Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Book Review

Hello

안녕하세요 

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは 

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

I've finally finished my first book in this years reading challenge and this one has taken me over a year to complete.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 1985 literary historical fantasy novel written by Patrick Suskind.

This novel was translated into 49 languages and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide to date, Perfume is one of the best-selling German novels of the 20th century. It remained in the bestseller lists for around 9 years, and received almost unanimously positive national and international critical acclaim.

The book was translated into English by John E. Woods and won both the world Fantasy Award and the PEN Translation Prize in 1987.

Possible inspirations for the book include the real-life story of Spanish serial killer Manuel Blanco Romasanta, who was also known as the "Tallow Man", who killed several women and children, he sold their clothes, and extracted their body fat to make soap, which resemble Grenouille's methods in some ways.

The book has seen many adaptations, whether it be film, television and music, for example, the song "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana, from their 1993 album "In Utero". Singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain described the novel as one of his favourite books, which he had re-read 10 times.

The novel itself explores the sense of smell and it's relationship with the emotional meanings that scents may have. The story follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an unloved orphan in 18th-century France who is born with an exceptional sense of smell, capable of distinguishing a vast range of scents in the world around him. Grenouille becomes a perfumer but later becomes involved in murder when he encounters a young girl with an unsurpassed wondrous scent.

"In eighteen-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages..."

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in a Parisian slum and abandoned on the streets, discovers he has an extraordinary - near superhuman - sense of smell. As he sniffs his way across France, this gift is exploited by Grenouille to make the world's most marvellous perfumes. Yet in seeking perfection in his experiments, he realises that a vital ingredient is missing for the perfect scent; innocence.

And in order to get the ingredient he needs, he must capture it - whatever the price.

My interest in this book began when it was said that K-pop group VIXX had took inspiration from the book for their song and music video 향 (Scentist), I was intrigued to find out what the book was about. Sadly it's taken me over a year to complete reading it but that's nothing to do with the book itself, I just never set any time away to actually sit and read. I obviously knew this book was a story about a murderer, but it actually didn't go the way as I was expecting, I thought it was really slow going, it wasn't towards the end of the book that we finally got to read about Grenouille the murderer. While I was left feeling uncomfortable reading descriptions of a young girls body, for the time the book was written would have been the norm as young girls were often married off quick, which I think helped me in thinking that the book wasn't disappointing, I also found it odd that I was also reading about a mass orgy that was happening towards the end, it seemed very surreal. One of the things that I really disliked about this book was that he was never punished for him crimes and his demise was by his own hands, all because he was fed up of living around humans.

I think one of the points of this book is that no-one is born evil, it's how they are raised, because others said he was evil because he didn't "smell" like a normal human beings, he grew up without love and hated everyone around him, which in turn made him think that he himself was evil and a monster. I think if he had just that one person that treated him like a son, and with love, his view on people and life would have been completely different.

I loved that the book was split into four parts, as I think it really helped to break up the story, as well as the different chapters in Grenouille's life.

I would happily sit and read this book again, and I would recommend it to others to read to see what their take on the book and character would be.

Have you read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer?

What were your thoughts on the book?

Let me know in the comments below.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye