Jitterbug Perfume: A Novel (New Fiction S.)

by Tom Robbins

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.

• ISBN10: 0553348981
• ISBN13: 9780553348989
• Publish Date: 1 April 1990 (first published 1 November 1984)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Books Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553348989

Reviews

[clementine]

Hmm, this one took me a long time to read despite not being particularly long. I didn't find it especially tedious while reading it; I just didn't always feel inspired to pick it up. It's so uneven for me - sometimes I loved the playful writing, sometimes I found the metaphors completely overwrought. The plot is great and I think it came together brilliantly at the end, but it dragged a bit in the middle for me and I'm iffy on the hints of Orientalism and the blatant sexualization of women of colour. I was getting hints of Vonnegut here, though Robbins' prose was a lot less to-the-point. I can see why people love this one (though it may not have aged terribly well...), but it fell short of perfect for me.