From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Patrick Süskind

Start date: January 1, 2023

Finish date: January 31, 2023

Discussion: MODERN / POPULAR READS

Why we're reading this: January 2023 - Bookshelf Catch-Up Selection
Group pick for July ‘19 - MODERN CLASSICS/POPULAR
[close] January 2023 - Bookshelf Catch-Up Selection
Group pick for July ‘19 - MODERN CLASSICS/POPULAR

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Mar 31, 2010 Kasia rated it it was amazing

Perfume is a tale of a period serial-killer, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille born in 18th century France of a woman who cut and cleaned fish. Born in the market, under her table he was to be left for dead, but miraculously as the people busied themselves with work they heard a powerful wail, a cry like no other. The mother caught at trying to dispose of her baby was punished by death, the little infant taken to a monastery but given away because his lack of scent frightened all around him. Taken by a w Perfume is a tale of a period serial-killer, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille born in 18th century France of a woman who cut and cleaned fish. Born in the market, under her table he was to be left for dead, but miraculously as the people busied themselves with work they heard a powerful wail, a cry like no other. The mother caught at trying to dispose of her baby was punished by death, the little infant taken to a monastery but given away because his lack of scent frightened all around him. Taken by a woman who was battered by her husband when he was alive, who could not smell and feel, he was raised like any other orphan, as long as the church paid her yearly. Jean-Baptiste rouse suspicion from children who were scared of him, they couldn't get any feeling for what he was, for they knew he was not like all other humans. There was that lack of scent, the absolute nothingness and fear he spread, he preferred to be left alone, he worked hard and endured years of hard labor that would have any other human drop dead, but not Grenouille. He waited coiled up inside of his mind like a tick ready for fresh blood, he waited for an opportunity to conquer the world of scent and that he did.

As Grenouille jumps form job to job, landing a position with Baldini, a perfumer in Paris simply by chance he learns all that he can about proper extraction and perfume procedure, all of which are greatly described to the reader. Grenouille who lacks scent himself, has an immense library of scents which whiffs he only needed once in order to bottle and store them inside his own head. He can come up with the most exquisite combinations of scents and oil, pomades and cosmetics, bringing Baldini to the top of fame, letting him take all the credit. All that Grenouille wanted to learn was for his own knowledge, and as he traveled from town to town, people who helped him or who took him in meet with strange and sometimes gruesome deaths. Grenouille is a character who first omits great sympathy, with his cold soul, his strange manners and un-civilized at first behavior. I felt pity, I laughed and felt bad for him, but as time progressed his desire of scent capture moved form household objects to small animals and then humans. His indifference to pain and suffering quickly diffused any pity and made me read of him with a very weary mind.

Once he caught a scent of a ripening womanhood, he was transfixed. Among the 18th century Paris, that was crowded and stank of dirty people, food and excrements, he smelled a pure and beautiful scent, which he described as silk and milk. It was the scent of a red haired girl peeling yellow plums by the river. Jean-Baptiste knew from that moment on that the only scent he really wanted to create was that of a pure human in its crystalline form. After his first murder he inhaled the lingering spirit and put it away in his memory, he then traveled along the coast and waited years for an opportunity to study the science of perfume more and to apply it to his own devilish plan.

This book, has so much more going on that I can possibly describe, the world of Jean-Baptiste and his scents was a pleasure to read. I have never been so transfixed and captivated by a sense I take for granted, and this book was a refreshing eye opener.

Hundreds of scents are described in Patrick Suskind's novel, the smell of a blossoming woman, the metallic tang of a doorknob, the soft creamy sheep wool, oaky warmth of wood pulp, oranges ripening with juice, the moonlight cape of magnolias, the fresh windy smell of a puppy and finally, Grenouille's perfect perfume composed of twenty five virgins.

The ending was pretty shocking and total punch, it left me wanting to read more but also satisfied with how well the story wrapped up. I adored the descriptions of nature and of old Paris, I felt transported to the world of great costumes, powdered wigs, dirty living conditions and interesting relationships. Great read with a chilling villain who succumbs to his own desires and of the alluring world of scent which will never be the same.

- Kasia S. ...more

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