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  • A Strange Tale

  • The subject of this book (scent) is very intriguing. It's an easy sense to disregard and it certainly made me think of smell in a different way. This book came highly recommended, but I don't see what the fuss is about really.

    I had a problem with the sarcastic, almost humorous tone of the nar ... Continue

    The subject of this book (scent) is very intriguing. It's an easy sense to disregard and it certainly made me think of smell in a different way. This book came highly recommended, but I don't see what the fuss is about really.

    I had a problem with the sarcastic, almost humorous tone of the narrator. I feel like the story could have been so much more if it had been told in a serious manner. We never really get inside the villain's head because of this.

    Grenouille himself is difficult to describe. He really had no human characteristics at all (besides arrogance). His keen bloodhound smell is interesting, but seems illogical. Overall, his character is not very believable and that's why the story doesn't work for me.

    

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• ― MoirneStark said on Jun 24, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • My thoughts

  • Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - human or monster? Both? Just when I found myself feeling sympathetic to this young man who grew up without human kindness, the monster side of him would emerge and I could sense his scorn for people he fooled with his pretense of humanity. This was a beautifully written bo ... Continue

    Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - human or monster? Both? Just when I found myself feeling sympathetic to this young man who grew up without human kindness, the monster side of him would emerge and I could sense his scorn for people he fooled with his pretense of humanity. This was a beautifully written book about the importance of smell that we all take for granted and how one man with an incredible gift took advantage of people.

    

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• ― krin5292 said on Sep 13, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"-the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

Translated by John E. Woods

"A fable of crimial genius.... Remarkable."
--The New York Times

"Superb storytelling all the way...the climax is a savage shocker."
--The Plain Dealer

"An astonishing performance, a masterwork of artistic conception and execution. A totally gripping page-turner."
--The San Francisco Chronicle

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