A round-Robbins on the themes of scent, so-called "floral
consciousness," and immortality - skipping through time and space,
but offering a little old-fashioned storytelling charm along with
the usual cute/hip doodling. In one of the two parallel plot-lines
here, Robbins juggles the separate attempts of various parfumiers
around the world to come up with a perfume (upon a jasmine base)
that will outenchant any previous concoction: Madame Devalier in
New Orleans is feverishly experimenting; so is her adopted daughter
Priscilla in Seattle; and the megs-company LeFever is also hard at
work in Paris. Meanwhile, in the other main plot, we follow King
Alobar - a Dark Ages hero - through his global wanderings: he
eventually reaches India, meeting a widow named Kudra; both of them
are in flight from Death; and both eventually, through the direct
intervention of the decrepit god Pan, actually achieve immortality
- even learning how to capture the immortality-essence in
bottled-liquid form. So ultimately, of course, these two
plot-strands will link up - as Alobar time-travels up to the
present, providing the evolutionary missing-link to "floral
consciousness". . . and teaming up with a Timothy Learylike outlaw
scientist, Dr. Wiggs Dannyboy, who adds a bit of new-age theory to
Robbins' usual flower-power rhetoric. ("Philosophers have argued
for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin,
but materialists have known all along that it depends on whether
they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.") As in all of
Robbins' novels, there is much that's juvenile and insufferable
here: terminally cute asides and many, many groaners - e.g., "a
populace that was beginning to put Descartes before des horse."
Still, the mundane/exotic enterprise of making perfume offers a
rich basis for Robbins' half-credible, half-cartoonish
explorations. And, thanks to its lively sweep through time and
geography, this may be his most agreeable book ever: relaxed,
readably sequential, goofily lyrical - with some feather-weight
appeal for non-fans as well as the usual Robbins readership.
(Kirkus Reviews)
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 is actually 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 of two left.
General
Imprint: |
No Exit Press
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
April 2001 |
Authors: |
Tom Robbins
|
Dimensions: |
198 x 132 x 23mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
342 |
Edition: |
New Ed |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-84243-035-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
1-84243-035-1 |
Barcode: |
9781842430354 |
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