Recently Read: The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind (1987)

The Pigeon came into my life as many of the best books do, completely unexpectedly. I was delighted to run across this slim volume at a thrift store near my apartment because I am already a massive fan of Süskind’s better-known novel Perfume and had no idea this later one even existed. The Pigeon is a wonderfully absurd little novella about a unassuming Parisian man who wants nothing more in life than to save up his francs, buy the small room he rents, and avoid running into any of the other tenants in his building on his way to the shared toilet. This man’s quiet life is thrown into complete disarray when he unexpected encounters a pigeon in his hallway one morning. This seemingly benign event causes untold miseries for our protagonist and gives Süskind a vehicle to expound on some of life’s most profound philosophies– like that the true definition of human freedom is the possession of a private location to shit. Its funny, its bizarre, and its also somehow completely human and relatable.

Pigeon enthusiasts DNI.