Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind translated by John E. Woods

 

Perfume was first published in 1986 and the Viking edition I read in 2001 so it’s been around for a while. 

To use 1984 Newspeak, it’s probably a doublepluscilantro book: love it or hate it. In parts Marmite if you're British. it is gross, distasteful, offensive, and horror. It also utterly fascinated me.

This is a historical crime novel set in the 1750s and ‘60s. It opens with a lyrical, even poetic description of the unbelievable stench that pervaded the cities at that time, specifically Paris, and the sources of the stench. My first reaction is that I’ll probably never look at a film set in this period in the same way again. Sure the actors and costumes are beautiful but imagine how they smelled back then.

Our protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, is born in a fish stall amid fish heads and guts and unaccountably survives the horrifying conditions of his early years. Orphans in a Dickens novel lived in luxury compared to Jean-Baptist.

Grenouille is notable for several reasons: first, as mentioned, he survives; second, he has a supernatural sense of smell and is able to catalog and instantly recall all the smells of the city; third, he has no scent of his own, something that makes people around him uneasy. His sense of smell is so acute that he can follow the faintest trace through the crowded city.

His obsession with scents leads him to the shop of a perfumer Giuseppe Baldini, whose glory days are behind him. Baldini sees a way to reclaim his status and employs Jean-Baptiste who quickly takes over the formulation of new scents. For his part, Jean-Baptiste is willing to put up with the trivial matter of concocting scents for the well-to-do as long as he can learn the techniques of the perfumer and pursue the ultimate scent.

After some years as an apprentice, Grenouille convinces Baldini to release him and he heads south to Grasse where they practice a technique to extract the essence of scents that Grenouille believes will enable him to achieve his goal.

Darker themes and horror have strong appeal for me and this well written story certainly satisfies that appeal.

Before I go, further let me bring up the aspect of the book that will most likely offend sensibilities: Grenouille finds that harvesting the essences of virginal young women is how he will develop the ultimate scent, one that would allow him to rule the world if he desired, and he becomes a serial killer. This is where I’d say the story slips into horror and horror has a tradition of exploiting women. As horror, I don’t think the story could have been constructed otherwise and as someone who enjoys well done horror, i.e not the splatter variety, I appreciate how the author carried it off.

Perfume is a translation from German and I think it’s beautifully done. I wouldn’t have known it wasn’t written in English. I'm not sure how to explain it but the words flow across the page even if they are disturbing words.

Süskind moves the plot along nicely and the scene setting, character development, and background information don’t bog down the flow of the narrative. For me, those elements enhance the story. Grenouille is shown as completely amoral and everything and everyone around him are but means for him to achieve his goals. He is not in the least sympathetic and his amoral nature is captured perfectly.

I was most fascinated by the author’s descriptions of the techniques for extracting essences and combining them to form an appealing scent. I don’t know how the techniques are applied today since they aren’t applicable to mass production but I was completely captivated by the process of recognizing, extracting, and layering of scents. This is probably my favorite part.

Perfume was made into a film and it is one of the best book-to-film adaptations I have seen. The screenwriters capture the essence (see what I did there) of the story including the rather amazing scenes at the end. I recommend reading the book first so you can see how expertly the words are translated to action.

After Annie Bot, I wanted a different sort of robot story so I pulled this out of my TBR file where it had been for several years.

Klara is a robot  female Artificial Friend marketed as companions for young people. We first meet in the store hoping to be chosen. She can only see part of the street and sky outside the store and spends her time studying what she sees. The robots are solar powered and, Klara personifies the sun as the nourisher, deity-like entity. She’s probably the only robot to have formed something like a religion. Klara is remarkably perceptive, observant, and curious about what she sees. She’s naive but is able to reason very well based on what she sees. Her conclusions often make the reader smile.

She and a sickly young girl, Josie, bond over several visits and Klara finally finds a home. Her loyalty and devotion to Josie’s well-being are without limits. When her young charge falls deathly ill, Klara makes a desperate plan, consistent within her logic, to save Josie.

Klara and the Sun is a fable of limitless, selfless devotion toward another. To grab a Bible quote out of context that applies here: Matthew 25:23 — Well done, good and faithful servant. Klara is the only likable, relatable and perhaps the most human character in the book. Frankly, humans don’t come out all that well. I doubt there is a reader who wouldn’t want a Klara in their lives.

Because this is a fable and we’re seeing the story through the eyes of a naive robot, the prose isn’t complex but it is very affecting. I loved every bit of the story and the way it is written.

I should warn you that it will rip your heart out, at least it did mine.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang

Bright Haven is a city with familiar technology powered by magical energy siphoned from the Otherrealm. It is protected from the Kwen, the outside, by an energy barrier. Outside, the Blight strikes, seemingly at random, and causes living things to messily and painfully come apart. Within the city, it is believed that the Blight is a sickness brought upon the Kwen inhabitants because of their degeneracy and refusal to accept the recognized religion.

