"Perfume" is about an orphan boy, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born on the smelly fish market it 18th century Paris with no smell of his own, but the best nose in the world. He's able to smell everything and distinguish clearly between only slightly different odours but people can't smell him and thus stay away from him. Grenouille decides to create his own perfume, a scent that will make everybody love and adore him. To create that scent, he needs the odour of a virgin, and as he can only get that by killing, Grenouille becomes a mass murderer...

Some (well, a lot of) excitement. Bored is one thing you won't be while reading this book...

The presentation of the main character. He's not a nice person, but he seems real and alive, partly because the story is told mostly from his viewpoint.

The cruelty of Grenouille's horrible deeds. Nothing for the easily offended....

Disgusted and fascinated. Disgusted because the murders are horrible, and the end of the book (and of Grenouille) is not very nice, either. Fascinated because of Grenouille's special ability and the fact that he doesn't have a smell and because of the perfectionism with which he plans the creation of his scent.

Patrick Süskind is a German writer who is quite famous in his home country and had a huge international success with "Perfume". He is considered to be a must-read in German lessons in senior schools.

Because it it is fantastically written. The plot is very well developed, and so are the more important chracters, and the story is a very unique one. If you like crime stories and are looking for something different, then you know what to read next.

It's very graphic. There's a lot of violence and a few sexual scenes.

If you like the book, go and watch the movie. Release date is the 14th of Septemeber in Germany, I don't know about other countries. Dustin Hoffman's in it, Alan Rickman too, and a few very nice German actresses, so it might be well worth the money.

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Created Sep 01, 2006 at 4:57pm • Submit your own review...