Jitterbug Perfume - by Tom Robbins (Paperback)

About the Book

Robbins calls Jitterbug Perfume "an epic". It is also a saga, and a saga must have a hero. 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 great-horned god. Some people actually believe that the liquid in the bottle is--the secret essence of the universe?

Book Synopsis

"[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.

Review Quotes

"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."--The 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

About the Author

Tom Robbins has been called "a vital natural resource" by the Oregonian, "one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world" by the Financial Times of London, and "the most dangerous writer in the world" by Fernanda Pivano of Italy's Corriere della Sera. His works include Jitterbug Perfume, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. A Southerner by birth, Tom Robbins lived in and around Seattle from 1962 until he passed away in 2025.