Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Patrick Süskind
Lest you think I swallowed two books in a day, I should elaborate and explain that I have been reading this book since the end of Spring Break, only now finding time adequate to finish. The school year is so limiting to personal reading, but this book proved particularly apt for the touch-and-go reading I was forced to impose on it. The concept is startlingly fresh and unique: Perfume is the story of a man born with an uncanny sense of smell and his degeneration into a madman. The subtitle is somewhat misleading but makes more sense upon reflection, but it is only at the end of the book that the murderous nature of Grenouille (the perpetator) is truly revealed.
The prose itself is magnificent. Süskind uses the olfactory sense as a playground to reveal the mysteries of scent that we often take for granted. Though the book suffers from overuse of the adjective "cheesy" to describe the scent of the Parisian masses (overuse somewhat mitigated by the fact that Süskind is German and is, of course, referring to the notoriously-ill-smelling French), the descriptions of scents are remarkably spot-on, causing the reader to pause and consider the world in a different way. Descriptions of scents appear time and again and present the accuracy of an author who has given careful thought to his choice of words.
While the vocabulary of the book and its metaphors are incredibly well-done, the book starts to fall apart as the plot meanders and gets confused in the midst of brilliant descriptive power. The examinations of Grenouille's soul, told through a limited third-person point of view, are intriguing and give the reader a fleshed-out idea of the madman that doesn't quite come across through his actions alone. Perhaps it was my disjointed reading that created this gap between action and thought, but it took me quite a while to fully grasp Grenouille. An interesting character he is indeed, but he could use a little more fleshing out, especially considering the slips of narrative voice. Were the narrative voice consistently tied to Grenouille, thought would be much more important than action. The narrator, however, uncomfortably and arbitrarily switches between the view of Grenouille and those he comes into contact with. These diversions jar the reader out of the fictional world and induce some slight discomfort with the text.
The story of Perfume is a good one and one worth telling with the wonderful prose that is afforded it in the book. The story, however, strays beyond the mere power of its words and becomes muddy in the middle, to solidify in time to redeem the ending but leaving a bit more to be desired. Süskind opens the door to a new world of sensation through the power of the nose, but doesn't quite walk through to glory. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with this book and would recommend it to someone looking for something a little different. There is great insight and wisdom between the (sometimes) blurred plot lines.
Grade: B
Patrick Süskind
Lest you think I swallowed two books in a day, I should elaborate and explain that I have been reading this book since the end of Spring Break, only now finding time adequate to finish. The school year is so limiting to personal reading, but this book proved particularly apt for the touch-and-go reading I was forced to impose on it. The concept is startlingly fresh and unique: Perfume is the story of a man born with an uncanny sense of smell and his degeneration into a madman. The subtitle is somewhat misleading but makes more sense upon reflection, but it is only at the end of the book that the murderous nature of Grenouille (the perpetator) is truly revealed.
The prose itself is magnificent. Süskind uses the olfactory sense as a playground to reveal the mysteries of scent that we often take for granted. Though the book suffers from overuse of the adjective "cheesy" to describe the scent of the Parisian masses (overuse somewhat mitigated by the fact that Süskind is German and is, of course, referring to the notoriously-ill-smelling French), the descriptions of scents are remarkably spot-on, causing the reader to pause and consider the world in a different way. Descriptions of scents appear time and again and present the accuracy of an author who has given careful thought to his choice of words.
While the vocabulary of the book and its metaphors are incredibly well-done, the book starts to fall apart as the plot meanders and gets confused in the midst of brilliant descriptive power. The examinations of Grenouille's soul, told through a limited third-person point of view, are intriguing and give the reader a fleshed-out idea of the madman that doesn't quite come across through his actions alone. Perhaps it was my disjointed reading that created this gap between action and thought, but it took me quite a while to fully grasp Grenouille. An interesting character he is indeed, but he could use a little more fleshing out, especially considering the slips of narrative voice. Were the narrative voice consistently tied to Grenouille, thought would be much more important than action. The narrator, however, uncomfortably and arbitrarily switches between the view of Grenouille and those he comes into contact with. These diversions jar the reader out of the fictional world and induce some slight discomfort with the text.
The story of Perfume is a good one and one worth telling with the wonderful prose that is afforded it in the book. The story, however, strays beyond the mere power of its words and becomes muddy in the middle, to solidify in time to redeem the ending but leaving a bit more to be desired. Süskind opens the door to a new world of sensation through the power of the nose, but doesn't quite walk through to glory. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with this book and would recommend it to someone looking for something a little different. There is great insight and wisdom between the (sometimes) blurred plot lines.
Grade: B
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