Perfume: The Story of a Murderer in Classics Without All the Class

Apr 17, 2015 Leo Walsh rated it really liked it

Creepy. That's all I can say. And yet, like a good vampire novel, it highlights a lot about what it means to be human -- in a very chilling way.

Perfume tells the story of a cipher, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille with an incredible gift: perhaps the best perfumer's nose ever created. But that nose is attached to a deformed person incapable of loving. Suskind refers to Grenouille as a tick, sucking life-blood when available. falling off before waiting for and falling on his next victim. Indeed, Gren ...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Kristi Krumnow rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have always had a sensitivity to smells. So when I read this, I understood completely the interest in odors. I often envision myself as the main character (not murdering mind you) but smelling his way around town. The reader explores a real sense of the malodorous content streaming forth from the Parisian houses, stores, and sidewalks. Read the book. Do not watch the movie.

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Mar 02, 2011 Glynis rated it really liked it

Shelves: favourites

Contains spoilers to a degree.

A surprisingly amusing, witty read. A well-crafted allegory/fable/fairy story and fantasy novel. Suskind satirizes the 18th century, the Age of Reason, via the characters of Gilmal, Baldini, the Marquis de la Taillaide-Espinasse and their subsequent (and funny) deaths. They all use Grenouille in order to profit from him, and he uses them to ensure his survival in society. He is a repellent character, but I admire his fearlessness (of the dark etc.) and especially h Contains spoilers to a degree.

A surprisingly amusing, witty read. A well-crafted allegory/fable/fairy story and fantasy novel. Suskind satirizes the 18th century, the Age of Reason, via the characters of Gilmal, Baldini, the Marquis de la Taillaide-Espinasse and their subsequent (and funny) deaths. They all use Grenouille in order to profit from him, and he uses them to ensure his survival in society. He is a repellent character, but I admire his fearlessness (of the dark etc.) and especially how he walks away from these characters unscathed while they perish in freak accidents. Suskind writes in a style that ridicules and pokes fun at them; I can't help but smile at their demise. Yet he writes sensitively about Grenouille, and seriously. He does not ridicule him but observes and describes him with respect. Grenouille is a force to be feared; an anti-hero, outside the laws of society. A scary protagonist, unlike his fellow characters who view him as pathetic, idiotic. I like the use of the 'tick' metaphor, describing him as a parasite that feeds off the characters unfortunate to cross paths with him. He is feral; he'll go to any length to satisfy his inner primal urges. That is more important to him than using his unique and otherworldly sense of smell and genius as a perfumier to make his fortune in the world. He is a base, complex creature with no need for material wealth. Grenouille has no thought other than to quench the inner lust that urges him to make people revere him. His ultimate goal: to bottle and wear the scent of those humans whose odour inspires love so that people will love, respect and idolise him in return. Grenouille learns it is not looks or personality that makes a person attractive and popular to others, but body odour. He works out only certain people exude this exquisite and rare scent. A vampire who craves, not blood, but premium human odour.

The writing/translation is such that I was aware of Grenouille's amazing sense of smell and my own. And yes, I did the elbow thing!

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Apr 06, 2014 K. G. Whitehurst rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I did not like this book despite the fact it had a strong narrative voice and brilliant description of a sense than most authors stink at describing--smell. These two things give it two stars. Beyond that, the combination of the utterly, unbelievably fantastical with the grounding in hard, detailed historical reality was more cognitive dissonance than I could tolerate. The character was "a tick", utterly unlikeable, and ultimately, unbelievable. His actions were unspeakable tho' more believable ...more

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