Review By: Anonymous
Published: 2023
Genre(s): Historical Fiction
Audience: Grades 12, Adult
Content Warnings: Gender role expectations, infidelity, societal pressures placed on women
Goodreads Link: The Perfumist of Paris
Summary:
Paris, 1974. Radha is now thirty-two and living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents.
When her friend’s grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, she quickly discovered she had a talent—she could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked in the door. Now, ten years later, she’s working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.
Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.
The final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes readers to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.
Review:
Alka Joshi’s The Perfumist of Paris is the third novel in The Jaipur Trilogy. It takes place in Paris in the 1970s and follows the life of Radha, the sister of Lakshmi. Radha is a talented Indian woman who becomes a perfumer in the heart of Paris. She is married to a Frenchman and has two little girls. The story takes the reader on a journey of Radha’s experiences as a wife, mother, and working woman, none of which she feels she can dedicate her all to as she is pulled in different directions trying to fulfill her dreams of being a working mother in a society where women have different expectations.
Like the previous novels in this series, this story is a narrative about self-discovery, clashing cultures, and the pursuit of one’s dreams against societal expectations of women. Radha’s personal history concludes with her becoming her true authentic self by uncovering the secrets she has kept from those she loves.
Although Radha is living in a country foreign to her, she has always remained connected to her Indian roots. She battles daily with the pull between being a traditional wife and mother versus a modern working woman. Radha’s talent in perfumery brings her success but also conflict as jealousy and her past intertwine. When her first-born child, given up for adoption years earlier, appears at her doorstep, Radha is forced to confront the past she tried to leave behind.
I really enjoyed this book and feel it was a great ending to the trilogy. It was the best written of the three, with Radha’s voice offering deep emotional connection. While more suited to mature readers, it presents opportunities for classroom discussion on identity, gender, and culture. Students could create scent reflection journals or explore how culture shapes creativity and self-discovery.
