Readers Group Diary August

Our readers group has been running for just over two years now. We're a diverse and lively bunch who seem to have a natural knack for being able to disagree yet not fall out. We often manage to combine serious discussion with a good laugh and we all love our monthly meetings. We meet once a month in Outwood Library, Wakefield, and our books are provided in sets of ten through the library service. We occasionally meet up with other readers groups from other Wakefield Libraries.

Our ages range from mid twenties to, well, over sixty would be the diplomatic way of putting it. We are all women apart from Paul who provides us with a male perspective, which we have often found invaluable.

The book

Perfume by Patrick Süskind is the incredible story of Grenouille, a man born completely without a bodily scent. He has an astounding 'gift' in that he experiences the world mainly through his capacity to pick up various scents. In eighteenth-century France this can prove to be both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because the manufacture of perfume is a lucrative trade, a curse because perfume is so valued due to the fact that it is needed to mask the noxious odours that characterise this period - hygiene being non-existent in many people's lives. Not only can Grenouille identify everyday smells, but he can identify the scent that evokes moods such as trust, adoration and lust. His life's work is to capture the fresh smell of innocent hope that he smelt once on a beautiful adolescent girl. This is the story of his quest.

Readers' diary

We were a smaller group than usual this month, consisting of Phyl, Paul, Two Rachels henceforth known as Rachel one and Rachel two, Alyson, Jacky, Julie and Margaret. Rachel two had only just started the book.

Phyl (ever the down to earth one) kicked off our discussion with the observation that 'It isn't the kind of book that you would read while you were eating a sandwich.' She explained that this is because of the utterly realistic descriptions of the smells and aromas of eighteenth-century France. As Paul pointed out, eighteenth-century France would be a particularly smelly place. Phyl said she had experienced that strange kind of relationship that can develop between a book and its reader - she didn't think she liked the book but she couldn't put it down, she felt compelled to read it. She had no idea what was going to happen next and couldn't help admiring the 'terrific amount of research that had obviously gone into it.'

We all agreed with Paul who commented that it was quite an unusual topic to choose, especially given that the main character had no bodily scent of his own and is able to store and recall scents at will. 'The thing I did like was that some of his descriptions of smells were so evocative. For example, he describes a baby as smelling of caramel, which I thought was terrific. Babies do have a special smell. It was fantastic the way he captured the smell of a brass doorknob; they have such a distinctive smell and he describes it exactly. I didn't think anyone would be able to do that!' He felt there was some kind of religious allegory entwined in the story which many of us agreed with, Julie commenting that there were times when Grenouille is presented as almost Christ-like. Paul felt that it was inverted in some way - as Margaret commented that she felt that his total lack of conscience was intriguing and bound up with the fact that '…he has no concept of good or evil. He doesn't know what God is, so he feels no remorse when he kills.'

Rachel one felt that the long descriptions helped to draw the reader into the world he inhabited in a very effective and unusual way. 'It conjured up the spirit of that time quite well; not only the smells but the way that people would have thought.'

We all agreed that long descriptions can often seem tedious, but that Süskind manages to get away with this because of his skill and use of language. Margaret commented that his style sometimes reflected the 'very heady, heavy sensation of some perfumes'. She and Paul agreed that the way other characters are used reflects the way that perfume is made - ingredients are used, their essence extracted and then they are discarded.

This worried Julie who felt that, because she wasn't engaging with any characters in the book, she was becoming like Grenouille! We decided that this was the triumph of this book - that it can engage and almost repel you at times, but you cannot put it down. You are firmly drawn in and the reader actually feels as if they are experiencing the book rather than reading it. All this and yet you do not really identify with any of the characters. To be able to write like that takes a special talent.

Alyson felt there was a lot of ironic humour in the book, she felt herself smiling, but felt daunted by the descriptions at times. She quite liked some of the bizarre happenings and was able to relax once she didn't try to rationalise things too deeply. Paul agreed that there was a comic element to the book.

Jacky felt that the style was reminiscent of a fairy story. 'I felt that the book was being narrated to me rather than me reading it. It made you think about the role of scent in our lives and I was struck by his comment that 'scent is the brother of breath'. It made you think on two levels. I don't think we were meant to believe in the book, but you're meant to think about how fundamental our sense of smell is to our existence, but how little we acknowledge that.'

Smells have the power to transport us back to other times, revive our memories. We thought that the way that so many flowers are picked and crushed just to get a small amount of perfume was some kind of more profound moral message; is this the way that people live today? This prompted some of us to admit that we had had surreptitious little sniffs at ourselves as we read - our fingers, the crook of our elbow.

Rachel two commented that nowadays we tend to be removed from 'natural' smells, which isn't always a bad thing, but are we missing out on something by doing so. Are our lives becoming too sanitised? It would be considered antisocial to not use deodorant, yet it is the one thing that we would hesitate to advise someone to use it if they needed it. Is this the last taboo subject?

Rachel two decided to try the book based on our discussion and we felt comfortable recommending it to her.

Our conclusion is that this book is compelling, intriguing, thought provoking, and unusually engaging due to its style, although uncomfortable at times. It's a mixture of allegory, fairy story, fable and conventional novel. Whatever, it is we were glad we had read it.

We have a star rating system:

1 = Don't waste your energy picking this up.
2 = Only read if you have read all the cereal and crisp packets in the house.
3 = OK, a good read.
4 = You'll be looking forward to the time when you can pick the book up again and carry on reading.
5 = Put your life on hold until you have read this book.

We decided to award this book a 3 and a half as it is a bit better than just okay.