Sciona Freynan is a female mage with the single minded goal of becoming a high mage and achieving power and glory. She passes the exam and earns the white robes as the first female high mage. Unfortunately, the ranks of the high mages is very much a misogynistic boy’s club. To humiliate her, Tommy (or Thomil), a Kwen refugee and janitor, is assigned as her assistant. But Thomil is smarter and quicker than the other mages imagine and he and Sciona become a team. Together they uncover a secret that could bring down Bright Haven and destroy everything Sciona believes.

Sciona isn’t a particularly likable character. Her thirst for power and glory is unfortunately combined with a naivety of the real world and that leads her to do and say dumb things and make poor decisions.

The magic system is pretty neat. The mages siphon energy from the Otherrealm and use it perform actions using what we recognize as computer programs. I really enjoy how the author builds the magic system and it makes it more real.

The story went in a direction I didn’t expect and I was sad at the end.

Blood Over Bright Haven is a well developed and entertaining stand-alone novel with interesting, if at times cardboardy, characters. I hesitate to call it a fantasy because the magic is grounded in what I know from my previous profession. But it has magic and mages so fantasy. I think it would be perfect for someone dipping their toes into fantasy for the first time.

You might be interested in Henrik Ibsen’s play, An Enemy of the People, for a classic companion read.

The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang

Serin is a Korean school girl who desperately wants a ticket to enter the mysterious market that is only open during the rainy season. She wants to escape the soul crushing poverty she and her mother suffer. People write to the market describing their unhappiness with their life and if deemed worthy, receive a ticket. Sarin receives a golden ticket allowing her to observe multiple possible lives before choosing one.The market (bigger on the inside) is inhabited by a community of Dokkaebi (Korean goblins) who will sell a ticket holder a globe containing a possible life.. Accompanied by a spirit guide cat, Issha, Sarin attempts to find the life that will make her happy.

“The author set out to write a light, fun read that was still packed with meaning…that left readers with a lingering sense of warmth”. She succeeds. Sarin is a sensitive, empathetic girl but she also has a kid’s naivety when it comes to thinking what would make her happy. The world within the market is fun to explore and the Dokkaebi are eccentric and amusing . The story is very good and has humor and some peril. The message isn’t heavy handed and is pretty clear: what you think you want may not be what you need; and maybe happiness is closer to home than you think. And it does leave you with a warm feeling that lingers.

The book can be read both by adults and young persons. I know I would have loved it in middle school. There are some scenes that would have had me howling and had me sniggering today.. The Dokkaebi make their goods from things they harvest from humans such as the essence of human words, forgotten human memories, the sweat and tears humans shed in pursuit of their goals. and this is part of the message: look at all the things that make us humans. It can be read and enjoyed as a cozy fantasy but it will also appeal if you're down or wondering about your life and how it could have been different.

I wish I had a kid to read it with. Maybe that’s what would be in my globe.

The Brave New World Collection by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a 1931 classic dystopian novel by British author Aldous Huxely. It is a world where people are grown in bottles and their caste — Alpha to Gamma is predetermined in vitro.  Parent, mother, father, and pregnant are offensive words that are repulsive.. Promiscuous sex, feelies, the drug soma to level you out or take you on a holliday, and socially mandated activities that make sure no one is alone, keep everyone “happy”, content, and unquestioning.

The first part of the book reads like a catalog of how this world differs from our own.Things get more interesting when the Alpha Barnard visits a reservation of savages and finds John, a young man whose parents are from the outside. Seeing this as a way to increase his social status, he takes John back to the world. John is dubbed John Savage and is an immediate sensation with Bernard as his manager. John isn’t dumb, he’s a keen observer who quotes Shakespeare in response to this “brave new world” with its artificial and superficial happiness. He finds that the solitude he craves is forever out of reach.

Brave New World is a dystopia masquerading as a utopia and a warning how technology and complaisance could lead to a totalitarian dystopia. Huxley explores this in Brave New World Revisited.

Brave New World Revisited is a series of essays published in 1958. Here Huxley contrasts the totalitarianism of Orwell’s 1984 with that of Brave New World. Huxley is pessimistic that overpopulation and over organization inevitability  is going to lead to totalitarianism. He also skirts alarmingly close to espousing eugenics. The chapters on propaganda and manipulation apply as much today as when Huxley wrote them. Perhaps more so given the way broadcast media can disseminate propaganda and manipulate people’s thinking. See the 2024 election.

Brave New World is an extreme look at a possible future for society given advances in technology and other stressors but I found Brave New World Revisited much more relevant and thought provoking. The reader sees just how easy it is to manipulate people.

Read Brave New World, Brave New World Revisited, Orwell's 1984, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for a good look at possible paths toward totalitarianism. All three books are still relevant today.