Profumo di Jitterbug (1984)

I first read this book in 2002 with the book club I belonged to back then. When I created my LibraryThing account five years later and recorded the book, I gave it five stars. I saw a mass market paperback copy of the book at a Friends of the Library sale some years later and picked up the book for a quarter to re-read it - and finally got around to doing so this month.

The book has four storylines that all come together at the end. Priscilla is a divorced struggling waitress in Seattle who works on a perfume on the side. Priscilla's stepmother, Lily Devalier, owns a perfume shop in New Orleans, and is working on a perfume too, assisted by V'Lu Jackson - who knows Marcel "Bunny" LeFever, who is the scent genius of the LeFever perfume company in Paris.

The longest and most interesting story belongs to Alobar, a king somewhere in Bohemia sometime in the Middle Ages, who escapes a prescribed death (simply because his hair is turning gray) and seeks immortality. Along the way, he encounters Kudra in India, who escapes suttee because she, too, wants to continue living. Their adventures over the next thousand years are the most interesting parts of the book.

There are a few interesting bits of philosophy. For example, on page 197, Dr. Wiggs Dannyboy (a character who's involved with Priscilla and seeking out eternal life through his Last Laugh Society), says "the will to live cannot be overestimated as a stimulant to longevity. Indeed, Dr. Dannyboy goes so far as to claim that ninety percent of all deaths are suicides. Persons, says Wiggs, who lack curiosity about life, who find minimal joy in existence, are all too willing, subconsciously, to cooperate with - and attract - disease, accident, and violence."

Not sure if I'd give it five stars today, but it's still a fun read. ( )

Alobar and Kudra persue immortality, flower mind as next step in evolution

Tom Robbins in this book opened my eyes to the wild, wild world of modern satire, absurdity, light-hearted comparative religious blasphemy, and BEETS.

Just ignore the stench that just entered the room... it's only my old pal and buddy, PAN.

Drunken revelries are pushed aside for the enjoyment of tons of sex, hot baths, and more sex as the keys to immortality, but if you think that's just fine for a novel like this, THINK AGAIN. A genius waitress working in a Mexican restaurant in Washington State is working on a 1000-year-old mystery perfume while a 1000-year-old sacrificial king refuses to die, working as a janitor. Add a wild cast of Tibetan monks, a low-caste ancient woman, the coming floral revolution, and more sex than you can shake your stick at, and throw it into one hell of a funny satirical soup full of great lines and beets on your doorsteps.

This book changed my life the first time I read it, but I didn't exactly fall into a quest for the perfect taco... I went on a road trip to find the perfect pizza, tho, and while I only did the homeless wandering bit after college for a month, Alobar got to do it for a millennia! I'm so jealous! Oh, yeah, and he's easily had more sex than ANYONE in the world. And baths. Sigh.

Such a wild, irreverent ride. :) I read this and then I look at what Gaiman did later. I definitely thought of Robbins when I read American Gods. :) It's a bit funnier than American Gods, too. :) ( )

been looking for a christopher mooresque voice and i think i found him ( )

This must be the strangest book I've ever read. It's a hodge podge of some of my favorite motifs, and I still can't believe I found so many of them in one book . Plus a few extra beets. :D
It is a light read, with several intense moments. I connected with it on a strange level, and it felt very personal.
The prose is wonderful, and I found myself highlighting the passages more often than usual. Oddly, the book reminded me of Palimpsest by C.M. Valente, which is comparable to this one only in richness of language, and falls short in narration and character development.
The characters in Jitterbug Perfume are likeable and unforgettable, if not very deep.

“You know what I mean? Real and unreal, beautiful and strange, like a dream. It got me high as a kite, but it didn’t last long enough. It ended too soon and left nothing behind.”

I wanna read more books by Tom Robbins, but I feel that after this one, the others can be nothing but disappointing. ( )