Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (original 1985; edition 2001)

i love monsters, and this book has a great one. i'm currently trying to argue (in a paper) that this book has something to do with magical realism, but i don't think i'm convincing anybody.

this book messes with form, with fairy tale, with biblical myth, with pop psychology, with the enlightenment. it's stunningly written, because it's about smell, and it's not boring.

i'd say suskind is to scent what proulx is to landscape. ( )

i love monsters, and this book has a great one. i'm currently trying to argue (in a paper) that this book has something to do with magical realism, but i don't think i'm convincing anybody.

this book messes with form, with fairy tale, with biblical myth, with pop psychology, with the enlightenment. it's stunningly written, because it's about smell, and it's not boring.

i'd say suskind is to scent what proulx is to landscape. ( )

'Perfume' tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille a boy who grew up on the streets of Paris. Jean-Baptiste was no ordinary boy, he had a gift... a sense of smell that could not be rivaled. Naturally he found his niche by becoming an apprentice to a master perfumer who teaches him the art of making perfume. He excelled at this and people were scrambling to buy his product. As he branched out and started searching for new scents to include in his perfumes, his fascination with trying to find the "ultimate perfume" takes a morbid turn when he finds that ultimate scent is coming from a beautiful woman, and he has to capture it by any means necessary.

I picked this book up on a whim at a used bookstore one day simply thinking that I'd like to read something different for a change. 'Perfume' managed to root itself so deep in my mind that I still remember this novel in vivid detail to this day; I must have read it at least ten years ago. The story is disturbing in so many ways yet so unbelievably brilliant and fascinating that you can't help but be enthralled.

The novel is extremely graphic at times but that's what really makes the story. Highly recommended, I love this novel it's one of my absolute favorites.

Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog! ( )

Oh dear. What to say about this strange novel. What can you say about a main character who perceives his world strictly in terms of odor. The author proposes a fascinating concept in this book. Specifically, that our perception of fellow human beings is based, greatly but unknowingly, on their odor. Ridiculous, and yet..., don't we all know of those whose perception is completely contrary to their appearance and/or behavior. It was a stretch but not so clear cut as to undermine the tale. Otherwise Mr. Suskind did an admirable job of describing a place and a time, dark as it was, and with enough detail you could almost "smell" it. ( )

Summary: Set in Paris in the 1700’s, Grenouille is born with the amazing ability to remember and analyse anything he smells. After his mother is executed for abandoning him at birth, he lives with a priest and then is adopted out. Anyone who has contact with him is revolted by his manner and looks. His first job is in a tannery.

He works for one of Paris’ well known perfumers who is at the end of his career and hasn’t developed a good perfume for years. Grenouille makes him the most desired perfumer in Paris.

After leaving Paris, he wants to escape all traces of human scent. He walks across the country and lives in a cave on the side of a high mountain.

We he comes off the mountain, Grenouille finds employment with a rich man who uses him as part of a scientific experiment. Grenouill is dressed in nice clothes and changes his appearance from a mountain hermit to a respectable citizen.

He then makes is way to a village which is famous for its perfume making; they have developed a technique for capturing a scent and then forming it into a concentrate. Grenouille starts murdering virgins, then making a perfume of their scent. He is obsessed with the scent of a young girl in the village. He hunts her down, kills her then captures he scent, the most pure of all.

Grenuille is captured by the villagers and tried for murder. He is to be executed but at the last moment, covers himself with one drop of the virgin’s perfume. This ignites intense passion. Everyone is overcome by lust and in the ensuing orgy, Grenouille escapes.

Realizing his guilt, he walks back to Paris and goes to the cemetery were many homeless people reside. He covers himself in the whole bottle of the virgin perfume. He is then set upon by the crowd who eat him.

Excellent opening chapter. Very descriptive but sentences very long. Would suit an advanced reader. Bizarre ending! ( )