Most Babies Smell Like Butter; This Baby Smells Like No Other

 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer 

by Patrick Suskind

Perfume book cover

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer has been a book that I have been wanting to read for some time. Supposedly it was the inspiration for Nirvana’s “Scentless Apprentice”, one of my favorite songs from In Utero. I always wondered about the lyrics about babies smelling like butter, but there was one who smelled like no other. It seemed like such odd lyrics for the heavy riffage of the song. Now I have a better understanding of where these lyrics are from and how they relate to the book. This book follows the life of Grenouille, a somewhat despicable boy/man who has a special talent—that he has extraordinary sense of smell and can recreate smells as an expert perfumer. I had mixed feelings about Grenouille throughout the book. He was born unwanted in a pile of fish slop, a really gross and sad beginning to life. Even the wet nurse didn’t want him and could tell there was something off about him. As she noted, he was never satisfied with her milk, and he had no smell. She continually tried to pass him off to the monastery, but no one would take him. It also seemed like everyone he comes into contact with has some kind of odd death, whether it was his birth mother or the proprietor of the home he was eventually taken to, people Grenouille came into contact with have really weird and ironic deaths. I won’t give more away, but I think that his birth circumstances and early experiences kind of predisposed him to become the person he became. I saw this book as kind of questioning nature and nurture, and looking at how our circumstances and opportunities often affect our lives. Grenouille was dealt a bad hand in life, but made the most of his special talent to succeed in becoming a skilled perfumer. This was one of the best parts of the book—learning how scents are made and seeing how Grenoille could make odd smells for almost anything. His animal-like instincts for smells were also really interesting to read. I found myself both attracted to and repelled by the descriptions of smells throughout the book. Süskind uses these sensory descriptions to convey the kind of lack of hygiene in the late middle ages of France. I was also a little confused by the ending of the book, but I also appreciated the ambiguity of the ending as well. The book is kind of disturbing, but in an intriguing way, and if anything, reading about the gross smells that Grenouille often encounters was interesting. I also think that some of the characters who try to exploit Grenouille, but are ultimately used by him are funny—at least, it was humorous to see how they were outwitted by whom they assume is an uneducated person.