Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Many things about this book has compelled me to give it a 5 star rating. It's captivating, but in a weird morbid way like the way you can't tear your eyes off something that is so so weird, out of this world, and quite often disgusting and horrifying. Trigger warnings apply at the end of this review because hoo boy did this book have a lot.

The story opens with the unwelcome and unceremonious birth of the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in the stinkiest spot of all Paris, and indeed in all of France. As he grows, being kicked from place to place, he begins to realize that he has a truly extraordinary gift of smelling things. You'd think that he has dog-like levels of sniffing and teasing out scents, but Grenouille's talent goes far, far beyond that of any mortal creature. Soon he finds himself in the house of a parfumer where he learns the art of parfumerie, and Grenouille has found just the scent he wants to capture - that of young virgin girls.

From the blurb and my above description, it might seem like this book is clearly going to be some sordid serial killing with lots of sexual violence but - it actually isn't. Grenouille is a very strange protagonist. He's almost sympathetic in the first half of the book when everyone around him is either repulsed by him or only suffers his company for as long as they can manipulate him for their gains. While one might chalk up Grenouille's repulsiveness to the fantasy elements of the book, the fact that a lot of it is also ascribed to superstition in the plot feels like it's sending a message. What would Grenouille have turned out to be if he had been raised in a less superstitious and perhaps more loving environment?

Grenouille is quite certainly psychopathic. I know that term conjures up images of serial killers often with depraved sexual appetites and whatnot, but I mean to describe him in the sense that he has no conception of emotions, feelings, or anything that makes humans human. It's almost as if he is completely separate from the human experience and a lot of times he feels like an alien being with some resemblance to a human. That also means he does not have the same motivations and desires as humans do, including almost a complete lack of sexual interest in any way. He has a weird, almost child-like innocence for most of the book, which is honestly an extremely weird thing to say about a murderer.

The writing of this book was beautiful. I've never been one to appreciate scents in general, but this book did such an amazing and immersive job in describing the scent-scape of 18th century France, from the roiling stink of the cities to the clearer and thinner fragrance of the countryside. The plot itself was already plenty engaging but the writing was what kept my eyes glued to the page. The plot was already madness to begin with, so I guess I was surprised at how it managed to culminate in even more madness still. Yet, the ending was oddly befitting, though it was also a lot of jaw-dropping WTFery.

I would only be a little cautious of this book potentially glamourizing serial killers or psychopaths. This is not just historical fiction, but actually historical fantasy. People like Grenouille do not exist, and it would be a mistake to imagine that there is anything sympathetic about the murders that he eventually commits, nor is that remotely excusable in the real world.

TW: Body horror, infidelity, child abuse, child death, infidelity, references to incest, graphic violence, murder, animal abuse, animal death