Boekverslag : Thomas Harris - The Silence Of The Lambs / De Schreeuw Van Het Lam
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 2049 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 2049 woorden.
BOOKREPORT
The author of the book is Thomas Harris
The title of the book is 'The silence of the lambs'
There is no subtitle
The first edition of this book was published in 1988
My book is from 1993
The publisher of my edition is Peerage Books
The book has 256 pages
I have read this book in 8 hours
I have finished the book at 3 February 2000
I have hand in this bookreport at the 24th of February 2000
MY FIRST REACTION:
? This story was very thrilling because it is about a horrible murderer and 'Hannibal the Cannibal' a psychiatrist in jail. And there have happened a lot of horrible and thrilling things, like the pursuit of Clarice by the murderer (Buffalo Bill) at the end of the story.
? The story is also very stirring because at the end you can imagine how Catherine Martin feels to be there in the oubliette room, knowing that she will be killed.
? This story is a little bit emotional but not very much because it is a little bit unrealistic (I hope) but sometimes it is very emotional. For example when Clarice tells about her own feelings when she is busy doing with the case of Buffalo Bill and has almost no social life then.
? It isn't funny at all. It is not funny to be kept by a murderer or being questioned by a crazy but very smart psychiatrist.
? The story is a little bit realistic but sometimes it isn't realistic at all. Because for example a murderer who skins the torso of young, late teens or early twenties, white women to make a dress for himself. Not really realistic.
? This can you see in two ways, the first one: the writer must have a great imagination to write a book like this what is so complicated and written like it has really happened ever. But the other way is that there is no imagination (fabulous things) in it, it is a quite serious book.
? It is a very interesting story so you can read it almost in one time out. I like thrilling stories so it was interesting for me.
? It is really an original book with a genius psychiatrist who knows who the murderer is and gives cryptically descriptions about the murderer and also about Clarice.
? This story is easy to understand for me because I had seen the movie before I read this book so I knew what was going to happen. Sometimes there are some difficult words but without them you can read it very good too.
? After reading the story I didn't think about something especially because it is just a story.
? This story was not really essential because it is just a book, it hasn't happened for real.
? This story appeals to me because I like thrillers like this, when you don't know who the murderer is and when there are surprising elements like Dr. Lecter who seems to be Pembry.
And I have seen the movie what was a very creepy one.
REPORT:
? This story is a detective and a psychological novel because they (the FBI) are searching for a murderer (= detective) and you can see how Clarice 'grows psychological' in the story with the help of Dr. Lecter and his cryptically descriptions and analyses of her.
? FBI-agent Clarice Starling gets instructions to interrogate Dr. Hannibal Lecter about a serial murderer. With the aid of his cryptically descriptions, Clarice starts a search for the murderer and to herself (her own personality).
? The height is, I think, the pursuit of Clarice by Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill). That is crucial for the story because Clarice first didn't know that he was the murderer but when she saw a Death's-head Moth at the back of Jame Gumb, then she realises that he is the murderer. What follows is a pursuit that was won by Clarice, she shot Jame Gumb.
That was really thrilling in the movie because you could see it through the infrared-glasses of James Gumb and through the eyes of Clarice.
? The first passage: The first meeting between Clarice Starling and Dr. Lecter. This happens in the 3d chapter. This is a very important part of the story because here it really starts; Lecter helps her with the case of Buffalo Bill and Clarice Starling gives
Dr. Lecter a look in her childhood (she didn't like that but Dr. Lecter just wanted to give her help by the case when he gets that information).
A description of the Dr Lecter's cell: "His cell is well beyond the others, facing only a closet across the corridor, and it is unique in other ways. The front is a wall of bars but within the bars, at a distance greater than the human reach, is a second barrier, a stout nylon net stretched from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Behind the net Starling could see a table bolted tot the floor and piled high with softcover books and papers, and a straight chair, also fastened down."
The second passage: The escape of Dr. Lecter. This happens in the 36th chapter. This is a very thrilling part of the story because you know that Dr. Escape will try to escape but that he will do it the way he did is not to be foreseen. An important part of this passage is the next one: 'Dr Lecter found the keyhole in his left cuff, inserted the key and turned it. He felt the cuff spring loose on his wrist. He passed the key to his left hand, found the keyhole, put in the key and turned it.' (Page 168)
And the part that he really escaped with the ambulance, while he faked to be one of the officers is also really impressive. That he skinned the skin of the officer and put it on his own face is really horrible but a very good thing to escape, it looked like it was Pembry, one of the officers, but it was him, Dr Lecter.
