Perfume - Patrick Süskind
Posted: 18 May 2015, 18:08
I recently read this classic set in 18th century Paris after hearing much hype about it. I had a lot of patience with it because of everything I had heard but I was honestly a bit disappointed.
It is undoubtedly a great piece of writing. Beautiful to read due to the poetic descriptions given to a sense that we tend to ignore; smell.
However, I thought the story was actually quite lacking and I struggled to keep going. The book became hard work due to the wonderful over-complication of passages. I felt I could read for pages without much actually happening in the story. A work that maybe would have been better as a shorter piece for me. It just didn't hold me. But maybe I am just a slave to the modern, high-octane page-turners!
Did anyone else have a similar experience? Or am I just being a bit of a literary simpleton..?
It is undoubtedly a great piece of writing. Beautiful to read due to the poetic descriptions given to a sense that we tend to ignore; smell.
However, I thought the story was actually quite lacking and I struggled to keep going. The book became hard work due to the wonderful over-complication of passages. I felt I could read for pages without much actually happening in the story. A work that maybe would have been better as a shorter piece for me. It just didn't hold me. But maybe I am just a slave to the modern, high-octane page-turners!
Did anyone else have a similar experience? Or am I just being a bit of a literary simpleton..?