books 2007: Perfume, by Patrick Süskind

[supercheesegirl]

Wow, a seriously creepy novel. They made a movie based on this book, which I thought looked really interesting, but I never saw it, so I was excited to find the book at the library (because we all know the book is better than the movie).

Jean-Baptiste is born in the 1740s in Paris in a stinky slum--although he has no personal human scent, he has an extremely sensitive nose that allows him to pick out the best and finest scents. He becomes an apprentice to a perfumer, and is always on the lookout for new and beautiful smells to distill and recreate--and then he catches the scent of a young girl, and he has to find her, and find a way to capture her ultimate perfume.

Comments

[sleepyworm.livejournal.com]

The Nirvana song "Scentless Apprentice" from In Utero was about that book. I heard it was really good...Kurt raved about it.

[sophie0.livejournal.com]

I love that book. The movie is quite good, actually, although in my opinion it doesn't work without the book (I think as a viewer you miss the point if you don't know the book) and the ending's a bit crap, but it's not a bad movie as such. But the book - every time I read it I'm blown away by how he manages to really make you smell those scents, or - maybe not smell, but those descriptions are amazing. I'm not a big fan or reader of German literature, but that one's one of my favourite books.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

I adore this book slavishly. I wish I could read it in German.