The book in question is 'The Pigeon' by Patrick Suskind, the shortest volume in my collection with a tiny 77 pages of rather large type. Suskind is best known for 'Perfume', one of the few books I've read in record time (a day and a half to be exact - who'd of thought I could achieve such speed?!). It was my affection for 'Perfume' which made me want to read 'The Pigeon'.
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| 'The Pigeon' by Patrick Suskind (Penguin, 1989) |
'The Pigeon' is the story of Jonathan Noel and how the unexpected encounter he has with a pigeon throws his detached and ordered life askew. But is the end of Jonathan's chosen life?
I'm finding it extremely hard not to make comparisons between this book and 'Perfume'. Both focus on an extremely insular and isolated individual and display Suskind's uncanny ability to evoke the claustrophobic lives people can create for themselves.
A word of warning to the delicate. Suskind can write images of great beauty and precision, but also create passages which evoke feelings of extreme disgust and revulsion. At one point, 'The Pigeon' actually make me feel sick, so I was glad I wasn't reading it on the train or something. Sometimes I really wish I could turn my imagination off! It was pretty short, though, and, like the violence of 'Perfume', part of the way Suskind weaves stories using dichotomy.
Whilst it may not be everyone's cup of tea, I found 'The Pigeon' is an interesting study of one man's descent into isolation and fear and a parable for us all about getting stuck in a rut. Like 'Perfume', it's likely to stay in my mind for a while yet. Which is just as well as I've no idea where the printed version is!
