To gain a better understanding of literature, books are best read in chronological order.
Although it is considered by many to be the weakest novel in Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter series, it is still a goo novel to me. Any novel that I read till the end are always considered good. Like it or not, Rising is probably more important than it's predecessors. It's like X-Men Origins sorta.
The book made me feel sorry for Hannibal the Cannibal. C'mon, every normal man would snap when your baby sister is eaten alive by hungry Nazi's. Quoting from the novel,
The man is not Hannibal Lecter. The little boy Hannibal died in he snow when his sister died. He is now a monster
I've always believed that an evil man is the fault of evil parents, bullies and all that. There is no fault in the "mass murdering psychopaths". they were just simply emotionally shattered, broken and driven to insanity against their will.
But after finishing Red Dragon, the second story in chronological order, Rising lacks from Red Dragon and probably The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal as well is it fails to deliver good suspense and thrills. Here, Hannibal Lecter is given the spotlight so the reader knows what he's gonna do next. The "Jump-out-of-nowhere" move present in most thriller novels is completely absent.
Red Dragon was the only novel which finished reading in a mere four days. Even my prized Star Wars novels, The Godfather Novel Quadrilogy and The Bourne Identity took at least two weeks.
This is the only book I've read so far worthy of all the praises in the front and back covers and flaps. Red Dragon is such a deep psychological novel such that it's like getting into a complicated maze of a delusional psychopath. And being trapped in a maze, you definitely want to see the end of it.
Similar to it's successor The Silence of the Lambs, although Hannibal Lecter is the main character, he is rarely shown. But you can say his presence is felt in every page.
The main killer in the novel is Francis Dolarhyde aka The Red Dragon aka The Tooth Fairy. A slightly disabled man(crooked lip and irregular teeth) tortured by traumatic childhood nightmares including an abusive grandmother, a mother who never wanted him and aggressively mean stepsisters and stepbrothers. Like in Rising you will sympathise with Dolarhyde. Having felt no love in the world and inflicted only pain, he shows no love to others and inflict only pain to others in return.
Dolarhyde is actually a nice guy when he's fine. The Red Dragon is his alter ego due t his obsession with the painting Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun. He fears that "The Dragon" will slowly consume him and take control. it is also implied that his alter ego enslaves and tortures Dolarhyde constantly.
The Dragon's killing spree comes to a halt when Francis Dolarhyde meets Reba McClane, a blind woman ad the first to show affection and appreciation to Dolarhyde. He sorta killed himself so The Dragon won't kill Reba McClane.
Due to it's graphically psychological nature. I'd interpreted the dragon as Satan. It kinda fits though.
The ofter protagonists include the character of Will Graham, the retired FBI officer who arrested Hannibal Lecter but was stabbed and half gutted in the process. Forced to play mind games with his former nemesis Dr Lecter, he tries as hard to find the dreaded Tooth fairy/Red Dragon but is slowly going insane too.
Like in the movies, Hannibal Lecter slithered into me. He talks slyly but intelligently, mocks law-abiding citizens with truths etc. He's more or less like a slithery and nasty serpent.
Red Dragon is beautifully written in a way that you can't wait what happens next. And unlike Rising, it has classic "jump-out-of-nowhere" parts especially when the last few pages where we think Dolarhyde is really dead.
Lets hope Silence and Hannibal will continue this streak.
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