Perfumist of Paris Review + My Landslide Documentary + Podcast

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Dirt: buildings… seedlings… burials… and scent! Who knew that mud that’s carefully baked after heavy Indian rains can result in an aroma of wetness (the scent even has a name! — petrichor) that can be bottled in the form of mitta attar? I learned this, as I endeavor to find a literary agent for my novels, from Alka Joshi’s (who has guested here before) newest book. Googling mitti attar led me to this video about asafoetida (a.k.a. hing), an interesting flavoring agent that’s notoriously stinky.

The Perfumist of Paris is the third in her Jaipur trilogy. Each book satisfying on its own, they spotlight different women within an Indian family. Here’s my review of the final installment for Goodreads and Amazon…

“This celebration of the senses is as much an ode to the nose as it is a love letter to friendship, forgiveness, and emancipation. Just before the vaccines were released, I came down with COVID-19. For the ensuing two years, I despaired that my proper sense of smell would never return. At times it was nonexistent, at others everything smelled like skunk, and sometimes only some scents registered correctly. Sneha Mathan adds a lush audiobook dimension to the trio.”

Dirt is also where we root our homes. Years ago my dear friend, David Hunt (who has guested here and here), and I produced a documentary that covered a plan to halt an entire residential neighborhood from sliding into the Pacific Ocean. Depending on rainfall, the Portuguese Bend area has been crumbling off at a monthly rate of 1” to 7” since 1956, when development of a road allowed rainfull to seep into slippery earth layers.

The video was made in 1986, yet the situation continues amid a volley of astronomically pricey proposals. In the meantime, huge sums of tax dollars maintain the coastal road and provide above-ground piping of utilities to accommodate the shifting turf. Home owners cling to their migrating homes by jerry-rigging freight containers and stilts to skate them over newly formed ravines. Houses that migrate across properties fuel un-neighborly contention. Here’s a link to recent yet similar news.

What’s your fave scent? Mine is bergamot.