This is fun to read—and a rare pleasure, too, since the importance of perfume advertising means that one doesn’t often get to read strong criticism of multimillion-dollar-earning fragrances. The joy of Turin and Sanchez’s book, however, is their ability to write about smell in a way that manages to combine the science of the subject with the vocabulary of scent in witty, vivid descriptions of what these smells are like. Their work is, quite simply, ravishingly entertaining, and it passes the high test that their praise is even more compelling than their criticism.
— John Lanchester reviews the upcoming book by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, Perfumes: The Guide. Read more in Scents and Sensibility in The New Yorker.
Musc is the story of a man's obsession with a perfume and its reformulation. Monsieur Eme, a retired secret service agent living a serene life in Paris, is a physically well preserved and inconspicuously elegant gentleman. True to his Gallic nature, the art of seducing women is his favorite pastime; his secret weapon is Musc, an eau de toilette from a small house in Grasse that works in perfect harmony with his skin. He is by no means a perfume aficionado, but he's been more faithful to his fragrance than to any of the women in his life — including Eve, his mistress of 12 years. Monsieur Eme hasn't worn any other scent in the last 40 years, and Musc has become an essential part of his identity. So what happens when it no longer smells the way it used to? When it diffuses as a bland and synthetic aroma, giving off exactly the same odor on everyone else? For Monsieur Eme, a dramatic scenario unfolds.