I watched the film adaptation of this novel many years ago, well before I knew that it was taken from a book. I actually only very recently found out that Perfume was a novel when I saw it during one of my book store wanderings. Even though I’ve only seen the movie once I remember it well because the story was so interesting, and the fact that Alan Rickman was in it was also a contributing factor. I was hoping that my experience reading the book would leave me just as stricken as I felt after watching the movie. Hope can only go so far, as I wouldn’t say that the book had as much of an impact on me as the film did. But I will say that the actors, writers, and director, did a great job at sticking pretty closely to the story. And as for reading the story, it made me want to watch the movie again.
The tale is about a man who is born with an incredible sense of smell. He can smell things that no other human, and perhaps even animals with the most sensitive olfactories, can detect. He truly lives to smell, nothing else in life brings him joy but the pursuit of new scents. For many years during his youth, he walks blindly through the streets of Paris, using his sense of smell to guide the way, as he tries to discover every smell that exists. As he enters adulthood, he leaves Paris, entering a very strange period of his life during which he makes an incredible revelation. I was honestly surprised that it took him as long as it did to have this realization. Having made this startling discovery, his life’s purpose goes from sniffing out scents to learning how to make them.
I would recommend both the book and the movie to anyone who loves bizarre stories. I can see why the author is a bestseller, especially if his other books are just as good.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 