Perfume – Patrick Süskind

While I was studying my undergrad, I worked in a perfume shop for a few years (and I’ve still got the collection of discontinued fragrances and tester bottles to prove it). I’d get asked, on average, once a week whether I’d ever read Perfume by Patrick Süskind. I’d always say “no, not yet, but I’ll read it soon!”. It’s well over a decade later, but I’m finally making good on that promise.

And I’d like to go back and ask everyone who ever recommended this book to a young girl who works in a perfume shop: what the hell??? Because it is a WEIRD one.

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (or Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders in Süskind’s original German) is a 1985 literary historical novel that has since been translated into 49 languages and sold over 20 million copies – making one of the best-selling German novels of the 20th century. My copy is translated into English by John E. Woods.

Süskind was perhaps inspired by the real-life serial killer Manuel Blanco Romasanta, the “Tallow Man” of the 19th century, who extracted the body fat of his victims to make soap (cool, cool). The name of the protagonist – Jean-Baptiste Grenouille – also bears a strong resemblance to that of French perfumer Paul Grenouille (later Grenoville), who ran a luxury perfume house around that same time. So, that should give you a pretty good idea of Perfume‘s vibe.

Let’s meet the star of the show: Jean Baptiste-Grenouille is born (in a pretty gruesome and horrifying way, it must be said) with an extraordinary innate sense of smell. Despite growing up an unloved orphan in what might loosely be called the 18th century French “foster system”, this preternatural sense guides him to greatness (in a sense). From a tanner’s apprenticeship to studying under one of Paris’s great perfumers to a guest of honour in the houses of French noblemen… to killing virgins to trap their scent. Yeah, our “hero” Jean-Baptiste goes right off the rails.

Perfume is distinctly unsettling in the way that it sets up the story as the hardscrabble life of a gifted kid, worthy of any Dickensian novel, only to have him devolve into a particularly abhorrent villain. As readers, we’re very familiar with seeing these characters overcome their hard-knock circumstances to “make good” – Jean-Baptiste does not do that. It’s basically impossible to even summon enough sympathy to frame him as an anti-hero; the guy is an out-and-out monster. This sense of narrative betrayal, for lack of a better term, is amplified by the odd pacing of Perfume. Even though Jean-Baptiste is revealed to be a creep relatively early, he doesn’t start murdering virgins in earnest until the final act.

And, believe it or not, things get even weirder after that. Perfume has one of the strangest endings of any book I have ever read. (Hold your nose, spoilers are coming.) There’s an aborted execution, a mass orgy, a pilgrimage across France, and suicide by scent-induced cannibalism. Sorry, but there’s really no way to describe how truly odd and jarring it is.

So, like I said: what the hell?? Reading Perfume isn’t pleasant per se, even though the prose flows well and the descriptions are evocative. (And, it must be said, Woods does his best with the translation but he does struggle with the English language’s relatively paltry selection of synonyms for the word “smell”.) The characters are almost all completely repulsive, and yet oddly compelling. The story is stomach-churning, but intriguing. I really have no idea whether to recommend it or recommend steering clear.

P.S. There is a truly horrific dog murder on page 215 – and it comes on very suddenly, so be on guard.

My favourite Amazon reviews of Perfume:

• “It was just so far fetched and stupid.. I’d rather spend the time slopping fish guts in 1700’s France with his horrid, murderous, syphilitic mother than read this again.” – Shannon Curtis
• “Shoving an icepick in my ear would feel better than reading this book.” – Tom McCann
• “Boring. Don’t waste your money. It’s a book about how everything smells.” Adam W.
• “Way too much of a stretch, even for the French.” – High Cotton
• “This book was the worst book I ever read the author should be shot. He obviously took a hit of bad acid and never recovered” – Smart Blonde
• “We are supposed to believe that this character has a remarkable sense of smell. Yet when he kills people, he doesn’t smell their urine and feces when they void their bladders and bowels, which many victims would do, in real life. Hokum. Not believable.” – Roger Angle