Perfume

Critics

• The Best Reviews: Patrick Suskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

  "The Odor of Malevolence!" Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born in late 19th Century France to parents who is rejected by his parents and all who would otherwise want a little baby to nourish and cherish. The few who do encounter him as a baby note that ... (read full critics)

  thebestreviews published on Wed, 11 Jan 2012

15 Reviews

• 4 people find this helpful

  

  An olfactory experience

  The power of the scent a tricky subject matter to convey on paper (at least verbally), yet Süskind sucessfully brings the reader to empathise with Grenouille, the protagnist and tragic hero, whose extraordinary olfactory sense made him France's greatest perfumer. In Grenouille's world, scents replac ... (continue)

  The power of the scent a tricky subject matter to convey on paper (at least verbally), yet Süskind sucessfully brings the reader to empathise with Grenouille, the protagnist and tragic hero, whose extraordinary olfactory sense made him France's greatest perfumer. In Grenouille's world, scents replace sights and sounds, and the quest for the ultimate perfume leaves no room for moral and rationality.

  The writing is unique in its highly descriptive style and the narrative delves into the mind of a lonely, unremarkable and objectionable young man. Yet through his acute sense of smell he brings masses to their knees. By no means a light read, but certainly a book for those who seek something out of the humdrum and ordinary.

  I also recommend the movie based on the book with the same title, which successfully brings to the big screen the world as Grenouille experinces it.

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  codefu said on Apr 19, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 3 people find this helpful

  

  I felt really unattached to this book. Like there was an invisible wall between me and it. I didn't understand the fascination of endless lists of the perfume ingredients and how useless the characters were. I don't mind a weird book but this had some kind of idiotic weirdness around it and overall ... (continue)

  I felt really unattached to this book. Like there was an invisible wall between me and it. I didn't understand the fascination of endless lists of the perfume ingredients and how useless the characters were. I don't mind a weird book but this had some kind of idiotic weirdness around it and overall seemed kind of flat.

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  s u v i said on Mar 25, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  Quite disgusting and almost perverse story, though well written and original.
  So depressing is the vision of mankind and so inhuman the protagonist that I couldn't empathize or identify myself with anyone in the story: that made me feel uneasy.

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  Cheerflower said on Sep 9, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 

  One of the best novels in my small collection. It ranks well in reading pleasure with The Name of the Rose, The Historian, The Shadow of the Wind, The Midnight Children, … But it could also make you linger in the awkward after-taste of having nosed a little too deep into ourselves. In this it rises ... (continue)

  One of the best novels in my small collection. It ranks well in reading pleasure with The Name of the Rose, The Historian, The Shadow of the Wind, The Midnight Children, … But it could also make you linger in the awkward after-taste of having nosed a little too deep into ourselves. In this it rises a notch higher and sits among more sombre works such as Blindness.

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  TC said on Dec 17, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  You Can Smell The Murder!

  I read this years ago and have since heard mixed views from others who have read it. Some did not like the slow pace, the "arty" theme, the dense imagery and language. Others again, like me, loved all those same things.

  The total sense immersion this book can give you (if you are able to sink into ... (continue)

  I read this years ago and have since heard mixed views from others who have read it. Some did not like the slow pace, the "arty" theme, the dense imagery and language. Others again, like me, loved all those same things.

  The total sense immersion this book can give you (if you are able to sink into a narrative that is so sensual) is amazing. The writing borders on the literary. The ideas and presentation are unique and original. The mood is dark and very, very fragrant. Whiffs of the main character in this book reminded me of Steerpike in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. So, rather gothic in some ways, then.

  Yes, it is about perfume, and the quest for the ultimate scent. But is also about death, neglect, alienation, and very dark designs. And serial murder. This is not your average pulp fiction. It is not pulp fiction at all, in fact. This borders on true literature, so take your own tastes into account before you pick this one up and suffer disappointment. For the genre and class of fiction this title represents, it is a very wonderful book indeed.

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  Ramnagel said on Apr 14, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Such a strangely fascinating book. There's something almost fable-like about the storytelling, though it doesn't have (that I can think of just now) any particular moral.

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  Hold Your Spin said on Feb 20, 2010 | 2 feedbacks

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 272 Pages
• Edition: Film Tie-in Ed
• ISBN-10: 0141029048
• ISBN-13: 9780141029047
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Pub date: Nov 30, 2006
• Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette and Others
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, 简体书, 和書, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, llibres en català, Libri Italiani, Российские Книги, Nederlandse Boeken, Polskie Książki, Svenska böcker, Ελληνικά βιβλία, Român carte, Euskal Liburuak, Buku Indonesia

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