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Bantam

Jitterbug Perfume: A Novel

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“[A] wild comic rip through eternity and beyond.”—The Detroit News A genre- blending romp of a novel that “celebrates the joy of individual expression and self-reliance” (Saturday Review), from the New York Times bestselling author of Still Life with Woodpecker Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. Which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn’t conclude until nine o’clock tonight (Paris time). It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam; Reissue edition (April 1, 1990)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553348981


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 89


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.75 x 8.22 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #14,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #44 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books) #154 in Fiction Satire #1,356 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#44 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books):


#154 in Fiction Satire:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Great, thought-provoking literature. I loved it.
What a fantastic book. Tom Robbins is a brilliant writer, and JITTERBUG PERFUME is his masterwork. It's a book rich with audacious language, glorious detail, expressive whims and fancy, fascinating characters, and takes one a trip through the scientific, the intellectual, and the absurd. At times romantic, confounding, heartfelt, insightful and undoubtedly poetic, Tom Robbins takes the reader to new places and dangerous heights that know no bounds. Unlike many stories told, JITTERBUG PERFUME actually gets better as it moves along...eventually saving the best for last. What's this book about? There's no no easy answer, nor adequate synopsis that justifies the beauty of this book. It is not about "a janitor with a missing bottle," as the back of the book claims. It IS, however, a "saga." That's the one thing the back of the book gets right. Yet what is it really about, you ask? Well...it's about beats. It's about death. It's about life. It's about immortality. It's about scents and smells. It's about our biological makeup and its many mysteries. It's about sex. It's about love. It's about how we choose to live, breathe, bathe and above all else...smell. JITTERBUG PERFUME will make you think. JITTERBUG PERFUME will make you want to live forever. JITTERBUG PERFUME will transform you, and force you (literally) to stop and smell the roses. This is a must-read for anyone who appreciates love, language, scents...and damn good writing. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2012 by P. Gregory
    • Robbins' Best
Tom Robbins is my favorite all-time author and Jitterbug Perfume is my favorite Tom Robbins novel. It is a story that covers several hundred years of one man's life. It is very well written and entertaining in Robbins' own descriptive writing style. It is full of colorful characters and outrageous situations. He has a way of making the unbelievable seem probable. This fantasy covers subjects including beets, fountain of youth, savage ceremonies, a quest for the perfect taco, mythical gods, mountain nymphs, drapes vs. draperies, love, life, happiness, bees, perfume and despair. The story begins hundreds of years ago and ends today. Years ago when I first started reading Jitterbug Perfume, I picked it up a half dozen times before I got through the first chapter. (The first chapter on beets seems pretty boring but comes into play later in the story. I thoroughly enjoyed the first chapter when I went back and re-read it.) However, since that first complete reading I keep going back and re-reading this book. After 7-8 times, I still enjoy it and continue to find something I can't believe I missed previously. This book is a perfect escape from reality and is quite entertaining. You could even find a little something in here to add to your own philosophy of life. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2007 by dap
    • Co-read With My Darlin'
I reread Jitterbug Perfume every few years, but this is the first shared reading. Tom Robbins' fictional style is playful, deep, light, sexy, stimulating, spiritual and provocative. Finally I have a precious partner who loves this book as much as I! (Which may or may not be how I know he's "the one.") I first read this book in 1985 at the age of 37, I'm now 73 and it is just as entertaining, amusing, and delightful to a bandalooping elder! I'm sure I'll enjoy another romp with Kudra and Alobar before I'm 80. And, in the spirit of complete (though probably unwanted) transparency, my beloved and I met at the age of 71. The words used in our 30s, 40s, and 50s to describe intimacy and associated precious body parts seemed to pale. In reading this book we've found the perfect words for those yummy organs: his is Alobar, mine is Kudra! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2022 by Julie
    • I thought several times that this is the best book I’ve ever read
Tom Robbins (not to be confused with Tony Robbins) is “one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world”, according to the Financial Times of London. “He is the most dangerous writer in the world today”, according to Italy’s Corriere della Sera. And he is the most interesting novelist I came across in 2014. I haven’t heard of him prior to November 2014, which I admit with more than a bit of embarrassment. I’ve just finished reading his novel “Jitterbug Perfume”. Until about three quarters through the book, I thought several times that this is the best book I’ve ever read. I have thought the same of at least another one or two dozen books before. Obviously, they can’t all be the best book. Only one book can be the best one. I really should correct my thinking. How about this? The first three quarters of “Jitterbug Perfume” represent the best philosophical novel of the literary fiction genre that I am inclined to think I have ever read. That makes it a bit more specific and leaves me with a slightly ajar backdoor, which I can use to escape, should I change my mind at some time in the future. The book is about mortality and immortality. The plot is told in several parallel stories that converge in the second half of the novel. A bit like another book that I came across recently, “The Mysterious Man”. Although, I hasten to add, “The Mysterious Man” is brilliant, but not quite as brilliant as “Jitterbug Perfume”. I only mention it because I know the author and I thought he could do with a bit of advertising. Back to “Jitterbug Perfume”. There is a king who ruled his kingdom many centuries ago. They had a rule in that kingdom. Whenever a king displays grey hair and when his sexual proficiencies decline, he is to be permanently removed from this world and replaced by a younger king. So far, all kings have accepted that fate without arguing, but not this king. His name is Alobar. Death is not for him, he decides, not now and not forever. What a revolutionary thought. He is of the opinion: “to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.” Then there are the parallel plots. They take place in today’s time: in Paris, Seattle and New Orleans. They have a lot to do with beautiful and interesting women and perfume. I should add, in Alobar’s time – well, at the beginning of his time (I won’t tell you more about his quest for immortality) – daily showers and hygiene were not yet invented. When Alobar was still a king, the god people believed in was Pan. And Pan, as we all know, or, if we don’t know, as Wikipedia tells us, “Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs.” He stinks. You could smell him from miles away. And it was pretty much the same with the population in the Alobar’s kingdom. Alobar meets a woman who is different in many ways, but especially as far as her scent is concerned. She washes herself regularly and she knows a bit about perfume. – And this is where you get an inkling that the various plots are going to converge at some stage. Perfume, you could say, is the link. The search for immortality is the power behind the link. The last quarter of the book, I found less interesting. Still interesting enough to keep reading, but somehow I felt, what the novel really had to say, certainly from a philosophical perspective, I had read earlier on. Which turned out to be the case. Towards the very end, the various plots merged beautifully. I enjoyed this novel, my first novel by Tom Robbins, and I am certain I will read a few more by him. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2015 by Fred Schaefer
    • Freaking amazing
Words can’t do it justice. You have to read this amazing adventure. It’s the most beautifully written book I’ve ever read. I would love to be in the author’s mind for just a moment it must be so colorful and awesome I may
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024 by Ruth Kennedy

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