Thomas Harris "Hannibal" (1999) ****

*SPOILERS*

This was my first time re-reading Hannibal (1999) since its release and I had forgotten some details but remembered a good deal, as I've seen the 2001 film adaptation more than once. I like the film very much and have always found it underrated so I'm interested (and excited) to see how a revisit will fare, since I'd forgotten that numerous characters were left out of the celluloid adaptation. Some of them, like Jack Crawford and Ardelia Mapp, aren't essential to this story, like they were to The Silence Of The Lambs (1988).

But then there's Margot Verger. How (and why) on earth did writers David Mamet and Steve Zaillian leave her out of the film?? She is so integral to the novel - her relationship with Barney, her plot against her brother, her walnut-cracking... Fortunately, her character made her way into the television series (2013-2015), still as a lesbian but not a bodybuilder. The TV series also included Crawford's wife Bella and her passing, another key element from Lambs left out of that 1991 film. Margot's desire to have a child using her brother Mason's sperm was brought to life in the TV series as well.

Mason Verger is extra nasty in the book and I don't remember that from the film but maybe a rewatch will refresh my memory. I remember his storyline (and largely the rest of the novel) being adapted fairly faithfully (and acted with aplomb by Gary Oldman), but I honestly can't remember how he meets his demise in the film. In the novel, and replicated in the TV series, it's death by eel.

I remember the first time I watched the film Hannibal that I didn't know how to feel about Clarice being portrayed by Julianne Moore but soon moved past any initial reservations. Again, I'm intrigued to discover how my reaction will be on the next viewing (which will be momentarily).

I suppose the fact that Hannibal and Clarice ended up together romantically was controversial to some, but it's never bothered me. I've always enjoyed that Hannibal, the novel, has an incredibly different tone than either Red Dragon (1986) or Lambs, being that it's not a procedural affair, but a poetic and unique revenge tale and love story.