Pefume (Perfume - Patrick Suskind)

Member Name: happy_squirrel

Product:	Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Date:	30/07/08 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderfully written, deliciously creepy

Disadvantages: Nothing

This book was epically awesome. This is one of the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die and it so deserves it's place. This is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born and abandoned in Paris but possesing an amazing, inhuman sense of smell. As he grows up unloved and unwanted by anyone he develops his sense of smell and becomes obsessed with possesing the most beautiful smell of all, that of a young virgin girl.
He is a complete sociopath, without empathy or remorse for anything he does but he is such an intriguing character. No matter how much revulsion I should be feeling for what it is he is actually doing, I could not help but want to keep reading, to know more about this man. When he discovers his own lack of scent I really felt his panic and really felt empathy for him.
The way it is written is so perfect, the prose so rich as it describes the many everyday smells that we barely even notice, making them seem more real than you could have thought possible, truly making you smell the richness of what you are reading. The ending of this book was a bit out there.... like really, but somehow it fit in with the rest of the book.
I order everyone in the world to go buy this book right now. And then read it. And then read it again. Go on. You know you want to.

Summary: Man has an amazing sense of smell and will do anything to possess the most beautiful scent of all