More than a whiff of scariness... (Perfume - Patrick Suskind)

Name: salgirl

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Date:	11.05.01 (1200 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exceptionally well written

Disadvantages: Subject matter may be unpleasant for some

I was given this book to read by a friend of mine, who knew I had an interest in criminology. Halfway through the book and I was racking my brains to figure out why I'd never heard of this guy and his crimes. A bit of checking later and I discover it's a novel, not based on anything factual. This threw me a little.

This is a book about a serial killer. This particular serial killer was French, and carrying out his horrendous crimes in Paris during the 1800's.

Grenoule is presented as something of a tragic and pathetic sort of creature, who has a phenomenal talent. His nose is his fortune, and it is able to pick up and define every nuance (kind of like how a male Jilly Golden would have been back then) within a smell. The tones and structures of all odours are familiar to him, allowing him to exploit these talents to the full and become a highly reknowned and coveted maker of fine perfumes.

Then one day Grenoule's nose is assailed by the most wonderous and magical perfume he has ever encountered. It's heady and potent and he must have it. He tracks it down (and this is where the scariness factor kicks in) and the scent is that of a young woman. The scent of a pure virgin.

The book is written in such an authorative and convincing manner that I felt sure Suskind had based it on a real life case study. Apparently not, this is just his sheer skill as a writer.

The story was compelling reading and more than a little unsettling in it's content. It has a distinct old world, and in some ways, other world, feel to his writings which made this a real escapist treat.

I felt totally drawn into Grenoule's existence, fascinated with the details of Parisian life and it's pomposities, and yet horrified at the same time that such a ghoul as this man was deriving the pleasures that he was.

I found it to be a cleverly observed book, and the reading was deceptively easy in it's style.
>
Maybe not yer average sort of night-time fare, but one that impressed me deeply after just the one read.

Summary: