Tangled Web UK Review February 2007
Hannibal Rising by
Thomas Harris
hbk out December 06
Published by Heinemann
at £17.99
Since Anthony Hopkin's screen portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, few people
will be unaware of this terrible and loathsome character, even if they have
not read the several books by Thomas Harris. Now the author has stepped
back in time to describe the genesis of this awful figure, and I admit this
is a book I could well have done without.
The young Hannibal is first met as a six-year old in the family castle in
Lithuania at the start of the Second World war. A young genius, but
relatively normal at this stage, he lives in affluent circumstances with his
parents and baby sister Mischa. The Germans arrive and they flee to a
hunting lodge in the forest where they survive until the end of the war,
when the Russians discover their hideout and both parents are killed.
His little sister vanishes and the horrors he suffered send Hannibal dumb.
Incarcerated in the castle, which is now a Soviet orphanage, he begins his
murderous career, then is rescued by his uncle and taken to Paris, where
as a teenage prodigy, he is the youngest person ever to be admitted to
medical school... from then on I leave you to follow the story.
The book is replete with violent, bloody events with a voyeuristic,
sadistic streak. Much is made of dissecting rooms scenes in the medical
school and of an execution by guillotine. Hannibal eventually discovers
the fate of his infant sister for whom he has been searching. I found the whole tenor of the book
distasteful – surely there is more than enough real pain, violence and
suffering in the world without the need for fictional additions.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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