Book Summary and Reviews of Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Jitterbug Perfume

by Tom Robbins

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  • Published:
  • Nov 1984, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Jitterbug Perfume has a large and  exotic cast of characters, all of whom are interested  in immortality and/or perfume... Go see for  yourself; you'll have a good time." —Washington Post

"Robbins again celebrates the joy of individual expression and self-reliance. He lays before us the time honored warts and hairs of the world's philosophies—problems with religion, war, politics, family, marriage and sex—and leaves no twist or turn unstoned." —Saturday Review

This information about Jitterbug Perfume was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

Thomas Eugene Robbins was an American novelist. His most notable works are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy dramas"). Robbins lived in La Conner, Washington from 1970, where he wrote nine of his books. His 1976 novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was adapted into the 1993 film version by Gus Van Sant. His last work, published in 2014, was Tibetan Peach Pie, a self-declared "un-memoir".

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