According to Wikipedia, Perfume inspired songs by both Nirvana and Rammstein. I also saw where someone compared it to a mix of Victor Hugo and Anne Rice. I'd say that seems accurate since it reminded me of both Les Miserables and Interview with the Vampire at times.Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an 18th Century French orphan that is born with an acute sense of smell but no personal scent. Of course the life of an 18th century orphan isn't easy and Grenouille is a pretty strange guy... so the story gets a bit weird. One day while walking around Paris he smells a young woman and becomes obsessed with her odor... so much so that he kills her and just keeps sniffing her body. From there he decides to learn how to be a perfume maker so that he can replicate her scent. This leads to a lot more deaths and perfume making.
I didn't know what to expect from this book... but I really loved it. It is just so unusual and the story takes a few unexpected turns along the way. The book has a fun pulpy feel to it and is full of interesting characters. Plus Suskind goes overboard on describing the different scents of things throughout the book... which only adds to its strangeness. I give it an A and recommend it to any of my friends that listen to Nirvana or Rammstein.
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