Hannibal Rising
edited by Thomas Harris
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Delacorte Press: 5 December 2006. Hardcover: 336 pages. ISBN-10: 0-385-33941-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-385-33941-4 Suggested retail price: $27.95 (US) Tags: cannibalism; Hannibal Lecter; medical schools; murder; Paris; pistols; samurai swords; serial murder; Thriller; World War II Tactical strength: [7/10] |
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Hannibal Rising describes the events that can turn a privileged little boy from Lithuania into the genius serial killer described in Thomas Harris's other books Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal. As the German Blitzkrieg advances toward Lecter Castle, Hannibal's Father, Count Lecter, hides as much of the family wealth and art as he can and moves his family -- which includes Hannibal's mother, his younger sister Mischa, and his tutor Mr. Jakov -- to a remote hunting lodge in the forest. The family remains undiscovered for most of the war, but just before the war ends, a group of vagabond profiteers discover the lodge, kill all the adults, and chain thirteen-year-old Hannibal and his sister to the banister. The vagabonds quickly consume the Lecter's food supply, and faced with starving, they cook and eat Mischa. Shortly thereafter, Russian troops shell the lodge, and five of the vagabonds flee and survive.
Hannibal next remembers riding on a Russian tank, but cannot remember any of the final events at the lodge. He has a broken arm, and the Russians place him in an orphanage that occupies the remains of Lecter Castle. At the orphanage, Hannibal clearly suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and he remains mute except for screaming Misha's name in his sleep. Hannibal also violently attacks any other orphan who picks on a younger orphan. Secretly, he checks on the hidden cache of family art and finds that the entire family collection missing. Soon, Hannibal's uncle Robert retrieves Hannibal from the orphanage. Hannibal learns artistic expression from his uncle, a famous artist even before the war. He learns Japanese and what we would call deportment from his aunt, Lady Murasaki, who coaxes Hannibal out of his shell and gets him to talk again. When a local butcher insults Lady Murasaki in the marketplace, Hannibal violently attacks the butcher. Hannibal's uncle dies of a heart condition while trying to berate the butcher for insulting his wife, and Hannibal carefully plans and executes his revenge on the butcher -- his first kill at thirteen years old.
We next see Hannibal and Lady Murasaki five years later in Paris. Through Hannibal's demonstrated brilliance both academically and artistically, he enters medical school as the youngest student ever enrolled. Through his work at the medical school, Hannibal learns of a psychotropic drug that might help him remember the events on the last day at the lodge. Using the drug, he remembers the faces of the five men in the lodge and that they ate Mischa. Hannibal makes plans to identify and kill each of them.
Up to a point, we want Hannibal to succeed. We want Hannibal to avenge his family's death, especially his sister's, but actively plotting the murders of five men does change Hannibal. Lady Murasaki knows about Hannibal's plans, and she pleads with Hannibal to turn all the evidence he has over to a French police inspector who specializes in catching war criminals. The men would end up with a death sentence, but Hannibal decides that he must kill the criminals himself saying, "I already promised Mischa" (253).
Harris does an excellent job telling a story about this very complex character, and I think I understand why the book about Hannibal's capture doesn't exist. In Hannibal Rising, Hannibal demonstrates such genius that he almost achieves his goals unopposed. He makes a few miscalculations, but mostly from inexperience and certainly not from any sort of incompetence. You like Hannibal for what he could achieve, and as the story ends, you just start to understand that the likable part of Hannibal probably disappeared back in the hunting lodge. A book about Hannibal's serial killings, if told from Hannibal's point of view, would probably get very boring as we watch him execute his plans with detached precision.
At the end of Hannibal Rising, we don't have a clear understanding about why Hannibal would keep on killing once he has avenged his family. Hannibal feels that all the men he kills deserve to die, that he executes justice. Harris does show that Hannibal likes some aspects of the killing in itself, but that doesn't necessarily lead to a serial killing spree in the United States. Also, I didn't find that the tension at the end of Hannibal Rising reached anything close to the sweat-drenched tension at the climax of Hannibal or The Silence of the Lambs, but the situation at the denouement doesn't justify that level of tension. Harris handles the change from writing essentially detective fiction to fictional biography well, and I look forward to the next Harris novel.
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