Perfume: The Story of a MurdererPatrick Suskind
I hate it when a novel you've fully expected to adore utterly disappoints you.
Recently, litblogs abounded with discussion of Patrick Suskind's Perfume, and, based on the dozens of glowing reviews I'd read, I quickly added it to my TBR list. When I finally managed to read it months after initially learning of this "totally gripping page-turner" (so says one critic quoted on the cover of my edition), I was dismayed to find it, well ... pretty shitty.
Perfume is the story of a murderer, a monster gifted with an inhuman sense of smell but cursed with no scent of his own. The novel follows this character, named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, from childhood until his becomes (allow me to again quote the cover here) an evil genius, a murderer so depraved that only the most hideous of crimes could satisfy his lust...a killer who lives to possess the essence of young virgins...a vampire of scent, whose bloody, insane quest takes him...
I'm stopping here because I have too many issues with the above text to continue. Allow me to explain.
1. The murders themselves are barely even discussed. Are they bloody? Hideous? I wouldn't know. Grenouille hits his victims over the head and cuts off their hair; any other description is left to the reader's imagination.
2. These murders, by the way, don't even occur until the final quarter of the book. The previous pages are Grenouille's development -- an overly detailed and not-altogether-interesting one, by the way.
What the cover blurb does truthfully indicate, however, is the author's affinity for the ellipsis. At first I didn't mind the author's trailing off every once in awhile...but soon the overuse of this technique smacked of...how shall I say it?...lazy writing.
In fact, it wasn't long before I became entirely bored with Perfume, and it took me months to finish what should have been a fast read. Perhaps my discontent stems more from my own preconceptions about the novel than from the novel itself. Besides the tendency toward trailing off, Suskind's prose is sumptuous, bringing the oft-ignored olfactory sense to life. The plot itself is also intriguing (although, to be fair, some parts are way too drawn-out) -- but not when one is expecting more blood, violence, and overall hideousness. After all, I had anticipated Perfume being a "spooky read," and it fell quite short of the mark.
In a nutshell: Well written but powerfully disappointing.
Bibliolatry Scale: 2.5 out of 6 stars
Recently, litblogs abounded with discussion of Patrick Suskind's Perfume, and, based on the dozens of glowing reviews I'd read, I quickly added it to my TBR list. When I finally managed to read it months after initially learning of this "totally gripping page-turner" (so says one critic quoted on the cover of my edition), I was dismayed to find it, well ... pretty shitty.
Perfume is the story of a murderer, a monster gifted with an inhuman sense of smell but cursed with no scent of his own. The novel follows this character, named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, from childhood until his becomes (allow me to again quote the cover here) an evil genius, a murderer so depraved that only the most hideous of crimes could satisfy his lust...a killer who lives to possess the essence of young virgins...a vampire of scent, whose bloody, insane quest takes him...
I'm stopping here because I have too many issues with the above text to continue. Allow me to explain.
1. The murders themselves are barely even discussed. Are they bloody? Hideous? I wouldn't know. Grenouille hits his victims over the head and cuts off their hair; any other description is left to the reader's imagination.
2. These murders, by the way, don't even occur until the final quarter of the book. The previous pages are Grenouille's development -- an overly detailed and not-altogether-interesting one, by the way.
What the cover blurb does truthfully indicate, however, is the author's affinity for the ellipsis. At first I didn't mind the author's trailing off every once in awhile...but soon the overuse of this technique smacked of...how shall I say it?...lazy writing.In fact, it wasn't long before I became entirely bored with Perfume, and it took me months to finish what should have been a fast read. Perhaps my discontent stems more from my own preconceptions about the novel than from the novel itself. Besides the tendency toward trailing off, Suskind's prose is sumptuous, bringing the oft-ignored olfactory sense to life. The plot itself is also intriguing (although, to be fair, some parts are way too drawn-out) -- but not when one is expecting more blood, violence, and overall hideousness. After all, I had anticipated Perfume being a "spooky read," and it fell quite short of the mark.
In a nutshell: Well written but powerfully disappointing.
Bibliolatry Scale: 2.5 out of 6 stars
4 comments:
I have never heard of this book. And it is probably something that I would never had wanted to read if I had found it on my own. But I did enjoy your review.
I guess I liked it more than you. But I agree that it falls short of the mark and that the author does tend to go on and on.
Ugh, not good news! I've had this one on my TBR list for quite some time and have/had a lot of the same expectations as you. Sorry to hear it didn't work out that way.
Am so sorry you didn't enjoy Suskind. I thoroughly enjoyed the cold-blooded insensitivity of Grenouille. Yet there was an underlying passion there, for the scents and perfumes he dreamed of creating.
What dragged for me was the part where he lived in the cave - too long, too detailed. The END - was incredible! I never thought it could be successfully translated into film. And it was!
Yes, there is movie version released 2 years? ago which starred Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. It followed the book quite faithfully, including that bizarre ending. I think you may enjoy the film more than the book. :-)
Thanks for popping by.
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