Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (1987) - Plot & Excerpts
"...people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they could not escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who could not defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly into their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men." ~p. 155There are two scents that I can remember rather sharply as long as I close my eyes and focus on them. The first one is the cigarette smell of my father's breath every time he kisses me as a child. It was probably the very reason I started smoking in the first place when I was only twelve years old because it was a scent that I associated with love and affection at that time. Even though he quit the habit when I was fourteen, I will always think of cigarette smoke as my father's signature scent, and breathing it in also comes with the fond recollection of my carefree innocence and the safety of a strong, paternal figure who will always protect me. That particular scent has etched on me so distinctly and completely that I instinctively have those warm feelings to this day whenever I'm at a social gathering with friends whose second-hand smoke is essentially a kind of nostalgia that intoxicates me. The second smell is my high school best friend's shampoo whose brand I never found out by name but it's something I can spot with my nose even from a distance. As soon as I encounter that shampoo scent, there's a lightness to my step when I approach it, knowing it's her, the love of my life then who fills up my breathing space with something extraordinary every day.In 2009, an upperclassman in college recommended the film adaptation of this book back when I didn't even know about this German novel. The movie starring Ben Whishaw as the lead role was something quite unforgettable in concept even if the delivery of the story itself felt lacking. Nevertheless, it was truly a bizarre story, one that confounds and disturbs--a spooky examination of the powerful extent that our olfactory sense has on us, like how certain smells can trigger memories and emotions in an inexplicable manner. I didn't like the movie as much but the plot and character did stay with me until I found out a copy of this book three years ago for the Manila International Book Fair."There are scents that linger for decades. A cupboard rubbed with musk, a piece of leather drenched with cinnamon oil, a glob of ambergris, a cedar chest--they all possess virtually eternal olfactory life. While other things evaporate within a few hours if they are exposed to the air in a pure, unbound form. The perfumer would bind scents that are too volatile, by putting them in chains, so to speak, taming their urge for freedom--though his art consists of leaving enough slack in the chains for the odor seemingly to preserve its freedom even when it is tied so deftly that it cannot flee." ~p.193 Patrick Süskind's 1985 novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer closely follows the dark tale of the orphan and aspiring perfumer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who was born with an acute sense of smell. Puzzlingly enough, he has no smell of his own. This is a symbolic characteristic that I find poignant.The book was set in mid-century France, specifically in the grimy and filthy streets of Paris whose awful and wondrous variety of scents has drawn someone of Grenouille's special ability in the first place. In part, Perfume reads as a straightforward biography of the protagonist mostly told in the perspectives of the different men and women who have encountered him. It was by the last hundred pages of the novel that the narrative is transformed into a serial-killer suspenseful tale which was well worth the wait, given the amount of time that the author has spent earlier in the book, crafting a rather slow-burning pace that led to Grenouille's growing awareness concerning his prowess and the ultimate goal he must reach. I thought Süskind's style was a great exercise of literary discipline where he not only have to vividly capture olfactory descriptions throughout the novel, but also possess a greater understanding of what a creature like Grenouille must live like, as well as how he responds to his environment and humanity in general. With his gift, he never quite developed inherent qualities like empathy since he is only able to know people in the most visceral yet hollow of ways by associating everything