Perfume: The Story Of A Murder

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (frog in French) is born into poverty under a table at his mothers stall at the fish market. Thrown onto a pile of fish guts he is left for dead.

This introduction to life establishes his revulsion for putrid scents and coupled with his own lack of body scent sets him apart from others. He survives a tormented childhood in an orphanage and goes on to take a job at a tannery- well know for being nauseatingly putrid. While strolling the streets of Paris one day he catches a scent which he follows to discover is the scent of a young woman. In an insatiable craze he murders her attempting to smell her more thoroughly but realizes that after her death her smell too ceases to live.
By chance Grenouille is able to get a job working for a famed perfumist Giuseppe Baldini. His new found talents in mixing renowned perfume scents are negated by his obsession with creating the perfect scent which captures the essence of the human soul. His methodology has him murdering female virgins to reduce their body fats into essential oils and creating the perfect alchemy so that their scent may live on.

I read the novel Perfume: The Story Of A Murder a few years ago. It is originally written in German by Patrick Suskind and explores the human sense of smell and how it translates to emotional experiences of ultimately acceptance or rejection. This is a subject that fascinates me as when I first became pregnant my sense of smell became keener and has been so since. The amount that I love my monkeys and husband has a very strong correlation to the pleasure I devise from inhaling them. I am one of those people that you will see at a farmers market or grocery store smelling the fruits and vegetables before purchasing them. Most of all this story is about identity and how this relates to other peoples reactions or lack therefore of, in shaping the human soul. Ultimately the desire to be accepted, loved and needed is paramount to human spirit.

Unlike most really good novels that are turned into films I really enjoyed this film, by the same title, which came out in 2007. In fact in an unprecedented recommendation I would say read both or just see the film.