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Availability:
Only 4 left in stock, order soon!
Arrives
Thursday, Nov 5
At a glance
- Condition
- New
- Dimensions
- 5.2 x 0.75 x 8.27 in
- Weight
- 9.2 oz
- Publisher
- Bantam
- Publication date
- April 1, 1990
- Edition
- Reissue
- Language
- English
Description
“[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
Specs 9
| Publisher | Bantam |
|---|---|
| Publication date | April 1, 1990 |
| Edition | Reissue |
| Language | English |
| Print length | 352 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0553348981 |
| ISBN-13 | 89 |
| Item Weight | 9.2 ounces |
| Dimensions | 5.2 x 0.75 x 8.27 inches |
No specs match.
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Top Amazon Reviews
Brilliant Engaging Unbridled
Format: Kindle
Creative in so many ways. Form, narrative, senses, and physics are blended into a perfect taco! You will love reading this book.
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2026 by Love a good Book
Must read!!!
Format: Paperback
His best novel! He weaves 3 different story lines that blend into one with his whacky style. Fun to read!
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2026 by Hal
I thought several times that this is the best book I’ve ever read
Format: Kindle
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2015 by Fred Schaefer
Wisdom for the ages
Format: Paperback
This is one of THE great books in the English language. It is about a love that lasts a thousand years, the search for immortality, of course perfume... and, oh yes, not to be forgotten...beets. I have, in my search for the ultimate book, my search for the wisdom for the ages, (the perfect taco)searched far and wide; Quantum Physics, philosophy, religion... I have cast my net wide and thought I had left no stone unturned. Most have left me empty. Who could have guessed I should have been turning over beets? Mr. Robbins has shared with us mere mortals, a work that had me underlining quotes on almost every page, a work in which I can only hope I have allowed it's wisdom into my soul as a fragrance expands to fill ones lungs. For those less interested in "Literature", Jitterbug Perfume could be considered a "rom com" because the romance oozes from this work like the blood of its favorite vegetable. The humor is thick as the fragrance of its favorite perfume, winking at you like some ancient sojourner with tongue firmly in cheek, yet dispensing such nuggets of wisdom as only time and experience could accumulate. The language is delicious, it pours from the pages like a thick Louisiana gumbo unconstrained by the levees of an indolent corps of engineers. My only complaint is that near the end, the story slows...no car chases or epic battles for control of the titular scent which wafts thru the narrative like a carrot before the cart, but perhaps that is a metaphor as well, that encumbered as we are by our instant gratification culture, our religious pedantic political machine, the military industrial complex which governs our economy and excuse for empire, that perhaps instead, we should just all smell the flowers and dance to our life, health, and loves. May Tom Robbins live a thousand years!
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Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2011 by MagiBob
The Elixir Of Life
Format: Paperback
_Jitterbug Perfume_ is Tom Robbins' droll, absurdist, and often hallucinatory vision of man's continual quest for eternal youth and immortality. Wiggs Dannyboy, a Timothy Leary-like man (with an Irish brogue which keeps fading in and out) theorizes that humans have evolved from the brutish reptile, to the higher level mammal, to finally the highest plane of all: flower loving creatures, motivated by their olifactory powers, who no longer believe in violence and war. He hypothesizes that people with the greatest longevity have, among other traits, abolished death and dying from their lexicon. He also gives strong credence to the restorative powers of flowers and other odors. Dannyboy utilizes as his paragon Alobar, a former king, whom he meets while both of them are serving time in prison. Both Alobar and his equally youthful wife, Kudra, have already been living a thousand years and both, in their earlier years, escaped execution: King Alobar due to showing signs of aging and Kudra, narrowingly escaping ritual burning because of the death of her first husband. A Parisian perfumer and a New Orleans perfume retailer hope to recreate the scintillating, elusive, and soon to prove very significant odor of the few drops of perfume (formulated by Kudra many years before) still remaining in an ancient and exotic bottle that was recently retrieved from the sea, and which had the likeness of Pan, the Greek God of the woodlands and the flocks on it. Tom Robbins works on a vast canvas. The novel begins in Europe during the Dark Ages, then journeys to India, then back to Bohemia. The contemporary sections of the book transport the reader to Paris and New Orleans and back. The author deftly recounts the various myths and legends of ancient times related to love, sex, longevity, and the negative impact of religious influences. Pan figures strongly throughout the book, although Pan has been slowly fading from existence due to the public's loss of interest in him. In the old days Pan had an allegedly stimulating sexual affect on those he passed by while serenading them on his flute. The final irony is that although Pan eventually fades altogether in the modern world, his influence still remains strong, as does the desire to enhance one's youthfulness and sexual attraction.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2002 by IRA Ross
Great, thought-provoking literature. I loved it.
Format: Paperback
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2012 by P. Gregory
I love this book! But not the sellers description of the book.
Jitterbug Perfume is my all-time favorite book. When I received a gift certificate to amazon, I thought I'd finally get myself a hardcover copy since my paperback is falling apart. The description this seller gave was "Dust cover missing, book cover and text are pristine!". It isn't. The book doesn't close flat because the cover is warped. The pages are slightly discolored at the ends. It has an old book smell. The corners of the cover are dented. There is a drop of, perhaps, glue on the cover. And, worst of all, about 1-1/2" of the cover has been chewed as if by mice, a rat, or squirrel. I know the book left the sellers in this condition rather than being damaged in the mail because the book was carefully wrapped in cellophane and then wrapped in newspaper and taped closed. (In fact, I was worried I would damage the book when I took off the newspaper because there was so much tape and I had to cut it.) The newspaper and Saran wrap were not damaged, dented, nor chewed. This is not a pristine book.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2013 by Chloe Blue
the most perfect last sentence
Format: Kindle
This is undoubtedly my favorite of Tom Robbins' books. I think this is where he really hit his stride as a writer. Still preachy but in a less irritating fashion. And the story is phenomenal! The last sentence of this book is the most perfect last sentence I have ever encountered. The joy and wonder if provokes in me is pretty indescribable. In fact the whole last paragraph is pretty sweet. But you won't get it if you don't read all the preceding words. ;0)
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Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2025 by Tim O'Connor