a human being is through smell alone."Beneath his mask, there was no face but only his total ordorless." ~p. 241Grenouille's repulsion towards humans become more apparent once he fully embraced his narcissism and uniqueness, arguing that he must be above humankind because of his acute olfactory functions. He can create and concoct scents that can deceive people and he takes much pride in this feat. His feelings of superiority and alienation heavily stems from the fact that he never had any kind of meaningful connection or relationship with another person. He might as well be a new breed of human altogether and he knows this only too punishingly well. Suskind described Grenuoille as unremarkable in appearance, very inconspicuous and frail that he would hardly ever make an impression. In spite of Grenouille's bloated sense of worth, he remains very much human because he still possesses that natural inclination of ours to desire and wish for love. Grenouille does want to be accepted and loved even if it's in the most twisted way imaginable; and the grave road he paved to acquire just that is absolutely frightening. Deeply motivated to "rob a living being its aromatic soul" in substitute of his own, Grenouille mistakes this for happiness.Grenouille begins to seek the ultimate olfactory concoction found in the odors of adolescent girls whom he began to hunt down in order to acquire their essence and store it in a perfume bottle. This is the most engaging part of the entire novel; his desire to create a perfume that makes him irresistible to humans. It is sad when you think about it. What Grenouille simply wants to accomplish is to reaffirm his existence through defining his relevance in the only manner he is capable of. Under the threat of population and emphasis on the significant role of the majority versus the individual, Grenouille feels invisible, taking comfort in the lie that this does not bother him when it in fact imprisons him in a state of mind where no one can reach him. "Jean-Baptiste Grenouille [is] a compelling character designed to exploit a deeply embedded cultural fascination with the criminal genius...Grenouille's appeal derives from the similarity of this homicidal predator of eigtheenth-century France with present-day serial killers, real and fictional, who continue to attract both artistic and public interest. As a serial killer, Grenouille conforms to a profile established by current clinical research linking the narcissistic borderline personality with homicidal psychopaths. Severe emotional traumas in early life have blocked the healthy internalizations needed to build a stable core self. Lacking coherent self-structure as the basis for internalizing authority, he has no superego. Guilt is not an aspect of his consciousness; he murders merely to acquire the materials necessary for his art."~The Poetics of Melancholia and MourningWith such a painstakingly layered and symbolic themes that populate this book, there have been a handful of analyses and interpretations about Perfume out there which are also available online. The most striking article I've read about it (as quoted above) asserts that 'the novel is a cautionary fable revealing how the Enlightenment ideal of individual autonomy is all-too-easily subverted by instrumental reason to produce the ego pathology that increasingly infects modern society.' Granted, this analysis mostly focuses on the subversions and criticism on Romanticism, as well as issues on the subject of melancholia and mourning in a literary perspective, but it's a rather interesting read to so I advise you check it out if you ever decide to read this book."He, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with no odor of his own on the most stinking spot in this world amid garbage, dung and putrefaction, raised without love, with no warmth of a human soul, surviving solely on impudence and the power of loathing--he had managed to make the world love him. And in that moment he experienced the greatest triumph of his life. And he was terrified. He was terrified because he could not enjoy one second of it." ~pp. 239-240Anyone loves a great serial-killer story and this may be no Darkly Dreaming Dexter because it's not a hard-boiled thriller dealing with moral ambiguities as slick and sexy as the aforementioned series does, but Perfume nonetheless excels in the genre in its own sublime way. With a character like Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who is more or