false 8682 13 <i>Jitterbug Perfume</i> 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. 1105831 book 1984 Jitterbug Perfume total:13377|5:5982|4:4563|3:2185|2:492|1:155| 13377 55856 16038 1315 4 8 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 18 18:00:45 -0700 2007 Sat Apr 04 13:19:29 -0700 2009 post-read: Ohhhh, I really missed reading Robbins. What fun!

This book was both more and less wonderful than I'd remembered. More because I'd forgotten just what a superb stylist Robbins is (see mid-read comments). His plots are intricate, his characters are rendered in wonderful detail,...more...]]> 1 9 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 24 17:39:40 -0700 2008 Sun Dec 07 15:37:26 -0800 2008 Douglas Adams, but Adams is, you know, funny. Here’s what seems to pass for humor in a Tom Robbins novel: beets (the very existence of), a woman getting stung in a delicate place by a bee, and l...more...]]> 4 5 false false Wed Aug 01 13:17:57 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 15 12:25:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Wed Jul 16 21:07:18 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 22:57:08 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 00:11:29 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 20:05:41 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 10:12:23 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 03 13:29:58 -0800 2008 1
Oddly enough, my best friend also said this is her favo...more...]]> 3 3 false false Sun May 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 03 18:30:47 -0700 2007 Sat May 17 21:53:26 -0700 2008
I guess it's kinda like Kurt Vonnegut meets Robert Anton Wilson meets . . . maybe Chuck Palahniuk, emphasis on maybe, but very much Vonnegut meets Wilson.

A...more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Jul 30 07:49:02 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 15:26:38 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 4 false false Mon May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 15 05:35:58 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 10:23:51 -0700 2008 I recommend this book highly. Its smart, thought-provoking, and over-the-top. I have never read anything ...more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 28 12:57:09 -0700 2007 Thu Feb 28 04:36:17 -0800 2008
At times hysterically funny, at times excruciatingly tedious ("Dannyboy's Theo...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jun 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 25 22:22:15 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 24 23:19:45 -0700 2008 Juliana, once I'd started this book: part of me wonders what took me so long between being recommended the book in 1996 and finally getting around to reading it, like, TODAY. But then another part of me knows that I did not yet dig so heavily on, say, beets and Tibetan Budd...more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Nov 02 19:39:17 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 02 17:21:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 12:37:34 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 12:44:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 09:53:09 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 07:29:24 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 06 15:28:55 -0800 2008 Sun Jul 12 09:49:02 -0700 2009
Reminds me of Christopher Moore's books - eccentric and ambitious. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. I enjoyed this quite a bit until about 2/3 of the way through, when a new character is introduced who is prone to long fits of rambling lectures. I'...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 28 20:04:53 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 09 18:13:28 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 20:19:17 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 20:26:55 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 16:38:44 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 16:53:14 -0700 2009
It's just... too long. It's full -- and I mean full -- of diatribes by characters that appear to be thinly-veiled musings by the author himself. The reader is given o...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 15:27:30 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 15:48:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jun 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 15:17:32 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 20:04:20 -0700 2009
Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. It's about immortality, religion, individuality, pleasure, our primitive brain (specifically our sense of smell), the ridiculousness of life, conformity, escaping social bounds, and, well, LIFE...more...]]>