Jitterbug Perfume
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| Jitterbug Perfume | |
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 First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Tom Robbins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Bantam USA |
| Publication date | 1984 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 342 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-05068-0 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC Number | 11090839 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 19 |
| LC Classification | PS3568.O233 J5 1984 |
Jitterbug Perfume is Tom Robbins' fourth novel, published in 1984. The major themes of the book include the striving for immortality, the meaning behind the sense of smell, individual expression, self-reliance, sex, love, and religion.[1] Beets and the god Pan figure prominently. The novel is a self-described epic, with four distinct storylines, one set in 8th century Bohemia and three others in modern day New Orleans, Seattle, and Paris.
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[edit] Plot summary
A powerful and righteous 8th century king named Alobar narrowly escapes regicide at the hands of his own subjects, as it is their custom to kill the king at the first sign of aging. After fleeing, no longer a king but a simple peasant, he travels through Eurasia, and eventually meets the goat-god Pan, who is slowly losing his powers as the world turns toward Christianity. In India, he meets a girl, Kudra, who goes on to become his wife. As with most of Robbins' couples, their mutual libido is enormous, and their love quite like something out of a fairy tale.
After an encounter with a mysterious group known as "The Bandaloop Doctors," Alobar is set down the path towards eternal life, which, according to Robbins, can be attained by a consistent ritual of controlled breath work, simple eating, sex, and bathing in extremely hot water. Alobar and Kudra, successful in their immortality, prance about Europe until the 18th century, when they attempt a sort of new transcendental meditation and become separated into different astral planes.
Meanwhile, in present-day, a "genius waitress" named Priscilla struggles with a difficult job in a low-end Mexican restaurant. Priscilla is an amateur perfumer, and is obsessed with trying to locate the base note in recreating a fragrance, something she believes will be almost magical, from a three-hundred-year-old bottle in her possession. While dealing with this, she juggles the unwanted advances of a lesbian co-worker, has a brief affair with an eccentric millionaire obsessed with eternal life, and contemplates the mysterious deliveries of beets to her apartment.
In New Orleans, Priscilla's stepmother, the Madame Devalier, is a successful perfumer, and is also working to recreate the same fragrance as Priscilla. Madame Devalier is intent on restoring her name in the business, taking on the big companies of Paris. She seeks something magical: the ultra-fragrant jasmine from a mysterious man with the helmet of swarming bees, Bingo Pajama.
In Paris, the LeFever Parfumaire is concerned about their eccentric leader, Marcel, who equates smell as the most important factor in the forward movement of the evolutionary process. After witnessing an eclipse, he is obsessed with his own scent.
The story lines eventually converge into a climax in New Orleans, with a brief stop in another dimension.
The main message is summarized in the cryptic Erleichda, loosely translated as "lighten up".
[edit] Cultural Connections
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010) |
There currently is a restaurant in Kennebunkport, ME, called "Bandaloop" and themed after the book.
A similar restaurant existed in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore from 1988 to 2003. Menu items were named for characters and events in the book. It was notable for suspending from the ceiling a fully decorated, upside-down Christmas tree during the holiday season.
A book store located at 709 West Smith Street in Orlando, FL from 1991-1995 was named Alobar Books, after the main character in the book.[2]
Project Bandaloop, [1], a multi-dimensional dance company founded in 1991 by Amelia Rudolph, was named after the Bandaloop from Jitterbug Perfume. This dance company honors nature, community and the human spirit through dance.
Thirty People Away, a video clip which brings to the screen French actors Roxane Duran and Denis Lavant, was inspired by Pan and the beetroot as they are described in the book.
[edit] Trivia
The minor character Ellen Cherry Charles, one of the "genius waitresses" in Priscilla's group, later becomes the protagonist in Robbins' novel Skinny Legs and All, in which the group is also featured.
[edit] References
- ^ "Jitterbug Perfume (review)". http://bluerectangle.com/book_reviews/view_one_review/2290. Retrieved 2010-06-18.
- ^ Orlando, City of Business License Permits Database Search 1992
[edit] External links
[edit] Release details
- Hardcover – ISBN 0-553-05068-0, published in 1984 by Bantam Books
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