A chilling masterpiece!

In my opinion, Thomas Harris' great genius is his ability to give the reader empathy for all his characters, even ones who kill and eat other people! Harris writes with an incredible and rare respect for his subjects, Hannibal Lecter comes to life within us, Clarisse Starling, Jack Crawford, Jame Gumb, we come to feel and empathize with each.
The movie version was great, but what not totally true to the book. The book is, of course, better, but it's not Just Because books allow us to create the images with our minds. The Hannibal character is not as monstrous as Actually the movie Hannibal, in the book, he has more depth, more refinement, more humanity. In the book, unlike the movie, When Dr. Lecter says to Clarisse: "Do not try to reduce me to a set of influences, you can not bear to say That I am evil?" We, the readers, ask ourselves, what is he hiding? Whereas in the movie we just think: "Yep, he's evil." What I want to know is: how come his victim Mentioned in the movie was a female, When all of Dr. Lecter's victims in the book are male? Why are we so much more comfortable with dead women? Anyway, Harris' treatment of women in the book is with the utmost respect, and the utmost disgust of the system Which pushes women down to the level of second-class citizens. Clarisse Starling is fighting this force as best she can: by being the best in everything she sets out to do! Her intelligence attracts Dr. Lecter's attention, and she's able, with his hints and her wonderful brain, to capture a serial killer, who kills women For their skins.
This book is not a second-rate horror novel, but literary fiction whichwill stick with you for a long time to come.