PARFUMS

From the sizzling sharpness of freshly cut garlic to the cool tang of a father's aftershave; the heady intoxication of a fumbled first kiss to the anodyne void of disinfectant and death this is a decadently original olfactory memoir.In sixty-three elusive episodes we roam freely across the countryside of Lorraine North-East France from kitchen to farm to a lover's bed. Recognising the bittersweet nostalgia of a scent that slips away on the summer breeze Claudel demonstrates again his impeccable grasp of the personal and the universal interweaved with a rare self-deprecating charm.This is an evocative patchwork at once earthy and ethereal erotic and heart-breaking. Claudel permits us a glimpse of moments that have driven him to delight or despair creating through the fading aromas of the past fragments of humour insight and quite intangible beauty.