Please- no spoilers.Who has read Perfume by Patrick Suskind?
It鈥檚 not any book that can claim to have inspired a Nirvana song and been selected by Rachel Stevens (formerly of S Club 7 fame) as her favourite book in some Guardian questionnaire I鈥檓 pretty sure I didn鈥檛 dream up. Strange pedigree, and that and the one-word title (they鈥檙e great) with the little sub-title made me want to read it.
Set in 18th Century Paris, by the second paragraph we鈥檙e already immersed in odours. Pretty soon, we know this isn鈥檛 a rose-tinted Catherine Cookson history, in Suskind鈥檚 past 鈥?br>
Into this riot of foul smells Grenouille is born, to a heartless mother who is soon put to death for the murder of Grenouille鈥檚 infant siblings 鈥?nothing like getting a good start in life. So the young Grenouille is packed off to a loveless orphanage, so far, so Dickens, only it鈥檚 already been noticed that the child is different.
鈥業 can only say one thing: this baby makes my flesh creep because it doesn鈥檛 smell the way children ought to smell.鈥?br>
As we follow his growth in a cruel, heartless world, we learn that Grenouille, although possessing no scent of his own, has a magnified, complex, dog-like sense of smell. We follow the 鈥榯ick鈥?(as Suskind refers to him) as he slinks his way through life, ostracized by others, abused, with no morality of his own, nothing governing him except self-interest. He鈥檚 almost a Gollum character, small and hunched, contracting Anthrax but surviving with the horrific scars 鈥?his first boss only seeing this as a benefit, since he can鈥檛 contract the disease a second time.
Grenouille remains enchanted by the smells of the city, and, one day, smelling the most beautiful scent, he鈥檚 led to a murder which is almost an afterthought. Soon his attention turns to ways of capturing intricate scents, each capable of altering perceptions, of changing human behaviours.
What follows is like a twisted Dickens. We have Grenouille becoming a perfumier, showing off his skills to an old fraud in a scene that could come from a hundred movies. And as the book goes on smell assumes such an importance that it becomes close to the building bricks of human interaction. Charm, innocence, courage, godliness 鈥?all of them just scents, all of them within the expert Grenouille鈥檚 reach.
We鈥檙e led through grisly mrder and the odd satirical scene to a grand ending, with all the trimmings, with cruelty, gore, and everything you want in gothic novels like this.
Before the ending kicks in we get a little interlude, as Grenouille rejects humanity and lives in solitude for seven years. This section is what inspired the often-misanthropic Kurt Cobain, whose 鈥楽centless Apprentice鈥?takes its name and much of its lyrics from Suskind鈥檚 novel.
There was hardly a corner of Paris that was not paralysed with people, not a stone, not a patch of earth that did no reek of humans.
It鈥檚 this section that hints at a greater meaning. Grenouille, a man apart from other humans, lacking a scent/identity of his own, jealous of watching the world behind a screen, resolves to conquer his enemies. He sets out, through scent, to enslave the whole human race, to become a God, a vengeful one.
Little ugly guy, dealt bad hand in cruel world, growing up, by the skin of his teeth, to be amoral and full of hate, taking it out on innocents. If you look at it that way, it isn鈥檛 too far removed from a lot of modern, and true, stories.Who has read Perfume by Patrick Suskind?
It is very interesting and funny at parts. I usually read classic books but I liked this also very much. A very novel idea and very well executed.
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