# Jitterbug Perfume

By Tom Robbins

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/jitterbug-perfume-b5150320/

King Alobar wants to escape death. Perfumers in New Orleans, Seattle and Paris want to create an extraordinary scent. Their pursuits cross centuries, with a mysterious bottle and the god Pan among the things connecting them.

## What makes it funny?

Robbins interrupts grand questions about mortality with puns and lavishly exaggerated description. Kirkus singles out a joke that puts Descartes into a familiar saying about a cart and a horse. The publisher’s opening makes the discovery of a white hair an elaborate royal crisis.

### The comedy at work

The quest for immortality shares space with the practical business of making perfume. Robbins moves between ancient travelers and modern scent makers, letting philosophical speculation and verbal jokes take long detours through the story.

### Try this if…

Book-group readers recommend Jitterbug Perfume as a way into Robbins’s witty, irreverent storytelling. It offers more to readers who enjoy elaborate narration and philosophical asides than to those who want every sentence to advance the plot.

### Good to know

The opening contains explicit sexual material. Kirkus found some of the asides juvenile and the puns groan-inducing, so tolerance for Robbins’s verbal digressions may shape your response.

## What to expect

- Genre: Contemporary & literary · Fantasy
- Kind of humor: Absurdism · Wordplay
- The atmosphere: Irreverent
- Format: Novel

## Sources & further reading

- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tom-robbins/jitterbug-perfume)
- Publisher: [Publisher: edition and opening excerpt](https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/book?isbn=9780553348989)
- Reader discussion: [Reader discussion](https://facebook.com/groups/bookrecommendations/permalink/7201354209939330)