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A weird concept: a man with no odor of his own who has the perfect nose and lives only for scent. Suskind does a good job with it, giving an idea of Grenouille's (that's his name) utterly alien world and interior life, and of how he grows up, develops in perfumery, and is driven to kill.
Yes, it's a psychological murder thriller I guess, though an oddball one. There's not really an ongoing murderous plot to built up tension; it's not that kind of a book. The narration goes intimately inside Grenouille's head, but is distanced and ironic enough that I didn't feel soiled.
This was apparently a bestseller when it came out, in the mid-80s. It's got plenty of sumptuous detail about perfumery and about pre-revolutionary France, and it moves quickly. I would quibble that Grenouille never really comes to life, always seems more like a construct than a person, but I can grant the author a pass on that. And the book is fun.
Yes, it's a psychological murder thriller I guess, though an oddball one. There's not really an ongoing murderous plot to built up tension; it's not that kind of a book. The narration goes intimately inside Grenouille's head, but is distanced and ironic enough that I didn't feel soiled.
This was apparently a bestseller when it came out, in the mid-80s. It's got plenty of sumptuous detail about perfumery and about pre-revolutionary France, and it moves quickly. I would quibble that Grenouille never really comes to life, always seems more like a construct than a person, but I can grant the author a pass on that. And the book is fun.
