Quick side note: I've had incredibly good luck with my choices so far (with one exception). I can't tell if I just love the act of reading so much that I love all books or if I've just somehow managed to select nothing but good books. Either way, I couldn't be happier!
Perfume centers on Grenouille, a Parisian born in a fish market in 1738 without any personal odor. Even when we don't wear perfume or deodorant, all humans have a natural smell. Not Grenouille. Instead, Grenouille has a sense of smell so refined that he can detect every little nuance of a sent. Grenouille is able to navigate the world with his eyes closed by relying on his nose alone.
As the title suggests, Grenouille becomes a murder of rather prolific and shocking proportions. There's something unbelievably eerie about Grenouille's murders.
By the time I finished Perfume, I was legitimately questioning all of my assumptions about scent and human nature. I know it's fiction but Suskind does such a phenomenal job of writing the story that by the end of the novel I had bought Grenouille's observations on the power of smell hook, line, and sinker. As I closed the book and curled up to sleep I couldn't help but wonder what if. What if scent really is that powerful? What would the implications of that be? What if we're really that gullible? When Grenouille stated that crook of the elbow is where humans smell the most like themselves, I stuck my nose in the crook of my elbow, not to test his theory but to figure out what I smelled like. I know it's silly but I was so convinced that Grenouille was right that I had to find out for myself. Since I was fresh out of the shower I smelled like lavender soap.
Overall I would highly recommend Perfume. In fact, if you're going to read one book off the list of books I've read so far I would go with Perfume over any of the others (except maybe Gone Girl). Yes, it's that good.
Image from here.
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