less a blunt-force trauma-to-the-head, this book delivers a dark fable that's more often than not rather crude and petrifying in scope, yet its prose also becomes delicate to the touch, even when it's uncomfortably bizarre to see the events unfold before you. The gruelling climax and ending will simply astound and leave you cold for hours. This is a guaranteed contemporary classic that will deftly play with your imagination. "But Grenouille perceives that this is not enough because he cannot love himself. He knows that, even though he can appear as the most wonderful of individuals to everyone in the world with this scent, he cannot smell himself and, therefore, he cannot know who he truly is. With this lack of self-knowledge, the world and himself have no meaning."~[x]RECOMMENDED: 8/10DO READ MY REVIEWS AT:
لأول مرة أجد "أنفي" متورطا في قراءة رواية!!!0مع زوسكند والقراءة الثالثة له...في رواية ذات حبكة فريدة، وفي عالم يضج بالروائح ما قرأت له مثيلا...وفي موضوع يلامس الحاسة الحادة عندي...فالروائح تسكن ذاكرتي...تستوطنني...ولبعضها تأثير السحر عليّزوسكند...بعالمه الغرائبي الذي بناه على الروائح قوّض عالمي وهزّه من أعماقه...فأن يسمي روايته بالعطر فذلك قمة الغرائبية...فالمفردة تمثل لنا تصورا مختلفا عما جاء به...فلا هي العطر بالمفهوم الطبيعي...ولا هي كذلك فقط قصة قاتل...ولا هي مرعبة كقصص الرعب!!!0إلى أي عالم غريب أراد هذا العبقري أن يقودنا بخياله الواسع...أو يقود أنوفنا؟؟!!!0وأي فكرة تلك التي أراد زوسكيند تمريرها؟؟وأي روحٍ تلك التي منحها للروائح حتى تنطق بحقيقة الأشياء وتمنحها هويّتها؟؟بناء فني محكم وعالم خصب بالخيال والتشويق والكثير من الجنون، أبدعه زوسكيند...مازج فيه بين السرد الروائي والسينمائي...ليهبنا القدرة على تصور المشاهد إضافة لشم روائح أجوائهافي فرنسا، وفي القرن الثامن عشر، وفي مجتمع يحفل بالعطر ويهتم به، ويقبل خاصّته على اقتناء أفضل العطور وأجملها، والعطارين على استخلاص المميز منها...يولد "جان باتيست غرنوي" لقيطا...في أحد الأحياء الفقيرة والمعدمة، ويبدأ حياته بإعدام والدته التي قررت تركه يموت بعد ولادته مباشرة...يولد "غرنوي" بشخصية بغيضة حتى تلفظه المرضعات، وبأنف خارق يتحسس أدق الروائح، وذاكرة شميّة يختزن بها كل رائحة يلتقطها أنفه بل ويشمها حال تذكّرها، ويملك القدرة على تحليلها وتركيبها وتصنيفها وصنع أجودها بخياله قبل أن يركبها في قارورة، رغم خلوه منها!!...وفي الوقت الذي يميز فيه الآخرين اتجاهاتهم ببصرهم وسمعهم، يعتمد هو على أنفه في تحديدها، ويحيا بشخصية غريبة مرهوبة متنقلا من بيت لبيت، حتى يلتقي بأحد أفضل العطارين ويتعلم منه أسرار المهنة ويجد المكان المناسب لموهبته، والتي لا يريد الاغتناء ماديا بها، وإنما فقط الاستمتاع بتلك المهارة وإثبات وجوده من خلالها...واستخلاص الروائح من كل ما يقع عليه نظره...والتوق لروائح لا مثيل لها، واستخلاصها بأشد الظروف غرابة ووحشية...بدءا بتقطيرها من الزهور وحتى استخدام أجساد الكائنات الحية وانتهاء بأجساد الفتيات العذراوات الجميلات.من الصعب اختزال أحداث القصة...فأحداثها مليئة بالغرابة والتنوع، ولكن السرد يتصاعد ليتحول هذا الفتى إلى قتل خمس وعشرين فتاة، من أجل استخلاص العطر الأكثر فتنة وتأثيرا من أجسادهن...محاولا تجربته من أجل أن يمنحه انتباه الآخرين والإحساس بوجودهوحين ظننت أن زوسكيند ينهي روايته بنجاة "غرنوي" من الإعدام بفضل عطره...فاجأتني النهاية الحقيقية القاسية بقتله في بلدته القديمة وعلى أيدي عدد من المشردين...ولنفس السبب الذي أنجاه...رائحة العطر الذي استخلصه من أجساد الفتيات...والذي كرّس حياته وجهده وتفكيره للحصول عليه وجمعه.أرغمني زوسكيند على التعاطف مع شخصيته الرئيسية، رغم ظلاميتها وتشوهها، وقسوته في وصفها ظاهرا وباطنا...وخشيت في لحظة نجاته من القتل، من ابتسامة رضى ارتسمت على شفتي، وكأنني رغبت فعلا بنجاته رغم شناعة فعلته، ربما هي طفولته البائسة التي أتقن زوسكيند وصفها وأحاطنا بها...وربما لأنه فعل ذلك حتى يحصل على الحب الذي حرمه، والسعادة التي ما شعر بها يوما، ولتحقيق ذاته وإبراز داخله...وربما لأنه كشف الأقنعة الزائفة وعرّى البشر أمام أنفسهم وأبرز دواخلهم الملتويةأبدع زوسكيند في مشهد إعدام "غرنوي"، فصدمته من موقف الآخرين تجاهه حطمت قناعاته، وأدرك أن الحب الذي جذبته الرائحة لم يعد شيئا يذكر بالنسبة له...ولم يعد مطلبا و "تصاعد فيه القرف من الإنسان ودسّ المرارة في نصره، فلا يمتنع عليه الفرح فحسب، بل ولا يشعر حتى بالتشفي. فما كان يحلم به، حب الناس، صار في لحظة النصر عبئًا لا يُطاق".العطر...رواية تحمل الكثير من تفاصيل صناعة العطور وتقطيرها وتفرد صفحات لبيان مراحل استخلاصها وتقنيات إبداعها...وتحمل كذلك الكثير من المعاني المختفية خلف الأحداث الظاهرة...وتضعك أمام العديد من التساؤلات حول الرائحة والحب والهويّة والعلاقة بينهم...فالرائحة برأي زوسكيند تعد مفتاحا للحب، وللإحساس بالآخرين ووجودهمرواية قد تكرهها جدا وقد تحبها جدا...وقد تخلف مشاعر متناقضة في نهايتها كما فعلت معي...ولكنها بالتأكيد جذبتني من أول حرف فيها
What do You think about Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (1987)?
