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Revision as of 13:35, 25 August 2020
, 13:35, 25 August 2020no edit summary
Without leaning on a heavy bias, I will tell you right off the bat that I am a Thomas Harris fan and have read all of his novels. He has the same erudite skill at setting a thrilling and horrifying but captivating scene, as Stephen King. The fact that both of their respective works translate so easily to the big screen, for my money, tells of their superlative writing talent. It is much harder to write a screenplay, I am told, than to draft a novel.
''Hannibal Rising'' is set, as we begin the tale, half-way through the Second World War. The aristocratic Lecter family and a few close hand servants are hiding from the marauding Waffen SS, in a small hunting lodge in the woods on the land that surrounds Lecter Castle. A little over three years passes pass before the Eastern Front collapses, the Russian Army rolling ''like lava across Eastern Europe, leaving behind a landscape of smoke and ashes, peopled by the starving and the dead''. Winter has descended and food in any manifestation is in desperately short supply. Looting, pillaging and scavenging are the order of the day.
In freakishly unfortunate circumstances as the war draws to its conclusion, Hannibal and his baby sister Mischa suddenly find themselves alone. Cold and frightened, Hannibal cares for Mischa, ensuring she has the lion's share of their meagre supply of food, to the detriment of himself. It is days rather than weeks before a band of half-starved army renegades and deserters find their way to the hunting lodge. These are desperate men; Hannibal justly fears for his and Mischa's lives.
The darkness lifts and Hannibal is wandering alone, through the forest. He is picked up by a Russian tank patrol and taken to an orphanage. He is mute and scarred, but something has shifted within him and in spite of his youth, a great malevolence is dawning.
This is not a long book, by any stretch of the imagination. Certainly , it is shorter by far than most of Harris's previous novels in the series. Its brevity, however, is where the author's skill truly lies. He tells Hannibal Lecter's early life story so deftly that to expound upon what is there would spoil the broth. Where I would not usually allow myself to watch a filmic rendition of a novel before I have read the book (the book is always better), I did this time, as I felt that as with those Stephen King stories that are translated to the big screen, there would be nothing lost or gained.
In fact, I got the distinct impression Thomas Harris was more able to describe the young Hannibal as the familiar character he becomes, in some part due to the films made of his earlier books. The teenage Master Lecter is perhaps more menacing than the man he becomes because a reader's expectation of innocence is far greater given Lecter's age.
I recommend this novel highly. It's a particularly engrossing read if you took pleasure in the previous books (or films for that matter) and where so many other prequels have fallen down; this one rises to the top.
You may also enjoy Dean Koontz's [[Brother Odd]] but more likely one of the less supernatural of Stephen King's novels, such as ''Misery'', famously brought to life by James Caan and an Oscar-winning performance by Kathy Bates, or perhaps you could try ''The Green Mile'' which sits high on my list of all -time favourite books. You may recall ''The Green Mile'' was played by a superb cast which included Tom Hanks and Oscar nominations for among others, best film and supporting actor for Michael Clarke Duncan. For more about the Waffen SS, you might like to have a look at [[Voices of the Flemish Waffen-SS: The Final Testament of the Oostfronters by Jonathan Trigg]].
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