Rating: 
Summary: This was a huge waste of paper and time.
Review: I read this book based on the recommendation of a co-worker...I spent four hours trying to get through it. Four hours that I wasted on a ridiculously bad book.
Rating: 
Summary: Diabolical romp
Review: This book wallows in its own mischievousness and comes out the better for it. Following Grenouille, the main character, through France as he learns the perfume trade, you want to feel sorry for him, his inauspicious beginnings - being sold into slave labor as a child and never receiving the opportunities given to other children. Grenouille, however, doesn't feel sorry for himself. In fact, it his detached malevolence, continually distending as the novel progresses, that begins to truly frighten you. This beautiful book toys with stylistic parallels to both Gothic and "coming-of-age" stories, but it does so with a notable slant that comes to one deliciously dark climax. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless elegance
Review: This is a book that has entrnced me for over 6 years now, since first I read it. Having read most of Suskinds book I still find this the best, although I heartily recommend 'The Pigeon'. I've given Perfume to more people than I can remember (20+) and not one has disliked it, theres not too many books like that around!! I only hope this doesn't become a film as someone suggests as there is no way on earth that the detail and feelings of pity, revulsion, happiness, sadness, etc. could ever be portrayed, especially if Hollywood has anything to do with it!! Leave it alone! Read the book and I promise you'll re-read more than once in your lifetime and each time you'll have a differing reason for liking it :o))
Rating:
Summary: Just doesn't get any better than this.
Review: I have given this book to more people than I can remember. Literature does not get more satisfiying than this. It works on so many levels it's amazing. A HUGE bestseller overseas... It's just my favorite book of all time, and I read a lot. If you liked The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco you will like this book.
Rating:
Summary: Lost
Review: It is very easy to become lost in the world of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man who was born without a scent and will obviously die from the scents that pass through him.Patrick Süskind writes a perfect novel, a novel of murder and obsession, a novel that breaks from the norm and teeters on the brinks of self-disgust and fascination. Grenouille becomes a perfumer, a nose among noses, that has no smell to call his own. Possessed by wanting more, he creates himself into someone, some scent, new...and thus the real story begins. Süskind does no wrong with this work of brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: Pretentious Drivel
Review: The novel has such a distasteful plot and the main character, but it could have redeemed itself somehow had it been well written. However, that is not the case here. There is a ton of information thrown in about odors and perfumes and I really get nothing from that; it looks to me that Suskind was just trying to make up for not being that good of a writer. Also, if an author sets off writing a historical novel, he is bound to create the color of the era and from numerous other novels we can see that the eighteenth-century France is nothing like what is described here.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit of a disappointment
Review: Perfume is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenuoille, a creature with two highly peculiar features related to smell - he has an amazingly fine olfactory ability, and he also has no body odour of his own. Grenouille is not a character that you can like in any way, and i don't think the author wants us to. We follow Grenouille as he learns what is necessary to develop his freakish gift, and then as he descends into a terrifyingly evil sequence of events. I am so disappointed! This book started out so well, and there are some wonderful passages in it. Yet, the whole middle section is simply un-necessary, and while the last section recaptures some of the magic, i just thought the whole novel had fallen apart. But Suskind's description of scents, of perfume....i will admit that reading the book was worth it for that alone. I know of some people who have listed this as one of their top ever reads: i just cannot admire it that much. But Suskind's ability in the first third of the book to evoke historical France, and the fascinating minutiae of 18th century perfume making, was well done. Pity he didn't follow through.
Rating:
Summary: Meaningless waste of time and paper
Review: This is a ridiculous book. I bought on based on the reviews that I read here. This book lacks substance, a plot, a story and is incredibly boring. A total and utter waste of time. Save your time and money by avoiding this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read
Review: It has been a while since I read Perfume, but it one of those rare books that leave a lasting impression. The book is situated in 18th century France and describes the life of a murderer. The fascinating thing is that this Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is not an ordinary murderer (if they are ever ordinary) but that he murders to create the perfect perfume in order to overcome his handicap: he does not have a scent of his own, and to satisfy his overpowering sense of smell. What I found enormously fascinating is that the author is capable of taking a person with whom you cannot identify and then describe his desires in such a way that you actually come to understand (which is not the same as agree with) his actions.
Rating:
Summary: Change the English Title
Review: Perfume is one of the most interesting, trigerring and unusual books i have read in my life. It is a book that you read with the tip of your nose. Throughout the pages of the book i was able to smell the places Grenouille was going to, i felt i was there: just think of babies' heads that smell like warm bread. I read the book in French, and when i went to the US i recommended it to some of my friends. However i was shocked with the title of the english translation 'A story of a murderer' and worse, in the bookshop, it was put in the horror section! This is appalling... the book is everything but a story of murder! it is a story of passion, devotion and obsessive love.. it is one of the most passionate books i've read. Think of the last scene, isn't it pure basic Passion? my request is: 'Please change the english title in the coming editions! by respect of the genius of Suskind'
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