If you are the type of reader who sniffs through the layers of a story and finds newer and deeper layers as you go along, read this well-written, delightfully grotesque and deeply disturbing novel.
Author Patrick Suskind’s writing style is somewhere between the genius of Edgar Allen Poe and the emotional disturbance of Emile Zola.
In this novel he takes the human sense of smell to new levels of desire, exaggeration and deeply troubling depths making the reader wonder on every page, “what next, how, who and isn’t this amazing”? Layer after layer is a slick slide into a type of human nature you do not want to encounter.
I might have to read this one again because I’m sure there are deeper layers still.
PS– the movie, staring Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman became available on DVD on 7/24/07.