Patrick Süskind's novel, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, is truly creepy, and in more ways than one. First, the main character, Grenouille, is a man born with no scent of his own, but with an uncanny sense of smell that propels him to the heights of the perfume industry.
Second, is the disturbingly methodical way Süskind builds the suspense of his story so that the horrible realization of the subtitle of the novel creeps up on you like a cold wind on the back of your neck in an enclosed room.
Born under a fish seller's table in the middle of the market, left in the care of a priest who passes him from foster home to foster home, Grenouille grows up knowing no love, and only the repulsion of others. However, he is patient; amassing skills and taking every opportunity presented to him until his apprenticeship at an aging perfumer's shop leads him to discover his calling.
But Grenouille's obsession with scents leads him into dark alleys of experimentation and he becomes more interested in the sinister powers of scent, which, as we begin to see, are many. For if one man's lack of scent can cause him to be an outcast while another man's scent renders him nearly invisible for his unremarkableness, then can a man's scent save him from the gallows while another scent allows him to disappear into a crowd?
Readers may find Süskind's writing style to be a bit plodding at first, with lots of background on Grenouille's childhood, but understand that all of it serves a much greater purpose:-- an extremely engrossing story that will stay under your skin long after you finish it.
