The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr

This book is the story of a scientist and how he discovered and then proved that scent is not a "shape", but a "vibration".

WARNING: This book is full of foul language. The author quotes the scientist, one Luca Turin, and Luca apparently can't explain himself without a lot of swearing. Strange. I always imagine that the well-educated grow out of that kind of language. But not Luca Turin. In fact, he seems, although brilliant, to be a little morally un-evolved. So I can't recommend this book without serious reservations. If you're the kind that can't overlook more than a few dozen F-words, then skip this book. Or borrow mine cuz I blacked them all out. I found them very distracting.

I stuck with this book (despite the language which is usually a deal breaker for me) because for a long time I have found the study of scent fascinating. I love perfumes of all kinds--the ones you apply, the ones you burn, the oils, the sprays, the lotions... and I've always been very interested in the evocative power of scent, said to be the most powerfully evocative of all the senses. Luca Turin is a perfume expert and there's a lot about perfume in this book. I really liked those parts. But his theory of scent--the vibration theory-- is very interesting as well.

Because of the lack of any willing advocates for the opposing theory (the shape theory), this book is less balanced than it could be. The author excuses this by explaining that the proponents of this theory all refused to be interviewed for this book. In fact, the scent industry as a whole seems to have completely ignored Luca Turin's very convincing work. It is convincing to the reader, of course, because it's all from his point of view and the failure of any other scientists to be interviewed robs the reader of this balanced point of view. We see it all from Luca's side and he is very convincing. I was convinced, anyway. :)

Luca Turin is characterized as a turbulent, sloppy, sometimes crude, controversial, visionary scientist. It's always interesting to me when I, the reader, both dislike and believe in a character. It's a testament to good writing when I can be sympathetic to a basically unsympathetic character. That's the tightrope that Mr. Burr seems to walk when chronicling these years of Luca Turin's life.

I did learn a lot from this book. There were parts that were less interesting than others, but I was continually engaged in this book up until the end, which is saying something when one is talking about a scientific book. Despite the terrible language, I consider this to be a worthwhile read. Come and borrow my copy.