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• 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 18, 2007 about the Paperback edition| 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 8, 2008 | 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 24, 2008 | Add your feedback

• .

  • 

  • Alucinante.
    Sublime.
    Turbador.
    Espeluznante.

    

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• ― Margoldy said on Sep 15, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

• .

  • 

  • 讓我想起經典電影《PSYCHO》，描述真正的殺手怎樣誕生，是一 個外貎不揚，周圍的人不會理解他殺人動機，他只活在自己世界中，只 為一個目的而存活；但有趣是他因自己無味而恐懼，也因追求終極體香 的香水而殺人。
    我在想，作者是否曾經研究殺人犯的心理，能對主角有這麼深入的內心 描述。
    作者是寫故事能力，舖排流暢，而包括圍繞在主角身邊的人，作者也給 予他們很細緻的性格和特徵。

    

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• ― 消太 said on Aug 5, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

• .

  • Recommended!

  • The story is very unique and intriguing. The main character is a mixture of mystery, sins and innocence. He was born with a superb sense of smell and thirst for knowledge, which ultimately leads him to commit various crimes. There are a few places that seem to drag on but overall it is a very great ... Continue

    The story is very unique and intriguing. The main character is a mixture of mystery, sins and innocence. He was born with a superb sense of smell and thirst for knowledge, which ultimately leads him to commit various crimes. There are a few places that seem to drag on but overall it is a very great read. Recommended!

    

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• ― Sandy said on May 11, 2009 | 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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