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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

Summary (courtesy of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ):
In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift: an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs.

But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin.

Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

Welcome, all, to one of the group reads for February!

The reading schedule is detailed in the post below.

As we go along I'll pick out some discussion questions to post, but feel free to add your own - the more discussion, the merrier!

Reading Schedule
Saturday Feb 1st - Friday Feb 7th: Chapters 1-12 (page 1-73)
Saturday Feb 8th - Friday Feb 14th: Chapters 13-28 (page 73-153)
Saturday Feb 15th - Friday Feb 21st: Chapters 28-40 (page 153-224)
Saturday Feb 22nd - Friday Feb 28th: Chapters 40-end (pages 224-296)

The page numbers listed above come from my edition of the book, which is the Penguin Red Classics version that looks like this:

Good description, Coffee! I just finished the first chapter and already it's pretty full on. What are everyone's thoughts on chapter one? What do you think of Grenouille's mother?

"In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His story will be told here."
What expectations do these opening lines give you about the rest of the book?

That passage brings to my mind The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was in many ways an exploration of the darkness of its period and personages. There wasn't a single character who wasn't crippled with character flaws. Yet, so rich and beautifully written.

I started this boook with the intention of reading each section each week for the month but have found myslf swept along with it and unable to put it down. Now let me clarify, it's not so much the story that has grabbed my attention, but the language with which it is written. I am a fantasy reader normally and find the plot is missing some of the "meat" I am used to. It seems to me that it could have been fleshed out a bit more. I feel almost nothing for Grenouille but look forward to his descriptions of every scent.
Of course, now that I've written that down I begin to wonder if this was the authors intention all along. Or maybe thats just me. Either way, I'll be finishing Perfume very quickly but I think I'll let the tale settle and breathe with me, like a good perfume, before I make any decisions on it.

Renee and Coffee, those are some good points to consider!
Carol,

Oops, bumped "done" before I was done and can't edit it on my phone!

Carol, it's good that you're finding it hard to put down! I'm trying to take it slowly to savour it, like a perfume, as you said, but it's a bit tricky to do! I'm loving the language too - everything is written in such a poetic, imaginative sort of way that tends to envelope you in the story.

Some more thoughts regarding chapters two and three:
What did you guys think of the reaction of the wet nurse, and then Father Terrier?
I thought it was telling that Terrier was so unconvinced about the wet nurse's concerns until Grenouille opened his nose, so to speak. If he makes such a strong impact as an infant, it makes you wonder what it will be like as he grows.

Jess wrote: "Oops, bumped "done" before I was done and can't edit it on my phone!

Carol, it's good that you're finding it hard to put down! I'm trying to take it slowly to savour it, like a perfume, as you sai..."
I thought that the wet nurse's reaction was overly harsh. Here was a child that was different to the other children she was used to caring for and that difference made him evil. But I'm looking at it from a modern perspective. Her reaction was probably perfectly normal for the time. That said I was pleased when Terrier came to Grenouille's defense.

Carol, that's an interesting point you mention, that we're viewing it from a modern perspective. So much of this life is alien to us, but we must then allow a little more of the alien in as Grenouille himself is considered abnormal.

From chapter eight:
"She did not attempt to cry out, did not budge, did not make the least motion to defend herself. He, in turn, did not look at her, did not see the delicate, freckled face, her red lips, her large sparkling green eyes, keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her, for he had only one concern - not to lose the least trace of her scent."
Does this scene encapsulate Grenouille's sense of morality? Do you think there is any significance to the fact that he closed his eyes as he killed her?

"A murder had been the start of this splendour - if he was at all aware of the fact, it was a matter of total indifference to him." This quote comes from the end of chapter eight. How do you feel this expresses the murder?

"It was clear to him now why he had clung to life so tenaciously, so savagely. He must become a creator of scents. And not just an average one. But, rather, the greatest perfumer of all time."

Did it surprise you that it took until now, in addition to a murder, for Grenouille, who has always been fascinated by collecting new scents, to come to this realisation?

Coffee, that's the kind of feeling I gathered from that too.

As we approach the half-way mark, what is everyone's thoughts so far? Has the book been slow, fast? Descriptive? Engrossing? Boring?

I have to say that I'm enjoying it!

Jess wrote: "Coffee, that's the kind of feeling I gathered from that too.

As we approach the half-way mark, what is everyone's thoughts so far? Has the book been slow, fast? Descriptive? Engrossing? Boring?

..."

(I've already finished reading, so I feel a bit of a cheat writing this!)

As I was halfway I constantly found myself describing it to my friends as "boring, but not boring...you know?" None of them did.
It's very descriptive, which I love, and the language is quite florid. However, this also means that the story is quite slow, and though things happen, nothing happens...argh I can't quite explain it!
Basically if anyone asked what was happening I couldn't really say 'He's doing this' but rather 'well this happens, so now this is happening'...
Please say someone else understands where I'm coming from?

I've finished the book. I'm not going to lie I found it kind of boring. The descriptive language was beautiful especially when describing smells but I just couldn't get into it. I didn't feel for any of the characters.

I get what you guys are saying - halfway through the book you kind of think, "what has happened that has filled half already?" I'm going to reserve my judgement until I do get to the end but in the meantime - yeah, it does seem like lots of words happen but less things than you can really attribute to that many words.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed it, Jools! I'm finding it difficult not to read too far ahead - I find that when I first pick it up for the day it's kind of just with average interest but then it really tries to suck you in!

What did you guys think of the sudden change of Grenouille's plans for his life? In the cave he was happy to never smell another human again, but a few chapters later he is determined to make a scent so great that all humans who smell him will love him.

Agreed, Grenouille is definitely not your average fellow :p

I thought the Marquis was interesting in an eccentric sort of way - I thought it was interesting that he did things like use makeup and tell Grenouille what to say in order to create the most extravagant difference between "caveman" Grenouille and "cured" Grenouille. It was like he kind of knew that his fluid ideas were not as correct as he'd like (or at all), but had committed too much to them that he needed it to succeed if he ever wanted academic recognition.

I didn't know this was his first published novel - I'd say he's done well for it! I even saw a few copies of it for sale in the post office this morning.

Has anyone watched the movie? Did you think it did justice to the book?

Now that we're all at the end, what did you guys think of the ending? Do you think it fitted with the rest of the story? Did you see it coming?

And what are your thoughts of the book overall, now that you can sit back and kind of review it all in your head? What were your favourite parts? What parts didn't you like so much?