Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a literary historical fantasy novel written by the German writer Patrick Süskind. It is a genius and compelling book to be read by all. The novel is written figuratively and the story development is very engaging. The novel is full of sensory language. The synonym words like perfume, odour, scent, stench, stink are frequently used in this book. Even though reading required the eyes and the brain to comprehend the story, my nose would sniff in every part of the story told by Patrick Suskind in this book. The elements used by Suskind attracted me to read and study more about this story.

The story is about Jean-Bapstiste Grenouille who was left by his mother at birth and being rejected from society because he has no scent and was seen as an abnormal person. He often being magically survived in many difficult situations. After committing his first murder, he finally found the meaning of his life. He wanted to have a higher destiny and nothing less than to reform the odoriferous world. He became a serial killer and insanely killing only the virgins. He then became a master perfumer with his extraordinary sense of smell. He has the invincible power to command the love of mankind. He wanted to be loved and worshipped by humans. The only thing that the power could not do is it could not make him smell himself because he had no scent. He gave up his life for not knowing about himself and finally died at his birthplace.

Human naturally born with a uniquely particular smell and the scent is recognized by any living creatures at a subconscious level. Even though Grenouille was gifted with his magical sense of smell, he was born without a scent. By not giving Grenouille a human scent, Suskind takes away his "humanity" forcing Grenouille to search for it in the scent of others and lead him to his first murder.

The scent from the red-haired girl that he had murdered, made him think that he is genius. He discovered his happiness. He finally knew the meaning of the goal and purpose of his life. He wanted to be a creator of scents. His wanted to preserve the scent of a human.

What I like about this book is, it is so powerful that Suskind made it as an allegory of the revival of a cruel dictator. He delicately created Grenouille as the main character who wants the world to admire him, desire him and idolize him in every forceful way. The crimes became the symbol of revenge on life and cruelty. The master perfume became the powerful key to subdue the rest of humankind. The rest of the supporting characters helped to enliven Grenouille in his mission wanting to be the most powerful superhuman in this world.

Suskind built his novel around the sense of smell because it is the closest way to rule the heart. He explained in detail the delicate process of transmitting scent straight to the heart.

"For scents was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who could not defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men."

This is the most powerful excerpt from the book in chapter 32. Suskind stated clearly the reason why he built his novel around the sense of smell instead of one of the other senses. By process, a human had no choice but to breath the air. He even mentioned about the relation of scents and breath. Nothing can stop him unless the human stop breathing.

Another interesting fact is, in French, "Grenouille" means frog. Frog is one of a powerful animal. I found that Suskind had created the metamorphosis of Grenouille. He made Grenouille carry his responsibility through courage and self-sacrifice. He made Grenouille grows physically, mentally and spiritually. He picked frog as a symbol of the transition of life gaining and losing thing to find the meaningful mission of life. These are all relatable to the storyline. I could never think that a frog is a powerful animal until I get to know Grenouille.

My rating : 5/5