Perfume by Patrick Suskind Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Perfume
Book Review: A good read, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
While I was still on the first few chapters, I did something I rarely do: I decided to rate it before finishing it. Premature of me, yes, but the book was so gripping up until that point that I couldn't praise it enough.
However, the middle part of the book (that's "part 2," I believe) drags on a little more than necessary. And, although I understand the author's need to get into all the minute details in order to give a very precise picture of the workings of the mind of the murderer, a slightly more concise approach would have worked better. Still, you have to give points for the sheer eloquence of the tone and that alone makes the long-drawn chapters seem worth it.
Another thing that didn't appeal to me much was how the climax scenes were so far-fetched, that even for fiction, it all seemed a tad incredulous.
Would I recommend this book then? Definitely. The eloquence of speech, the sinister idea, the careful unfolding of the plot all make it a good read. But be prepared for the book to hit a slump in the middle, then pick up speed again only to have an aporetic climax and ending.
Book Review: A gripping story of a murderer created by the society...
Summary: 4 Stars
Suskind's Perfume description of the murderer is gripping and very effective. On the other hand, he was able to capture the story behind the murderer's life. How he become atrociously crazy of creating the best perfume ever because of his lack of body odor or scent. Like some of the famous literary murderers such as the creature from the Frankenstein novel and movies, there were some sorts of personal vindication why they became murderers. They were created whether directly or indirectly--murderers are not born as they are. Suskind's novel Perfume captured the role played by the society in creating, developing, and rearing a human being. Society has a responsibility as a community to co-exist civilly and productively, to care and live harmoniously with one another.
Suskind's novel Perfume gave me as a reader, a lesson in humanity. No man is an island. Humans do not thrive when isolated.
Book Review: A perverse journey through eighteenth century France
Summary: 5 Stars
"Perfume" almost instantaneously joined the indefinable constellation of books that includes "Geek Love", "A Confederacy of Dunces" and other works which inspire a proprietary loyalty and an instant kinship between their readers. It might be described as a book about 18th century Paris - if "The Wizard of Oz" can be described as a book about Kansas and witches. It certainly unobtrusively incorporates a great deal of research about that time and place (enough that it is surprising when the author gets a key fact wrong, like having a commoner beheaded), but what makes the book truly inspired is to have extracted one key sensory element from the wealth of facts about the time (the ubiquity of strong odors) and to work that up - almost like a ghost arising from smoke, then taking solid form - into a central obsession that increasingly, relentlessly drives the protagonist, and with him the reader, forward. Any pretext of reality quickly gives way to acceptance of what is, in effect, a super-power: a heightened sense of smell. This in turn endows the protagonist with the kind of overarching concern that, in a more down-to-earth tale, might be associated with an autistic idiot savant. Though he goes through something vaguely equivalent to a crisis of faith, in fact his consciousness is a step away from that of a shark or a spider, a single-minded predatory drive that is almost, if not quite, the same as a primitive need to survive. There is a great deal of (very dark) humor here, but it is in the narrative voice, or, more precisely, in the narration itself, which takes sudden turns touched with irony and a macabre sense of justice. The protagonist himself is almost without personality, except for his obsession. The latter leads him to a series of thoroughly impersonal murders and through changes in locale which delight and divert the reader even as they leave him untouched - this in, to some degree, a travelogue through eighteenth century France. En route, too, he meets various characters we are able to care about in a human way, even if we find ourselves, somewhat perversely, ultimately more interested in the less than human cipher leading us on. The novel does not so much have a plot as a progress and its conclusion is more a surrender than any earned resolution of escalated events. And yet the latter satisfies, just as the novel itself entertains and stimulates en route, and seduces us into caring about someone who himself does not care for another living human being.Book Review: A unique book
Summary: 5 Stars
This unique book is about a mythical sociopath, whose only redeeming asset--a wondrous discerning sense of smell--is turned, by his depraved nature, into a horrid utility for his single ambition. How could a book about a psychopath be so captivating? How could a book so totally about a single sense, that of smell, be so enthralling? How can the author's descriptions of smells be so engrossing, or indeed the seemingly narrow topic be explored in so many directions, and yet never be repetitious or even slightly boring? How could this author so engage us with such an ethereal matter as smell, so lacking in rich human vocabulary? To answer only the latter question: clearly the author evokes olfactory scenes subtly and cleverly drawing from the palette of the reader's experience.
I read the book in the original German (my native tongue,) and twice again in English. The translation is perfect--unpretentious, and losing none of the literate simplicity and elegant directness. This book always jumps first to my mind when asked for a reading recommendation.
Book Review: Amazing, detailed, creepy story
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed this book. The villain is one of the creepiest I've ever read. The historical and setting details seem well-researched an add to the book. A very interesting unusual idea!