The Perfume Thief

June 1, 2021
Nightlife goes on in Schaffert's ornate tableau of Nazi-occupied Paris. Schaffert's narrator, Clementine, is presumably in her 70s, though she's not talking. A Nebraska native, Clem is self-described as queer and has long preferred the persona of a dapper dandy. Settling in Paris after a long history of thievery in the United States, and one monumental and disappointing love affair with another person known only as M, she dares not return to the U.S., where too many warrants await. In France, she exploits her other signature talent, perfumery. Her chief competitor, Pascal, has disappeared, which is no surprise since Paris has been seized by the Nazis and Pascal is Jewish. Pascal's Left Bank h�tel particulier now bivouacs aging Nazi kingpin Voss, who, as a member of the old guard, clings desperately to his rank. Zo�, Pascal's daughter, sings torch songs incognito in a cabaret attached to a bordello. Lush description of scents and extravagant lists of everything from butterflies to poisons underscore Clem's prodigious powers of observation, but the novel's beautifully rendered atmosphere is no substitute for suspense and conflict. The aesthete Voss and the loutish but lovelorn Lutz, whose unwilling mistress Zo� becomes, are not particularly menacing though they're Nazis, and the terrors of the Occupation--the dispossession and removal of the city's Jews, the hunger, the cruelty of the occupiers and the co-optation of the occupied--are mostly offstage. There are nods to the Resistance--but even here, misplaced whimsy obtains: for example, tobacco-scavenging nuns branch out into helping prostitutes flee south, disguised in habits. In what passes for an overarching plotline, Voss and Clem form an uneasy alliance to ferret out Pascal's hidden perfumer's diary as part of a double-cross which begins as fanciful and ends as anticlimactic. For most of the novel, Clem, her young prot�g� Blue, and her friend Day, also a chanteuse, seem to be enjoying themselves far too much for the setting. A discordantly frothy vision of Paris' darkest chapter.

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Starred review from June 28, 2021
Schaffert’s intoxicating blend of decadence and intrigue (after The Swan Gondola) brings Nazi-occupied Paris vividly to life. Narrator Clementine, a gender-fluid American expatriate in her 70s, is a perfumer and former thief who embraces the transgressive habitués of the city’s bordellos and cabarets. When a singer friend asks Clementine to steal the hidden diary of her father, the world-renowned perfumer Pascal, from the house the Nazis ejected them from, Clementine hopes to kill two birds with one stone: keep Pascal’s perfume formula out of his enemies’ hands, and take possession herself of his trade secrets, some of which she believes he stole from her. To achieve her goal, Clementine turns latter-day Scheherazade, stringing along Pascal’s Nazi usurper, bureaucrat Oskar Voss, while unfurling a running account of her colorful and queer personal history as she searches the perfumer’s premises. Schaffert’s evocation of Paris and its wartime demimonde is sensual and alluring, but the heart of his novel is Clementine’s demonstration through her own adventures of how every life is its own heady perfume, distilled from the personal experiences of the individual. This is a rich and rewarding tale, as original and unique as the handiwork of its eponymous character. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary.

July 1, 2021
Incorporating the tense setting of Nazi-occupied Paris, Schaffert concocts a memorable work that oozes atmosphere and originality. Her criminal past behind her, the stylishly dapper Clementine, a queer American in her early seventies, runs a thriving perfume shop supplying fragrances to the women of the cabarets. Then Zo� St. Angel, the headlining chanteuse at Madame Boulette's, pleads for Clem's help in retrieving a diary with the secret formulas used by a missing perfumer, Monsieur Pascal. Clem accepts this dangerous challenge, which involves keeping company with the Nazi living in Pascal's house, Oskar Voss, who adores French culture. "Perfume isn't only about chemistry. It's also about psychology," she says, and the novel is redolent with exquisite scents, the meanings they convey, and the memories they evoke. The plot sometimes gets buried beneath all the descriptions, but it boasts beguiling characters who gain depth with each unveiled layer. Schaffert creates a lasting impression through his tribute to these unique artists, the "alchemists of the city's very soul," and their courageous and creatively daring methods of resistance.

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August 27, 2021

The latest historical novel by Schaffert (The Swan Gondola) tells the story of Clementine, a queer American septuagenarian ex-con who is living in the Paris demimonde when the Nazis occupy the city. Clem is convinced to do one last job of thievery and rebellion in order to find the diary of a Jewish perfumer before it reveals the identity of his daughter to the Nazis. Clem uses the skills and knowledge she has developed over the years to complete her task. The first half of this novel drags--Clem spends a good deal of time reminiscing about her past, thinking about her age, and worming her way into the good graces of the officer now residing in the perfumer's house. The volume of research that went into creating Clem's world is apparent in the novel's little factual details, like the subcutaneous perfume craze and mentions of the ties between perfume and chemical warfare. In spite of the amount of research and thought Schaffert put into his novel, it disappoints overall. For a book focused on perfume, the sensory descriptions are too few and far between. VERDICT While the concept, the characters, and the well-researched details of the setting are intriguing, the plot drags, resulting in an underwhelming read.--Bree Jennrich, Kirkwood P.L., MO

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