Ron's Reviews > The Silence of the Lambs

Much like the way Red Dragon opens to a scene with Will Graham, The Silence of the Lambs opens to Clarice Starling. It's a reminder that Will has left the life that tragically maimed him, both emotionally and physically, with memories that are tragic. Harris though, he never writes Clarice with the attempt to supplant Graham as our new hero. Like Will, she is our antihero of sorts. She is the unconventional, and therefore, very likable character. Human, as we are, with below the means family roots and upbringing. Using her past becomes her unexpected strength. That, and her uncanny ability to “see” what others miss. And because she's a woman, she has the advantage of seeing what men simply can't. Only a few people seem to realize this: Jack Crawford and Hannibal Lecter being the main two, and the only major characters carried over from the story by Harris. Jack Crawford immediately feels like a father figure to Clarice, keeping his distance at the same time. And Hannibal...well, he feels like Hannibal. The dark father figure, if you will. Unbelievably smart. All that brain power used to play the game, slowly biding time, waiting for a mistake is made. Here in Silence, I got to know him better. Pieces of him are revealed, while he adeptly picks choice memories from Clarice's past. She plays the game too. Finding “Buffalo Bill” will become more important for her than she can know.

I wouldn't have thought it possible to like Silence of the Lambs more than I had liked Red Dragon, but there it is. And I don't think I could find a real flaw in this story, even if I hunted for one.