic definitely did not do it any favors. And then as the book progresses he’s also revealed to have been keeping a huge secret, something that makes him no better than Hannibal. Harris is repeating the same thing he did in the Hannibal novel of making everybody else look as bad as Hannibal.

The book finally picks up when Hannibal learns about the drug concoction that can help him remember what happened to him during the war. It starts feeling like a detective novel and a revenge novel, which I guess doesn’t reflect well on the book when it starts to become better when it becomes something entirely different. But soon enough even that loses its novelty and I seriously started to check how much longer did I have to read.

When we finally get to the final chapter I did like how Hannibal fashioned his “escape” from the law, especially considering all the current business with Luigi Mangione happening right now. He really did fashion himself as a folk hero! But then it stretches itself longer after that, quite unnecessarily. And in the end, that’s what the book is — unnecessary. Okay enough to read but I could have just as easily lived my life not doing so.