BOOK REVIEWS : Can you blame him ?

BOOK REVIEWS : Can you blame him ?

Hannibal Rising, by Thomas Harris, 325 pp, 2006 William, Heinemann hardcover, Available at Asia Books and leading book stores, 950 baht.

BERNARD TRINK

The law is clear that rape and robbery, arson and abductions are gross offences, but ambiguous about taking lives. Thou shalt not kill, sure, unless you're in the military and ordered to. Or a policeman confronted by an armed perp. Or a citizen in self-defence. Possibly when it's a crime of passion. What of revenge?

It is up to jurists to determine when killing is condonable, but they don't agree. Novelists, with and without legal training, come to different conclusions. When is it justified? When is it murder? Soldiers are expected to turn off the aggression instilled in them by their NCOs and in battle, to return to orderly and peaceful solutions when their uniforms are in mothballs.

Still, there are those who insist on an eye for an eye. Even two eyes for an eye. Enraged at real or imagined degradations done them by individuals or by society as a whole, they are obsessed with exacting retribution. Not by a single bullet of a gun, but by a painful and prolonged end. Around the bend, certainly, but there's method to their madness.

In his literary creation, Thomas Harris presents us with a monster whose acts cause revulsion. Hannibal Lecter is a contemporary cannibal. If that isn't enough, he keeps them alive so they can watch him. It would follow that this monster is evil, however the author's twist is that he isn't - at least it's a moot question. For he only kills those who deserve killing.

Hannibal Rising is the fourth in the series, two of which were adapted to the screen with Anthony Hopkins in the title role. (Who can forget The Silence of the Lambs?) This is the prequel. Over 300 pages are devoted to what made him what he is. It harkens back to the final year of WW II on the Eastern Front.

The Wehrmacht is in full retreat, the Red Army at their heels. Stragglers, deserters and looters are in between. Hannibal and his sister are children on the family estate in Lithuania, their parents and retainers killed in the fighting. A gang of plunderers turn up, mean and famished. They boil and eat the sister, throwing a piece of her to him and leaving.

Sent for by his uncle and Japanese wife in Paris, Hannibal proves a bright student and enters medical school. His uncle passing away, the police commissioner carries a torch for the aunt. Vowing revenge, the young man finds and horrendously kills the now successful businessmen as far afield as France, Switzerland, Germany and Canada.

He also takes on bullies, drug dealers, corrupt cops. A vigilante like Charles Bronson in Death Wish but more violent, can you blame him? Arguably he speeds up the slow justice system. Nevertheless others will follow suit, and there'll be no law to protect us. Be that as it may, readers are divided between demanding Hannibal be declared insane and pinning a medal on him.

Bangkok Post
Friday January 12, 2007