Perfume by Patrick Suskind

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We're reading it for a local book club and it didn't do much for me. Has anyone any strong opinions on it? Please don't reply if you haven't read it or you are a nonce.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I've read it, and to be honest bar the orgy.. I can't remember much about it except that i felt like i was being manipulated into being sensuous. and i totally resented it.

― Nellie (nellskies), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Hi G, I've read one biit of it, it was where the main protagonist (I guess) was down the bottonm of a well for many many years and gradually lost all his senses and gently dessicated. The only problem was that I could feel all those years passing by and still nothing happened, hence I never read any more as I found it so dull.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I was hoping everyone would decide they were a nonce and leave this unanswered.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

It's Martine McCutcheon's favourite book, if that's of relevance:

"I read it when I was too young. I borrowed it off my mum and was terrified. I could not sleep for two weeks, but it has stayed with me always, and that's the mark of a good book."

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I think its a great book in the way it evocates the senses (of smell in particular, natch), and also the delineation of the perfume industry, in loving detail. It's easy to read and yet engaging.

I prefer "the Story of Mr Somer" though - a very creepy little kids story.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

what ever happened to suskind?

― jed (jed_e_3), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

I just saw the film. It was a bit rubbish, though "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??" bit with the cat in the distiller was a hoot.

Unfortunately, the film also marks the first time I've fancied an actress and then found out she was born in the 1990s.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:59 (eighteen years ago)

this was one of those books that was given to me by a friend who raved about it, and I felt obliged to finish it but still found it painfully stupid.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:05 (eighteen years ago)

The trailer makes it look irredeemably ridiculous.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago)

What? Nicole Kidman wasn't born in the '90s.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1248393/

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:30 (eighteen years ago)

I read about half of it when I was 13 because it was Kurt Cobain's favorite book. Been sitting on the shelf unfinished ever since.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

the film is getting terrible advance word of mouth. the bits in the trailers are awful

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

x-post bahahaha "Hurd-Wood". Poor Alba.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:39 (eighteen years ago)

Bit of a shame if the film isn't that good, I was idly looking forward to seeing how it'd pan out.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:41 (eighteen years ago)

It's pretty rotten. I am pleased that Martine McCutcheon and Kurt Cobain shared a favourite book.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:44 (eighteen years ago)

How'd they do the bit where he hid in his own mind in the cave? I can imagine that was done badly.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:44 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, is that what he was doing? They did it by him growing a beard.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:47 (eighteen years ago)

Hahah wtf. I have to see this now.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:57 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, good! Now I can never read this book.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 01:05 (eighteen years ago)

I think I read this sometime in the late 1980s. I just remember an open-air orgy scene. (Typical.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 01:11 (eighteen years ago)

It's alright. I can't see how you'd make it into a film that was any fun...

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:25 (eighteen years ago)

Well, they kept the open-air orgy.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:56 (eighteen years ago)

It's funny, I read it a long time ago and had forgotten the orgy scene. The process of making perfume was (and still is) more fascinating to me. From the trailers I've seen of the movie, it looks like it will be terrible.

I bet they don't even kill anyone with bees.

― N.i.c.o.l.e (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:58 (eighteen years ago)

It's funny, I read it a long time ago and had forgotten the orgy scene. The process of making perfume was (and still is) more fascinating to me.

same for me. this was my favorite book for a long time but i have a terrible memory. i should reread it. i didnt even know there was a movie.

― sunny successor agrees: gay dad always trumps slutty mom (katharine), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago)

Now I can't decide if making perfume or orgies are more fascinating to me.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:11 (eighteen years ago)

The verb agreement in that sentence is weirding me out for some reason. The lovely Emma B said she hated this movie.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:14 (eighteen years ago)

Alba, the only way to know is to do both and find out. (At the same time, even.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:15 (eighteen years ago)

Sorry Tracer - should be "is". I was distracted by thinking about the open-air orgy (which was more like a loved-up sensorama party than an orgy, really.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:16 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, see, the fact that there's an orgy makes me want to see it now, even though I know it will be awful. Curses.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

Book's okay. It's a fun pop novel, darker than most. Not Lolita, say, but comparable in goodness to John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure. Fun. Diabolical. Well-plotted.

I think it's rep took a dive when Kurdt called it his favorite novel and wrote "Scentless Apprentice" about it. That's the point, at least, when hipsters began to distance themselves.

Movie looks bad. Wanna see it anyway.

― Adam Beales (Pye Poudre), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

If it were "is," though, it would sound like you were "making orgies," which suggests you are some kind of group sex planning director.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

Well I suppose I am, in a way.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

OK, not in any way.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

The process of making perfume was (and still is) more fascinating to me.

yeah those were the best bits of the book. which i liked, but not as much as other similar stuff i was devouring at the time (lilian faschinger's magdalena the sinner is def my pick if you want quixotic & dark & drily funny contemporary euro kind-of-satire). i don't have a huge amount of interest in this film i have to say.

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

A soulless, turgid film.
There's no one for the viewer to care about...one could go on, but there's so little passion in the film, it's hard to work up any passion in a critique. And the presence of the dreadful Dustin Hoffman/Lily Tomlin creature. Oh my

― EComplex (EComplex), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:52 (eighteen years ago)

"comparable in goodness to John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure."

haha another book loaned to me by a different friend around the same time with similar raves which I also found totally fucking boring for similar reasons - "gotcha" novels shouldn't be so bad at telegraphing their plot points.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

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