The Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
http://phistars.blogspot.com/2012/01/perfume-story-of-murderer-by-patrick.html
The Perfume by Patrick Suskind
"The Perfume" is one of the few contemporary books that I actually like. Basically, this book Chronicles the life and death of the serial killer Grenouille. From his humble birth at the disgusting fish market, Grenoille rose to become the most notorious perfume maker. His secret ingredient being the essence of virgin women.
His first victim was slain out of pure inertia. He simply wanted to smell her, but her movements bothered him. To fix that problem, he chocked her to death. He took her essence into his memory and left. Later, when he discovered that he had no scent of his own, he set out to make himself the perfect perfume. He discovered that mankind lived by scent.
He had been an outcast because he lacked scent. He hoped that with a perfect perfume he would be accepted into society.
This is the gist of the novel. In the version that I read, it omitted the second title of the story. I only figured out he was a serial killer in the second half of the book. Frankly, I like the his early days best. This book showed a dark and cruel side of Paris.
When Grenouille lacked scent, he was treated as subhuman. People naturally felt uncomfortable near him. Plus, he was always smelly the air around him. Combine with his nondescript features he really did not seem human. Plus, his eyes were white.
However, as soon as he started smelling human he was even accepted into the high strata of society. In essence, it all boils down to how you smell. It makes sense considering that the poor usually carry with them the scent of hair manual labor. As for the rich, they can adorn their forms with rich perfumes.
This book is built around the sense of smell. There are a lot of detail that appeal to our sense of smell. The style is fluid and easy to understand. In addition, it carries a dark, sarcastic, cruel sense of humor. So if you are tired of reading smelly books, then this one is the one for you to read. Plus, it teaches you how to make perfume. In any case, this lovely good smelling book deserves 5 star rating.
...I think they made a movie out of this book.
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