I am putting it on the same high pedestal as The Good Earth or To Kill a Mockingbird.

Back to Hannibal Rising...

I finished the book just a few minutes ago, and I must say that it was actually good. The reviewers were a bit too harsh, I think. They all want there to be another Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs, but that will never happen again.

It is a great novel for those of us who want to know more about Hannibal Lecter's life (it answered far more questions than the movie), but it is certainly sub-par compared to Thomas Harris' first two Lecter novels. Only curiosity about Lecter's life made me turn the page. I did not feel that wonderful tightness in my chest while I was reading it, and my pulse was never raised. To quote Inspecter Popil, "Vanilla."