A review by brisingr
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Süskind
4.0
A solid 4.5 out of 5 stars, the only downside is that I saw the movie before I read the book, and so some of the enjoyment wore off. But!! It's still!! Such a good book!!
Grenouille has the best nose in the whole Paris, maybe in the whole world, opening up to him a world full of skills and opportunities, even if a hard and unrewarding path. He only lives, fighting for his right of being part of this world, but finding out the absolute smell makes him want to create the absolute perfume.
Ok, I just love the idea of this book. It's amazing and wonderful and haunting, especially when coupled with such a complex and intriguing character as Grenouille. I love it because the author isn't cenzuring any of the misery and grossness of the time, and he does invoke everything through words in such a way, that you can smell everything. It's somewhat close to the religious experience of feeling every smell as well as Grenouille, the description are very vivid and everything is just a harsh row of misery and hate and survival, coming to life through carefully worded phrases. It's just that Patrick Suskind manages to make you feel exactly like Grenouille, he shows you a world not through images, but through their perfume.
There are also quite big paragraphs of this book that are fixed on perfume making, but it was interesting and totally fascinating to follow along the makings of palpable smells, alongside our main character.
I adore Grenouille. I love him so much (when I really, clearly, shouldn't) but he's such an interesting character! He is a genius! (which means I don't try to excuse anything, but I can appreciate the amazingness he is as a character) His determination is what keeps him going, he is very aware of himself and of his skills and doesn't betray his self in any situaton; he's just truly himself (even if a monster self, ugly and unnoticed) and he just wants a place in a world who barely notices him, and clearly doesn't love him. He is the God of his world, and if so, that means he can become the God of the real world as well and everything, everything is just his road as wants to prove himself. His way of thinking is incredible and there are parts of these books that blowed my mind, that made my heart clench in my chest because of how painful or honestly raw they are. I adore Grenouille because he doesn't hide anything, he is what he is and he is not afraid to show it.
I like that this story, even if techinally about a genius (our Grenouille) is also about how a genius affect the lives of other people and how the world affects a genius. I adored the small stories about rightness and badness, about things not going as planned, about the filth of humans, the small characters who are just living as best as they can, with huge mistakes and rare remorses. I loved Grenouille's inner-monologues and fears. What do you do when what you want ends up never coming true? What happens when what you want isn't anything like how you imagined it? How can you cope with loss, when you expected richness? And there are so many more universal stories in this book and I just loved them more because while fun, they're also scary and real and hard.
As you can see, I love love this book a lot!! I actually didn't expect to enjoy it so much because I was already around page 70-80 and I didn't think much of it, and yet it took my breath (even when I knew what was happening!) and hold me as an interested and obsessed reader for the rest of the pages. It's just such a well-crafted story!
I really, really regret watching the movie first! While I adored both book and movie, knowing how the story unfolds is just a shame if you plan to read the book! (at the moment I watched the movie though I was really young and did not know about the existence of a book) So please, please do yourself the favor of reading the book first, especially because it's rather short and rather extraordinary!
I am still overwhelmed by everything, this is a review written as I just finished the book, so if there's more to add, I'll edit later. PS: Read it!
PPS: I will study this book in my literature class and I can't wait to discuss it with everyone!!
Grenouille has the best nose in the whole Paris, maybe in the whole world, opening up to him a world full of skills and opportunities, even if a hard and unrewarding path. He only lives, fighting for his right of being part of this world, but finding out the absolute smell makes him want to create the absolute perfume.
Ok, I just love the idea of this book. It's amazing and wonderful and haunting, especially when coupled with such a complex and intriguing character as Grenouille. I love it because the author isn't cenzuring any of the misery and grossness of the time, and he does invoke everything through words in such a way, that you can smell everything. It's somewhat close to the religious experience of feeling every smell as well as Grenouille, the description are very vivid and everything is just a harsh row of misery and hate and survival, coming to life through carefully worded phrases. It's just that Patrick Suskind manages to make you feel exactly like Grenouille, he shows you a world not through images, but through their perfume.
There are also quite big paragraphs of this book that are fixed on perfume making, but it was interesting and totally fascinating to follow along the makings of palpable smells, alongside our main character.
I adore Grenouille. I love him so much (when I really, clearly, shouldn't) but he's such an interesting character! He is a genius! (which means I don't try to excuse anything, but I can appreciate the amazingness he is as a character) His determination is what keeps him going, he is very aware of himself and of his skills and doesn't betray his self in any situaton; he's just truly himself (even if a monster self, ugly and unnoticed) and he just wants a place in a world who barely notices him, and clearly doesn't love him. He is the God of his world, and if so, that means he can become the God of the real world as well and everything, everything is just his road as wants to prove himself. His way of thinking is incredible and there are parts of these books that blowed my mind, that made my heart clench in my chest because of how painful or honestly raw they are. I adore Grenouille because he doesn't hide anything, he is what he is and he is not afraid to show it.
I like that this story, even if techinally about a genius (our Grenouille) is also about how a genius affect the lives of other people and how the world affects a genius. I adored the small stories about rightness and badness, about things not going as planned, about the filth of humans, the small characters who are just living as best as they can, with huge mistakes and rare remorses. I loved Grenouille's inner-monologues and fears. What do you do when what you want ends up never coming true? What happens when what you want isn't anything like how you imagined it? How can you cope with loss, when you expected richness? And there are so many more universal stories in this book and I just loved them more because while fun, they're also scary and real and hard.
As you can see, I love love this book a lot!! I actually didn't expect to enjoy it so much because I was already around page 70-80 and I didn't think much of it, and yet it took my breath (even when I knew what was happening!) and hold me as an interested and obsessed reader for the rest of the pages. It's just such a well-crafted story!
I really, really regret watching the movie first! While I adored both book and movie, knowing how the story unfolds is just a shame if you plan to read the book! (at the moment I watched the movie though I was really young and did not know about the existence of a book) So please, please do yourself the favor of reading the book first, especially because it's rather short and rather extraordinary!
I am still overwhelmed by everything, this is a review written as I just finished the book, so if there's more to add, I'll edit later. PS: Read it!
PPS: I will study this book in my literature class and I can't wait to discuss it with everyone!!