4 Stars for The Story of Murder by Patrick Suskind

Perfume: The Story of Murder by Patrick Suskind

Summary:

Patrick Suskind’s classic novel is a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s smell becomes a passion so intense it leads him to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with a gift, an unusual keen sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to unravel the odors of Paris giving them a source. He later apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him to create the “ultimate perfume” It is the scent of a beautiful young virgin. In this obsession, Grenouille becomes a serial killer leading to the one girl who possesses the scent he wants to bottle. Perfume is a passionate, powerful tale of murder.

Review:

In Perfume, Patrick Suskind creates an original, unforgettable story about murder placing the reader in the precarious position of sympathizing with the killer, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. It is the same sympathy Vladimir Nabokov seems to want the reader to feel in his story, Lolita. A story about Humbert, a man who obsesses over a girl much too young for him. For myself, sympathy is a feeling of pity for another human being, with sympathy being measured on a scale of 1-10, ten being the highest level of sympathy.

Grenouille and Humbert get about a three from me, but it is enough to make me read their stories, and root for an outcome of ethical resolution. Humbert is not allowed to possess young Lolita, and Grenouille is not allowed to kill another human being specifically young virgins.

Grenouille is a fascinating character one could easily describe as moldy cheese delightful with green fuzz cut off his edges. With Grenouille, his specific genius and planning to create specific scents took on a magical quality that often changed the ugly person he felt he was born into; the moldy cheese. He could wear a scent that made him invisible, or loved. The intrigue of this kept the reader on the edge of each of his break throughs understanding and sympathizing with him at each turn he took, hoping for a compromising resolution.  

The plot twist leading to the climatic ending kept me guessing and hoping for Grenouille, and yet rooting against his deepest desire. Everything leading to this point in the book, the climax – worked; however, the ending strayed away from the believability set up in the initial exposition of the story. The ending is like the wind, who woos. It is inconstant personifying that which the reader has barely come to accept like how Grenouille can create his own scent.

The ending is a bit like a party after a self-discovery journey that should have led to the quiet tranquility of the outdoors. It simply did not work for me. But even though the ending did not work for me, the rest of the book did. It is a terrific twist on a murder which utilizes scent. The descriptive, setting, and characterization flavored this original tale placing the reader in each vivid scene. A must read, but be forewarned, it is not for the light of heart, but it is also not horribly creepy. It should be noted, I’ve never finished Lolita, too ethical, too sympathetic, too easily creeped out.