Thomas Harris, author of great books like
Black Sunday and
Silence of the Lambs, writes some great sections about a female bodybuilder named
Margot Verger in
Hannibal. Most people will be more familiar with the movie adaptations of his books. Unfortunately, Margot was not included in the
movie adaptation of Hannibal, despite being an important character to the plot. Harris has a tendency to portray her negatively in terms of her steroid abuse, but she ultimately is one of the good guys in the end. If any of this interests you, pick up the book.
Margot Verger is introduced in Chapter 9 where Thomas Harris describes her in some detail:
A broad-shouldered person with short blond hair swung down from the saddle, handed the reins to the valet without looking at him. "Walk him back," the rider said in a deep scratchy voice. "I'm Margot Verger." At close inspection, she was a woman, holding out her hand, arm extended straight from the shoulder. Clearly Margot Verger was a bodybuilder. Beneath her corded neck, her massive shoulders and arms stretched the mesh of her tennis shirt. Her eyes had a dry glitter and looked irritated, as though she suffered from a shortage of tears. She wore twill riding breeches and boots with no spurs.
The twill riding breeches whistled on Margot Verger's big thighs as she climbed the stairs. Her cornsilk hair had receded enough to make Starling wonder if she took steroids and had to tape her clitoris down
She doesn't appear again until later in the book. In Chapter 41 we get a nice tidbit about her:
He tried to torment his sister, Margot, but she retired to the workout room and for hours ignored his pages. She was the only person at Muskrat Farm who dared to ignore Mason.
And in Chapter 45, she confides to her brother:
"I've messed myself up, Mason. I've shriveled my ovaries with all the stuff I took."
In Chapter 50, Margot comments a bit on Clarice Starling and starts by saying:
"Starling looks pretty tasty, if you like whole wheat," Margot offered.
Chapter 51 introduces Barney to Margot:
Mason spoke into his intercom and a tall figure came into the room. He was as muscular as Margot and dressed in whites. "This is Barney," Mason said.
There's a nice scene in Chapter 56 of Barney and Margot in the gym together. It starts out like this:
She looked at his arms, looked at hers. They were about the same. "How much can you bench-press?" she said.
Chapter 61 is the best part of the book in my opinion because of a shower scene between Margot and Barney. It's a bit too steamy so I'll only include this snippet:
Barney took as deep a breath as he could and held it... he could feel himself developing a problem. She was shining like a horse, pumped to the limit from the hard workout. As Barney's interest grew more apparent, he turned his back to her. Maybe he could just ignore her until she left.
