A magic realist tale, or rather, a fable set in 18th century France. Grenouille is born unwanted and uncared for, and discarded into a pile of rotting fish and offal. But Grenouille has a gift, an outstanding, super-human sense of smell. He can smell everything, even things not normally odoriferous, like wood and brass. He uses his extraordinary power much like others use sight; so much so that he can walk around comfortably in pitch darkness by just smelling the obstacles and side-stepping them.
When he catches a whiff of the fairer sex, he becomes obsessed with the idea of capturing that essence, and bottling it. He works as an apprentice for a perfumer, and learns the trade while the perfumer uses Grenouille’s skills to rejuvenate his failing fortunes. But making perfumes is different from extracting the essence from nature, and this is the skill that Grenouille needs. He moves away from Paris, and in the town of Grasse, he starts murdering women and extracting their essence from their skin and hair to make the ultimate perfume.
This book is very well researched; the author has done his homework on all things related to perfume, and the methods involved in it’s creation - both chemically and artistically - and the importance of it’s purpose in that point in history. The book is written very descriptively, with care taken to describe the people, settings and landscape in detail. Despite its title, the book is about all the meaner aspects of humanity: jealousy, greed, pride, lust, and of course, murder.
I do not much care for magic realism as a genre. But the tone of this book is closer to historical fiction or thriller than it is to magic realism. I don’t believe there is a single likeable character in the whole book, and that is a deliberate choice made by the author. Despite that, it is not a difficult read.
The pacing is mostly even, except for an interlude involving Grenouille spending seven years alone in a cave, away from all contemptible humanity which “disgusts” him. I suppose that period is significant in some form, or an allegory to something. In all, a good read, thought I wouldn’t recommend it too strongly.