Joe's Reviews > The Silence of the Lambs

Editor's Note: I'm reposting this review because my original posted on May 9 has been infested with fake "likes." Some of you have also accumulated suspicious follows and likes beginning in late April. These are accounts created in April, May or June 2019 and feature western user names, "China" as the location, 0 friends, 0 books (or close to 0) and no profile photo.

Goodreads has notified me that these are "real people." Thanks for nothing, Goodreads. I've blocked hundreds of these accounts and noticed too many similarities in their activity to believe these are real people. Please be on the lookout for followers with new accounts and no profile photo claiming to be from China. This user is not up to anything legitimate on this site.

It's my thesis that Goodreads can come together and agree that The Silence of the Lambs is a great novel. Published in 1988, this was the third novel by Thomas Harris, his follow-up to Black Sunday and Red Dragon, the latter of which introduced Dr. Hannibal Lecter and put Harris--who takes years to publish--into the FBI Behavioral Science Lab vs. Serial Killer business. I've seen the Oscar winning Best Picture several times but bumped the source material up as Sean Coyne, author of The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know and the next book on my list, uses it to illustrate the application of his many story tips.

Other than a handful of scenes and a couple of story threads omitted from the screenplay by Ted Tally for the 1991 film directed by Jonathan Demme, the movie follows the novel very closely, so I won't bother to recount the plot. The Silence of the Lambs is currently streaming on Netflix and really should be in your Blu-Ray/ DVD/ laserdisc/ VHS library if it isn't already. Let's just pick up the 25th anniversary edition and jump right in:

-- The iconography of the Death-Head's Hawkmoth is such a brilliant representation of this story. Both beautiful and sinister, the nocturnal moth emerging from its pupa relates to both Clarice Starling and Jame Gumb as these characters grow into something new. If your edition of the book doesn't include the moth on the cover, you're being robbed. It was featured prominently in the movie marketing.



-- Opening paragraph. Behavioral Science, the FBI section that deals with serial murder, is on the bottom floor of the Academy building at Quantico, half-buried in the earth. Clarice Starling reached it flushed after a fast walk from Hogan's Alley on the firing range. She had grass in her hair and grass stains on her FBI Academy windbreaker from diving to the ground under fire in an arrest problem on the range. Harris doesn't describe Starling's eyes, hair, build, etc. We know who she is by where she is and what she's doing there. And her name--Clarice Starling--summarizes her beautifully.

-- For a novel that's under 100,000 words and very fast-moving (I finished it in two days) I loved how complex it is. Harris doesn't approach things in a straight-forward fashion, but at a slant. Hour-length TV cop shows have given writers the impression that criminal investigations or manhunts can be wrapped up in under an hour. Jack Crawford doesn't send Starling to ask Hannibal Lecter who "Buffalo Bill" is outright. He knows Lecter would rather toy with authority for his own amusement than help. Instead, he sends a young female cadet on a seemingly trivial matter in an attempt to establish rapport with the doctor.

-- I'm a fan of master/pupil stories and am struck with how throughout the book, Starling is a consummate student rather than some kind of crime fighting genius. This is established in the book by how hard Starling and her roommate Ardelia Mapp are studying for their exams at the FBI Academy and cramming their heads with knowledge. Starling knows a little about a lot of things--like the difference between a patent and a copyright or what triangles on a dressmaking pattern are for--as well as a lot about her specialties: forensics and psychology. She's acquired her knowledge by reading. What book lover doesn't love a protagonist who loves to read?

-- Most horror books and films involve creatures run amok or jumping out from behind corners. The Silence of the Lambs involves a serial killer interned at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane who, as long as you obey the rules and respect what he is, cannot get at you through his cell. Yet Dr. Hannibal Lecter is terrifying because he can't be contained to his cell. He sees through his visitors, reduces them to their weakest natures and takes advantage of them. I like how Dr. Lecter can discuss murdering his former patient and serving the pancreas to unsuspecting dinner guests, but stresses politeness and nice manners at all times.

"Raspail's dream of happiness was ruined. He put Klaus' head in a bowling bag and came back East."

"What did he do with the rest?"

"Buried it in the hills."

"He showed you the head in the car?"

"Oh yes, in the course of therapy he came to feel he could tell me anything. He went out to sit with Klaus quite often and showed him the Valentines."

"And then Raspail himself ... died. Why?"

"Frankly, I got sick and tired of his whining. Best thing for him, really. Therapy wasn't going anywhere. I expect most psychiatrists have a patient or two they'd like to refer to me. I've never discussed this before, and now I'm getting bored with it."

"And your dinner for the orchestra officials?"

"Haven't you ever had people coming over and no time to shop? You have to make do with what's in the fridge, Clarice. May I call you Clarice?"

"Yes. I think I'll just call you--"

"Dr. Lecter--that seems most appropriate to your age and station," he said.

"Yes."

"How did you feel when you went into the garage?"

"Apprehensive."

"Why?"

"Mice and insects."

"Do you have something you use when you want to get up your nerve?" Dr. Lecter asked.

"Nothing I know of that works, except wanting what I'm after."

-- If profiling a serial killer and tracking him down--Harris establishes that as of 1988 there was no precedent for a female serial killer--wasn't hard, Starling has to manage the feelings of men she comes into contact with doing her job. Hospital administrator Dr. Chilton hits on Starling within a minute of her entering his office and when rebuffed, goes out of his way to make her work difficult. Noble Pilcher, entomologist at the Smithsonian Institute, asks Starling out while she's trying to determine why Buffalo Bill has inserted an insect pupa into his victims' throats. A sheriff's deputy tries to chat with Starling while she's searching Catherine Martin's apartment and she has to tell the lawman to hush in the sweetest way possible. These are all concerns Will Graham never had to deal with in Red Dragon.

-- As thrillers go, the climax is sensational. (view spoiler) I love how Harris shoots through Starling's decision-making process on whether to find Jame Gumb, confirm that he's fled the house or help Catherine Martin out of the well in the basement. It's like an FBI Choose Your Own Adventure.

-- Closing paragraph. Far to the east, on the Chesapeake shore, Orion stood high in the clear night, above a big old house, and a room where a fire is banked for the night, its light pulsing gently with the wind above the chimneys. On a large bed there are many quilts and on the quilts and under them are several large dogs. Additional mounds beneath the covers may or may not be Noble Pilcher, it is impossible to determine in the ambient light. But the face on the pillow, rosy in the firelight, is certainly that of Clarice Starling, and she sleeps deeply, sweetly, in the silence of the lambs.

Perfect ending to the perfect novel.

Length: 94,827 words