In this novel no subject is beyond humor’s touch. This lesson seems perfectly suited to today’s reader, as so many of us take ourselves a bit too seriously most, if not all, of the time. Jitterbug Perfume seems to suggest that when we lighten up, and remember the connection we have with our natural selves, the possibilities may be limitless. Together they move the narrative into modernity, and ultimately connect with the other characters in their individual quests to craft the world’s finest scent.Īt the heart of this novel is humor and the reminder to “lighten up.” Even Robbins’ description of what comes after life is humorous and witty. I found the lives of Alobar and Kudra the most enthralling as they rambled through both time and geography on their mission to avoid death. Pan, the god of revelry and earthiness, embodies this cultural transition the most in the novel. Through the character of Alobar, a medieval chieftain king who flees death time and time again, Robbins finds a means to contemplate the shift away from community-think and towards the individualism of modernity. He also develops a wonderful array of unique individuals in his characters. Robbins writes in a detailed and crisp style that is smooth and fast-paced. So many of the details are at once bizarre and utterly human. Thus, began my descent into the fantastic and humorous world of Jitterbug Perfume. Having attempted to read a Robbins book nearly fifteen years ago (and failed to finish it), the challenge intrigued me. I picked up Jitterbug Perfume because a friend asked me if I wanted to read along with her (it was a reread for her).

In Jitterbug Perfume, Robbins investigates themes of immortality, humor, individuality and, of course, love through an outrageous cast of characters and circumstances.

Even the god Pan clambers through this novel, a symbol of humanity’s turn away from the physical/natural and toward the intellectual/rational. To make the story even more zany, beets-yes, the root vegetable-show up randomly throughout the narrative. Dannyboy Wiggs, somehow manages to unite them all with his Last Laugh Foundation. Tom Robbin’s Jitterbug Perfume (1984) tells the wild, at times bizarre, story of a number of characters scattered across geography and ages: a Dark Ages king-peasant-philosopher, Alobar his beloved, Hindu Kudra a misfit waitress in Seattle, Priscilla a pair of French cousins whose family has worked in the industrial perfume business for centuries and two women who comprise a small, even seedy, New Orleans perfume shop in the French Quarter.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins