2006 books

[peteryoung]

85) Patrick Süskind, The Pigeon, 1987
Fear and self-loathing in Paris. Jonathan Nöel is a non-person, a man who has preferred decades of complete anonymity to the messy business of actually living, but his unimaginative and ultra-organised world is thrown into complete turmoil by the random appearance of a pigeon on his apartment doorstep. Kafkaesque, certainly, looking closely at how near we can live to the stuff of our nightmares with only the horror of our own suppressed rage to stop us from going over the edge, but for me The Pigeon is a greater success in that, despite its present day setting, it has all the feel of a novel fifty years older than it actually is.

Comments

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

Ever since I read Perfume I've been meaning to read more of Süskind's work.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

I see there's now a movie of Perrfume. I might actually venture into the cinema for this one.

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

Who'sd making the movie? If it's not a Hollywood movie it might be interesting. Considering hw important the sense of smell is in the novel, it will be intiguing to see how they convey that in a film.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

German director Tom Tykwer, who did Run Lola Run. Website here (http://www.perfumemovie.com).