Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, but not quite a Masterpiece
Review: When the first english language version of "Perfume" was released in 1986, readers went crazy. Many placed it among the best books they'd ever read, myself included. A reread, fifteen years later yields a different, more muted, reaction. The book is good, very good. But it is not great."Perfume" succeeds so well because the premise is so startlingly novel. An olfactory genius in 18th-century Paris who can make a fortune creating perfumes more complicated and subtle than any ever made, is a sociopathic monster. Or as Suskind describes him, a "tick" who can roll up into a defensive ball or periodically drop himself into society. Grenouille is a compelling and disturbing character because Suskind has painted him in such realistic tones. Each effort to capture a new scent impels him farther, taking more chances and testing his limits, exploiting new techniques and his own criminal daring. This is true criminal pattern and makes Grenouille terrifyingly believable. But the book can not be a great one, because Suskind's prose tends toward the overdone. Perhaps it reads better in the original German, but his maddening penchant for rephrasing and repeating the same notion and turning a sentence into a paragraph finally dulls the senses and sets the reader skimming along searching for the next important point. The plot is so unique that it is brilliant. The execution is powerful, not only in Grenouille's characterization, but also because Suskind has done his homework and is smoothly at ease with 18th century mores and the science of perfume. But the squishy repetitive prose and unfocused paragraphs keep "Perfume" from joining the ranks of literary masterpieces.
Rating:
Summary: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Review: Wonderfully dark and twisted. Book is absolutely engrossing and beautifully written. I wish that the author had more books. I plan on reading this one again.
Rating:
Summary: A really twisted book
Review: It is hard to understand how someone can come up with such a twisted story. I highly recommend this book. It's one of the classics in my bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Oddly entertaining
Review: Perfume is a novel I probably never would have chosen off the shelf. With that said, the reader knows that I am perhaps biased in many ways. This book was a bookclub selection that apperared under the category of historical fiction.
The story begins with the birth of Jean Baptiste-Grenouille. He is left to die by his mother as she delivers him in her stall at the farmer's market. Grenouille has to be one of the strangest characters ever created. He is repulsive to all his caretakers and is likened by the author to a tick. Grenouille is born with a phenomonal sense of smell but, alas, has no smell of his own.
The reader follows Grenouille through his life and his search for the perfect smell that will make him more human, make him loved and ultimately accepted. Here the plot twists and turns into the most unlikely and downright strange scenarios I have ever read, concluding with what one can only describe as the most unbelieveable ending of all time.
The writing is superb and it is the only reason I continued to read such a convoluted tale. The historical detail and recreation of eighteenth century France was phenomenal. The attention to the smells of that period was nothing short of amazing. Patrick Suskind has written an amazingly odd story that you will not likely read any where else.
Rating:
Summary: Perfume
Review: Perfume is the book I have recommended and bought for more people than any other. Through the story Suskind manages to create perfection from the grotesque by horrid actions. It is superb reading. The most beautful turn of phrase and bend of mind since Tom Robbins.
Rating:
Summary: The witty, horrific, sad tale of a perverted soul
Review: This is the story of an orphan in 17th century France, Grenouille, who is possessed of an extraordinary sense of smell. He can smell a person coming before he can see them. He can pick the constituents of a perfume by one whiff, and their proportions. As if in recompense for this, he lacks most other basic human senses. He does not feel fear, pain, is unable to become attached to other humans, and ironically, has no personal odour. Thus "Perfume" tells of Grenouille's attempts to use his sense of smell to make up for what he lacks, particularly the feeling of love. He has been exploited and patronised through most of his life, enduring it only in the knowledge that he will one day be a great, admired man, by creating a personal scent that people cannot resist. And he goes to extraordinary lengths to create this unique personal odour - as the book says, he is a murder. Collecting the personal odours of others and blending them for his own use. And he succeeds. Where before he was not noticed by anyone, now people loose control in his presence. But in the end, what he thought would make him feel loved, only leaves him contemptous of those who are tricked by his scent. Grenouille is cold-hearted, self-absorbed and has no regard for animal or human life. The violence is not portrayed graphically, but you get the import of it nonetheless. You will shake your head, unable to understand how someone could be so totally devoid of emotion. Seeing murder as no more than picking a flower for a perfume. But in the end, you pity Grenouille, because he failed in elliciting love, which is all he really ever wanted. The book is written in a witty, easy to read style, and most of the content is anecdotes of Grenouille's childhood and working life. What made him want, and need to do what he did. Perfume keeps it's pace well, not flagging, and overall it is a highly highly entertaining, original read.
Rating:
Summary: a fantastic read
Review: Perfume is simply one of the most original works of our time. Everyone I know who's read it thinks it's tops.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, fascinating, historically accurate
Review: I was first interested in this book because it inspired Kurt Cobain to write the song "Scentless Apprentice" on In Utero. As a lover of XVIII century French history, I had the welcome surprise to discover that the novel was set exactly in this period and nation. The prose is intense, hits your memory and your senses and makes this unforgettable character come alive and haunt you. Not for prudish, hypersensitive or bigot readers.
Rating: 
Summary: An Intellectual thriller / horror novel
Review: This book indeed does traverse down paths that have not often been covered, and the disposition of the protagonist is a delicious mix of what might be an unfortunante fate, as well as what seems to be pure evil and disinterest in humanity. He evokes feelings of sympathy in that he grew up in such a difficult situation, however, the whole while he seems so disinterested anyway one doubts whether it would have mattered if he grew up in the best of situations. In examining this aspect of the protagonist, the reader is forced to try to define what the nature of humanity is, and if there is one at all. In a unusual way, this book is not only unsettling but horrifying, especially in the way that even when horrified, I could not put it down - it had the quality of drawing you the way a car crash would, knowing full well that what you would see next would unsettle you, yet nevertheless being drawn to the morbid, inexplicable, unique and mysterious. You will not find a more unique horror story. This book has much to say about beauty, human nature, and the mechanations of the mind of a murder. I had a particularly interesting reaction, I think, to this book, in that it was left as an anonymous gift at my door, and that I happen to fit the profile of the young girls the murder most covets...
Rating:
Summary: NONE
Review: This book is supposed to be wonderful. I've never read it, but I thought I might as well add the useless, stupid fact that Kurt Cobain, lead vocalist for the legandary band NIRVANA wrote a song about this book (and man) called Scentless Apprentice.
As if anyone cares...
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