The third passage: The pursuit of Clarice by the murderer (Buffalo Bill). This happens in the 56th chapter. This is also a very thrilling passage because you can 'feel' the anxious suspense of Clarice and Catherine Martin, the prisoner/ victim of Buffalo Bill (Jame Gumb). This is a very important part of the story because in the whole story Clarice goes her own way and this is one of the results of her own research. By some lucky chance she came to the right door (for asking about the former residents) and there was the murderer (she didn't know that, but after she saw a Death's-head Moth she knew it).
? The language the author uses is quite normal. Sometimes some difficult words but usually good to understand. The thoughts of some persons are ad in italics.
For example: The passage when Clarice sees that it is Mr. Gumb:
'Mister Gumb. Thank God my coat's open. Talk out of here, go to a phone. No. He knows I'm FBI, I let him out of my sight he'll kill her. Do her kidneys. They find him, they fall on him. His phone. Don't see it. Not in here, ask for his phone. Get the connection, then throw down on him. Make him lie facedown, wait for the cops. That's it, do it. He's turning around.'
? Name: Clarice M. Starling
Age: a young woman, I think in the middle of her twenties.
Occupation: FBI-officer in training.
Character: keeps to the point, intelligent, self-willed.
Appearance: half long brown hair, brown eyes, strong.
Relations: Ardelia Mapp (student friend), unmarried.
Changes: First she is just a good student but later she is almost a whole FBI-officer.
Name: Dr Hannibal Lecter
Age: in the fifties.
Occupation: brilliant psychiatrist in jail.
Character: inaccessible, intelligent, sophisticated, genius, wants to know every detail.
Appearance: Six fingers on his left hand, small, sleek, wiry strength of his arms and arms, maroon eyes and they reflect the light in pinpoints of red, small white teeth, translucent skin.
Relations: Miggs (fellow-prisoner), Clarice (interrogator/ patient), Jame Gumb (former-patient)
Changes in the story: First he doesn't want to tell anything but later he will.
Name: Jack Crawford
Age: 54 years old
Occupation: FBI-officer
Character: nice, intelligent, sometimes a bit old-fashioned
Appearance: fit,
Relations: married with Bella, 'boss' of Clarice
Changes in the story: first he keeps always to the point but when he saw that Clarice is really a good one he allows her to do more and more.
Other things: former baseball player
? The title doesn't make anything clear about the contents of the book. It could also have been a story about an farm or something like that where the lambs are always screaming or something like that.
? The story takes place in the United States of America. For example in Quantico, Tennessee and Baltimore. I think this story couldn't take place in another country because you will need for this story the FBI, a big country with big rivers, and the crazy people like the psychiatrist Dr Lecter and Miggs etc.
? The problem is a murderer who killed a lot of people (Buffalo Bill). He chose big woman as his victim. He keeps his victims a couple of time so the skin will get a bit flexible.
After that, he skins them and drops them into a river.
Dr Lecter knows who the murderer is (a former patient) and gives Clarice Starling some descriptions which leads to him in exchange for her stories / traumas of her youth.
Assignment 1:
Some differences between the film and the book.
In the book In the film
1. The cell of Dr Lecter is made of a wall of The cell of Dr Lecter is made of glass.
bars and a stout nylon net from wall to
wall.
2. The cell is at the left side The cell is at the right side.
3. Dr Lecter has six fingers on his left hand. Dr Lecter has five fingers on his left
hand.
4. Dr Lecter put the officer, who he had Dr Lecter crucified the officer, who he
killed during his escape, at the table with had killed, on his temporarily cell.
the handcuffs on.
5. At the end, Dr Lecter writes a letter to At the end, Dr Lecter calls Clarice to
Clarice to ask if the lambs have stopped ask if the lambs have stopped screaming
screaming.
A PASSAGE OF THE FILM
I chose the passage of the escape of Dr Lecter because that is a very impressive one.
In the book it is less impressive than in the film. That is because the bodies of the officers are in the film more knocked about than in the book has been described.
For example the officer which is crucified on the cell of Dr Lecter. That is a real awful view. The director of the film has done that to make it more attractive and horrible, I think. Also the face of Dr Lecter (as Pembry the officer) is very horrible to see. And the escape of the ambulance is very impressive, how he knows how to escape is really remarkable. And the director of the film has rendered that very good with some good shots.
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