Perfume

[yinyang]

Am I the only one in the world who read this book and didn't enjoy it? I wasn't involved or disturbed or pulled in by what seemed to me to be two dimensional characters and a disjointed story. I admit it's not like anything else I've read and I think I can see what they were trying to do but it just didn't work for me. Anyone else feel that too?
For those of you ( and I know there are loads ) that love it, can you you try to explain what you think I'm missing. x

[Hellion]

I loathed it, not that it was badly written and it was unusual but the character was just so revolting I couldn't warm to him on any level. Having said that I read it about 3 years ago and I still remember the story so it obviously made an impact.
I read it becaus every 'celebrity' that was interviewed at some awards ceremony said the loved it and I read it to see what the fuss was about.

[yinyang]

I was the same as you, hellion. Everybody was going on about it and I had to see if it was as good as they all thought.. Maybe I just started out with my expectations too high.
I agree with you about being unable to warm to the main character. I actually found there wasn't a single character I could relate to or emphasise with and I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

[China Doll]

I'm not sure you're missing anything YinYang. I admit I thought it was excellent and I think the fact that it could appear disjointed stems from the isolation and lack of remorse of the character. I also think the imager is excellent but perhaps it just didn't float your boat so to speak.

I do know where you're coming from tho. I read The Alchemist recently and thought it was ok but was no where near as brilliant/life changing as some of my friends would have me believe.

[snagged]

I started it and had to make myself read it to the end... not comfortable reading but sometimes 'difficult' is good... glad I did..

[robbo82]

I'd agree, I read it a couple of years ago on the back of it being in the BBC's Big Read Top 100 Books, but was severely unimpressed by it. The main character and plot just didn't engage me at all. I was glad to finish it by the end.

[tara20]

Could it be that something got ' lost in translation' ?
The original was written in German and although it was
uncomfortable and sometimes downright unpleasant to read, it had a certain morbid fascination that let you overlook the impossibilities of the story.
Sometimes you just have to let fantasy take over!
I admit it's not the easiest book , more of a challenge!