Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Review

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was written by Patrick Süskind and published in 1985. The story follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who is an unloved orphan in 18th-century France who is born with an exceptional sense of smell. So much so that he is able to distinguish a vast array of smells down to their individual nodes in the human world around him. Grenouille becomes an apprentice to a prominent perfumer who teaches him how to mix oils and herbs to make perfumes. Grenouille then becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of even the most mundane of objects like wood or even a door knob. Early in the story Grenouille catches the smell of a young virgin, which leads to him becoming involved in murder as he wants to encapsulate this smell into a perfume.

I have to start out my review by saying that I really enjoyed this book. Admittedly, I did start reading it then put it down for a good couple of weeks. But when I actually put aside time and committed to reading the book I was hooked. This book is very easy to read in the sense that it is fast paced, and definitely got me out of my reading slump.

One aspect of the book I found particularly interesting was that the descriptions of things were based off the sense of smell. Before Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, I had never read anything that was so heavily focused on the smell of things. Scents and perfumes are so visceral, and I think that this way of viewing the world via its smells is what brought the story to life and encapsulated me so much. The focus on scents both entranced me, and repulsed me at times, for example Süskind describes something as smelling go “anal sweat and menstrual blood” which made me a gag a bit, I won’t lie.

Grenouille’s character is a murderer, yes, but I think he was a genius. There are constant reminders throughout the entirety of the book that there is something intrinsically wrong with Grenouille, such that his mother abandoned him, his wet nurse rejected him and other children in the orphanage did not like him. He even committed murder several times in adulthood, but I was always on his side. Süskind has built an original, unique and interesting character in Grenouille, and even the book itself. It was so .. unpredictable, I found myself not knowing where the story would go next which I quite enjoyed. It kept me on my toes a little. Even my flatmate would ask me what had happened, and when I would tell her, she would be bewildered almost at the events.

Süskind’s writing style in the book was also interesting. He swaps between the first and the third person throughout the story, which almost makes it feel like the narrator is an external person who is telling the story as if they are recalling events of their past. The first person, however, places the reader into Grenouille’s mind which is both interesting and a little terrifying. Süskind also swaps which character is the voice of some chapters so that it is not always Grenouille, which creates a lot of the mystery and suspense later in the book.

If I absolutely had to pick something I didn’t like about this book, it would probably be the character of Druot because I thought he was a annoying. But that is a stretch. I would definitely read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer again, I feel like there are so many layers and details to this book that a second or third read will uncover things I missed the first time around. Although this book may not be everyone’s cup of tea per se, I would recommend it wholeheartedly, especially to readers who enjoy dark humour, gore and witty characters.

I gave Perfume: The Story of a Murderer 5/5 stars on Goodreads. You can find my Goodreads by following this link:

<https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/108649193-chloe-hulse>

- Chloe x