Perfume (Suskind)

Book Reviews 
One of the first attractions of Patrick Suskind's remarkable fable is simply to watch the pieces of the puzzle fit together.... It is a parable of the rise and fall of Hitler and a thinly disguised anatomy of Germany's collective guilt. It mocks by implication every sort of charismatic figure from the religious guru to the rock star.... And yet Mr. Suskind's tour de force never groans beneath the weight of its meaning. Its logic is so surprising yet inevitable that it toys with our expectations at every twist and turn of its plot. Its point of view is so balanced and controlled that we are perfectly divided in our sympathy between the murderer and his victims. Even when Mr. Suskind runs out of tricks and is forced to wind up his parable of evil, he remains resourceful. We are almost sorry to see Jean-Baptiste Grenouille leave the pages of Perfume, for we have come begrudgingly to admire the perversity of his genius.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - New York Times

An astonishing performance, a masterwork of artistic conception and execution. A totally gripping page-turner.
San Francisco Chronicle

An ingenious story...about a most exotic monster.... Suspense build up steadily.
Los Angeles Times

Upon its publication last year in Germany Suskind's first novel Perfume immediately became an international best seller. Set in 18th-century France, Perfume relates the fascinating and horrifying tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a person as gifted as he was abominable. Born without a smell of his own but endowed with an extraordinary sense of smell, Grenouille becomes obsessed with procuring the perfect scent that will make him fully human. With brilliant narrative skill Suskind exposes the dark underside of the society through which Grenouille moves and explores the disquieting inner universe of this singularly possessed man. The translation is superb. Essential for literature collections. —Ulrike S. Rettig, German Dept., Wellesley Coll., Wellesley, Mass.
Library Journal