On the surface, this book is a big literary gimmick. But if you dig deeper you will see that this is a celebration of beauty, a valentine of senses and a man’s struggle to find happiness amidst being alone, sad, poor and unloved. Think Patrick Bateman in Bret Easton Ellis in Psycho, James Ballard in J. G. Ballard’s Crash or Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s masterpiece Lolita. Easily, you will hate them However, beneath the mad and twisted criminal is a man who used to be a poor boy who grew up alone, lonely and whose heart is yearning for acceptance, appreciation if not just a little love.Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born to a young mother who tries to leave her alone to die together with stinking and rotting fish in a Parisian market. A priest takes pity on him but he has no odor and the stupid priest thinks that he is a son of the devil. So, Grenouille is put into an orphanage. When the priest stops paying the orphanage, the operator sells Grenouille to a tannery as a slave worker. Then he meets a perfumer and he works there as an apprentice. He loves it there because he has a very strong sense of smell.Unwanted child of a prostitute mother. Orphan. Maltreated. Sold to slavery. Uneducated. Ugly. Unloved. Despised. We can compare Grenouille to a man who, if his way to work today gets ran over by a car and dies on the street, nobody is claiming his body. We will probably just stare at his body and feel sorry for him but we just don’t really care for we don’t know him and he looks poor so and go ahead to our destination and do what we need to do.Same with this book. If you don’t look closer, you will just dismiss this as a sick story of a sick murderer who has strong sense of smell. In his obsession of wanting to do the only thing he dreams in his whole life, he has to do foolish and disgusting things. But, aren’t we all like that? At least, Grenouille knows what he wants and he does everything, even giving up his life (or even taking other people’s lives), to fulfill that dream. How about you? Do you have a dream? Do you do everything you can for that dream to come true?This is a grand celebration of senses. Paris is always Paris no matter in which century you are looking at it. The beautiful virgin young ladies. I do not doubt they smell great and better than all of us mortal men. They smell heavenly. Smell better than babies. And speaking of smell, I have never encountered any other book that gives emphasis on this sense the way this book does. The closer I could remember is Nigel Slater’s Toast or Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean but even those do not really compare. This book puts the sense of smell at the same rank as sense of sight, taste, feeling and hearing. Come to think of it, which of these senses leave us last while we are on our deathbeds? Some say, the last ones are the sense of hearing and then the sense of smell. Your mouth is stale from the many medicines or the absence of food in the last hour of your stay on earth. You feel cold since your body’s warming mechanism is no longer working. Your eyes may already be closed since you are in extreme pain then you are starting to see heavenly visions, But you can still hear and most probably you can still smell. You can still smell the perfume of your wife crying or the sweaty mixed with the after shave lotion of your husband saying a prayer by your side. You can still smell the scent of the antiseptic solution inside the hospital. You can still smell the fresh linen on your bed or the bandage and the plastic tubing of the dextrose solution. You can still smell the flowers that your friends sent hoping for your recovery.We can die anytime so why not preserve your day in your memory by smelling or better yet, like how Grenouille does it, sniffing the scents around you? Sniff the odor inside your bedroom when you wake up in the morning. Sniff the morning breath of your wife while you kiss her good morning. Sniff the odor of your breakfast hanging in the air inside your kitchen or your dining room. Sniff the stale odor inside your car, a mixture of your own scent masked by your car freshener. Roll down the windows of your car and sniff the scent of the trees, sea breeze or the fumes of the city while you are driving. Sniff and preserve the scent of the important events in your life to preserve those in your memory. Not just the pictures to look at. Not only the songs that were playing during those events. You might as well preserve the scents as you lock those memories in your heart forever.
—K.D. Absolutely
الجميل في هذه الرواية انها تطرح موضوع لم يطرح مسبقاَ، في الحياة نتسأل دائما عن سبب انجذابنا لأشخاص و نعزو الاسباب لتجاذب الأرواح، الشخصية، و الكاريزما.نعزو الانجذاب غالبا إلى حاسة النظر... الكتاب يحول انظارنا لناحية أخرىالرواية تتحدث عن شخص ولد من غير رائحة و ايضا بحساسية عالية للعطور،و في حياته يتلقى فقط النفور و التجاهل و الإهمال ، لسبب واحد وهو أنه إنسان بغير رائحة.فيسعى لتكوين عطر يتفرد به وحده. تصور الرواية العطر او الرائحة البشرية و كأنها هالة تجذب او تنفر. تركت الرواية أثرها علي كالعطر و تركتني مع أسئلة حائرة.أكتب مجددا عن الكتاب، لانني لم أوفيه حقه مسبقاً
—Rania
" أدرك غرينوي أن حياته ستضيع هباء إن لم ينجح في امتلاك هذه الرائحة بعينها، كان لابد له من أن يمتلكها، لا بهدف الامتلاك فحسب، بل من أجل راحة قلبه" رواية غريبة تحتوي روائح كل شئ على الأرض حتى الأشياء التي كنا نظنها بلا رائحة ماعدا رائحة غرينوي لم نعرفها ولم يعرفها هو نفسه و هذا أشد ماكان يؤلمه ويؤرقه و ربما كان هو الدافع لأفعاله و السر وراء موهبته الفريده وهو سبب نجاحاته كما هو سبب اخفاقاته ونهايته بالنسبة لي استمتعت بالفيلم أكثر و لكن نهايةبالرواية أجمل من فيلم !
—بــدريــه الـبـرازي
