We are delighted to see Sabrina again. The little cashier from the supermarket, heroine of: If You Only Knew in 2010 returns. Sabrina seeks shelter as best as she can under a downpour in Grasse during the rose festival. On a plane, she found herself sitting next to Tony Curtis, and the narrator was a fleeting witness to this encounter.
Under the unpredictable downpour of the midday, in Provence, he invites her to recount this meeting with the movie icon. The story begins in an airport and there is Sabrina telling her story. This novel is more of a history book, the history of perfume through the ages and times, going back to the highest antiquity to reach the 20th century where society was upheaved, but perfume was always there and even more present.
With Tony Curtis, we venture behind the scenes of cinema, Hollywood and its dramas and joys. Marilyn, the child-woman, object, betrayed icon, all is said. The narrator witnesses this meeting, knowing and admiring the old actor. In this plane, he comes to greet him. Later, at an airport, the narrator finds this girl who has permanently left her cashier’s smock and works, but is it work when there is pleasure? The rain is the backdrop of their meeting. Once again it was fleeting and this nose of the perfume world was traveling the globe in search of new scents.
The Roman du Parfum is a magnificent book. Sabrina, Tony Curtis, the world of perfume and the history of aromas, their uses through the centuries, from tools of seduction, praise to the gods or God then means of protection against epidemics. This is what Pascal Marmet offers us in his book, where history and fiction intertwine to present us with a novel with scents of lavender, rose, and jasmine.
T Jan.
The Roman du Parfum
Pascal Marmet
Editions du Rocher.
