It really smells! Well, I guess I'm in the minority. There are few books that I dislike, but this is one of them. Ususally bizarre twists, characters, etc. are my cup of tea...but this is more than I can handle. Grenouille ("frog legs") should have been left in the fish bucket. There were no events, characters, or places to enjoy or like or feel empathy toward. Yes, we got to know Grenouille well - too well - but no empathy or sympathy materialized for him. The perfume industry discriptions were interesting and I will certainly think twice before I apply one in the future.
So very unusual! Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is a boy with no scent! He is like the invisible man...noone notices him. He is also not very pleasant to look at. He manages to hone his skills as an excellent maker of perfumes in 18th century France. While he has no scent, he can detect scents like no other...adding the exact proportions of each flower, spice, bodily fluid. When he detects the most perfect scent in a young girl, he must kill her to capture her essence. The story proceeds to a town where he murders many young girls to create the perfect perfume. A noble tries to save his daughter from this fate. Will it happen? This was a wonderfully written book!Would make a great film... Well written and somewhat hypnotic reading.
It would make a great film if someone could just figure out how to portray the killer's sense of lust brought about by smell alone. And it's not just that... the killer collects smells, or at least the memory of them, cataloging them in his head in order to revive them at will and re-live the circumstances in which they came to his attention. Exactly... not an easy feat but no-doubt someone will do write/film it (and hopefully do it well).
My one complaint is the book's ending (which I won't spoil for you)... it had its roots in believability... BUT, it was very much overdone in my opinion. The author is trying to shock the reader with the revelation (which was good) but then elaborated too long on details that didn't ring true or made little sense (at least to me).
However, I would recommend this book as Suskind did a great job (originally translated from German?). If you're anything like me, this story won't creep you out along the lines of "Silence of the Lambs"... instead you'll be curiously watching some strange goings-on.
