One thing I liked very much about this book is that it shows the varying shades of evil. It is full of sorrow and gore and yet you smile at the end of the book. The characters are sad and are too much depressed by their failures. Clarice Starling, Rinaldo Pazzi, Mason Verger, Margot Verger are such characters. Jack Crawford still pines for his ex-wife and her memory increasingly haunts him.
Though the characters are beautifully depicted, I am disappointed with Clarice Starling’s character. I will give my reasons as doing so would reveal much of the plot but take it from me that Clarice is not the Clarice of Silence of the Lambs. I personally would have liked her to be different though it was inevitable considering the way the story developed.
The murders are innovative and there is no shortage of deaths in the book. Some of the murders are so vividly described that you can view it in your mind! The murders can haunt you in the night as nightmares but there is a sheer artistic appeal to them that you might perhaps (like me) be awed by the beauty of it.
The depiction of Dr. Lecter is once again astonishingly impressive and one cannot help admiring the character in spite of it being described as ’’shaitan’’. His exotic tastes, his knowledge of Dante, his highly analytical and calculating mind will make him perhaps the only most admired villan of fiction. But is he pure evil? Read the book to find out.
Though many would be turned off by the surprise ending, I would disagree as I feel that it was the light at the end of the dark narrative. It is a very unpredictable ending that marks the book as one the best thrillers I have read.
The movie’s ending is different from the book and so is its narrative. If you have seen the movie and feel that you know the story, I assure you that the book is way different from the movie.