Perfume
 

OMFG this book pwns.

It took years of it clogging up my amazon wish list before I bit, but now I've walked away from one of the most satisfying novels I've read for a while. It seemed rather cliche. It's not. It seemed rather melodramatic. It's not.

Re: Perfume
 

nice to see that there are some people reading the book *after* the movie got hyped (didn't saw that one, yet). :)

Re: Perfume
 

Great, great book...

Awful film.

Re: Perfume
 

is there a movie out already?
i can't imagine this translating very well to the screen

Re: Perfume
 

I remember it heavily recommended to me quite a while ago. Must give it a look when i've got the backlog shifted. Must stop buying books.

Re: Perfume
 

what do you mean, "already"? the book's from 1985...
and yes, there's a movie that came out here in september. I just realized it's a german movie, so probably there wasn't as much publicity whereever you are from. :)

Re: Perfume
 

The Perfume is simply of the best books ever. too bad the movie is AWFULL!!! I mean Tom Twyker is a great stylish director, he can make really good looking movies, but he totally bring the esence of the book to the most hipster level you can possibly imagine.

my advice: don't watch the movie if you love the book

Re: Perfume
 

yeah apparently there's been a whole perfume phenomenon for a while now. the nirvana song "Scentless Apprentice" got its inspiration from the book. funny to run into something amazing like this after years in your periferal vision.

Re: Perfume
 

with that description you've pretty much assured I will never see the film

Re: Perfume
 

How did this film sneak up on me? I really had no idea. I got locked out of my flat (because I'm a key-forgetting wassock) so I biked off to the cinema to watch An Inconvenient Truth until my flatmates returned, and I saw the trailer there. I'm not sure whether I thought or shouted "Fucking Hell!" or "Bastards!" in the cinema.

I have a worrying premonition that this film will suck big floppy donkey dick.

Re: Perfume
 

huh. I really liked the movie. maybe it's because I never read the book... but I thought the movie was great.

Re: Perfume
 

I'm not trying to piss on anyone's parade here, but I was supposed to read this book for a class on modern german authors and barely made it past page 50. I just didn't care.

Seeing the trailer two nights ago did nothing to kindle my interest.

I'm making every attempt to not be biased, but the more and more I see and read about it, the less interested I am.

Re: Perfume
 

grady, have you read/do you like gunter gras? just curious because I see a lot of similarities in the style.

Re: Perfume
 

Interestingly, or perhaps not, I've twice given up on The Rat by Gunter Grass because I really couldn't get very interested or care about what was going on. Probably killed off much chance of me giving the more famous Tin Drum a look.

Re: Perfume
 

if you like the movie don't read the book then :P

Seriously, the Perfume was a movie that shouldn't be that "effecty", although you would think there is no other way to make it work, my opinion is that all this ubber styled production and the chessy visual effects, killed completely all the perfect sadism of The Perfume.This movie should be more like 20 times more lowfi... the whole thing about the scences and aromas should be way more abstract.. well yes.. i disliked completely this film.

The other book i love about Suskind is "La Contrabase", maybe youshould start with this Grady ;)!

Re: Perfume
 

i would say that is interesting. I forced myself through the tin drum, kind of having the same response Grady describes regarding Perfume. But then I found myself recalling the Tin Drum's style reading the perfume, but thinking Perfume is such a more taut, brilliant, effective work. But that could be where opinion comes in. which is why I asked Grady.

Both writers are undeniably german in style. Both viscerally brutal. They both use deformity in the face of society as a literary device, both writers require a peppering of misanthropy in the reader's personality for the experience to be enjoyed
But again the difference is suskind works. gras didn't for me.

Re: Perfume
 

yess!!! That's exactly how I would have done it. its like movie directors know of only one way of telling a story.

Re: Perfume
 

Along those lines, to a degree anyway, I'd heavily recommend Celine's Journey to the End of the Night, or the great Knut Hamsun's more early works, particularly the great Hunger.
Another book that has come to mind was nearly a masterpiece but it maybe dragged a little bit in the latter half, was Ripley Bogleby Robert MacLiam Wilson, a story of an Irish down and out in London. Must actually get my hands on it again. Don't try and give up cigarettes while reading this book.

Re: Perfume
 

Neither worked here either. Book was kinda ok maybe. Helped me get to sleep.:D

Re: Perfume
 

I see I recommended Hunger by Hamsun. What I meant to recommend was Mysteries.

Re: Perfume
 

Haven't read any Gras and I was told if I enjoyed The Tin Drum, it's best that I just stay away from the novel.