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Dec 16, 2009

oriana rated it:

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, down to the distinctive vocal stylings. His ideas, though perhaps a smidge stale twenty-five years on, are still interesting and fun and clever and smart, intellectual, but not in a showy or pedantic More...

8 comments like (20 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2008

Trin rated it:

Well, I officially don’t get Tom Robbins. People have recommended him on the basis of comparisons to 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 lesbians (the very existence of). And here’s the kind of prose you can look forward to:

The sky, layered with thin altostratus clouds and smog, appeared to reflect human suffering and failed to More...

6 comments like (19 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Scott rated it:

Tom Robbins is, to me, like the band Rush (I know this seems like I'm trying too hard, but honestly, this is the best analogy I can come up with & this is legitmately the first thing that came to mind): You like them ok, and even get a bit excited when they come up on the radio, but when you're grabbing CDs for your car, your copy of "Moving Pictures" somehow never quite makes the cut. That's how it is with me and Tom Robbins. Well written? Check. Interesting characters? Check. Unique? More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Mariel rated it:

If that cliche (is it a cliche? It's said a thousand times) were true about pictures being worth a thousand words...

This is a beet book. Robbins didn't BEAT us over the head with the beets. I was all over the beets like beets in borscht. (Hey, so were other goodreaders. Nice!)

What are words worth? William Wordsworth probably knows. I'm with Slugsworth. We try to steal Willy Wonka's chocolate recipes and the words from others. I'm gonna eavesdrop.

More...

9 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Morgan rated it:

I keep feeling like this book is like something else that I've read, but I couldn't tell you what that something else is.

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.

And kinda Philip K. Dick, a little, just less of the science fiction and more of the mind-blowing philosophical standpoint.

That being said, I liked it. It's incredibly dense, in the sense More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2008

Garen rated it:

Hm. What to say about this guy . . . this is totally a guy you either love or hate, and yet I find myself strangely ambivalent. There are some things i really appreciated about the book and his style, and there are some things I really didn't care for. Whatever one says about this writer, the first is that he is a complete iconoclast of Rabelasian proportion. He ignores pretty much every rule that fiction writers generally, in good taste, abide by. And to an extent that's quite refreshing. More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2008

D'Arcy rated it:

I have vacillated between a four and five star rating on this. I LOVE the words. Each page was a delicious treat that kept me on the edge of my seat...what metaphor or simile or pun would Robbins pull out of the treasure chest that is his brain? I fell in LOVE with the language. I know it sounds weird, but the way he wrote about the beet and all vegetables on the very first page sold me. I knew this book would be amazing.

The only thing that keeps me from giving it 100% are the main s More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2008

Kelly rated it:

Told to read this by my boyfriend who declared that I NEEDED to read this book to understand him, I am now disgusted and reconsidering my relationship. Ok, I'm kidding, but I take solace in the fact he read this book in high school.

Oddly enough, my best friend also said this is her favorite book.

Either I'm surprised to discover I'm a prude, or Robbins wastes way too much of a promising book on misogynistic fantasies of all women as nymphomaniacs who live and breathe to s More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2007

Steve rated it:

Here’s a question for those who have read Tom Robbins: How would you describe him to the uninitiated? Certainly you’d have to say he’s quirky, in a wordplayful sort of way. His eccentric use of metaphors is like a Catskills comedian’s use of one-liners – it’s a big part of the act. There’s usually some substance to his writing, too. The social commentary is often straight from the flower power perspective, but he’s more insightful than most when it comes to articulating a view. He was an a More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

i've found that with tom robbins' novels, you either love it or hate it. i hated this one. disappointing since so many people have told me that i "HAD" to read it, assured that i would just love it. for the record, i liked 'still life with woodpecker' and 'skinny legs and all.' i didn't care for 'even cowgirls get the blues' and thought this one was so full of shit that the topic of perfume was so sorely needed to cover the overwhelming stench. maybe i just wasn't in the right mindset. More...

10 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Sara rated it:

What's up with the juvenile sex talk, man? Ugh it's a great story, pretty funny and exciting and all, but he just has to throw in descriptions of genitals and sex acts wherever he can. I'm certainly no prude, but that doesn't mean that I need to know about every erection and scenario where the main characters have more sex in five minutes of reading than most people have all month! And I'm sorry, but there is no way to make a clever metaphor for boners or boobs or whatever. It's a waste of good More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2010

teacup_carousel rated it:

As with anything Robbins writes I find myself hard pressed to find a way to accurately describe his work. Or the plot, or the style or even the characters come to think of it. Perhaps this is why the descriptions on the back of his books are always so obtuse, more like pieces of a puzzle that can only be deciphered upon completion of the book so that we, the readers, armed with our literary decoder rings can go back over them and say "ah, yes so the main character really WAS a janitor the w More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 12, 2010

Gina rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2010

Rachel rated it:

I loved the beginning and the ending! I liked the author's hilariously witty writing style, and I do think he is genius for coming up with all of this stuff, including the sweeping plot that goes across continents and centuries, and the bizarre sexual similes and metaphors he casually throws in here and there. Once I got to the ending and saw how everything came together, I smiled from ear to ear. At that moment, I was very glad I had read the whole thing, it was quite satisfying. HOWEVER ... More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Jana rated it:

Two stars, and I’m being nice. And I am a f*cking huge fan of beetroot.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been eating it like it’s the only vegetable on the menu. It’s good for iron in the blood, and I like it pickled, raw and boiled. I could eat it constantly. I love sex as well, I love reading about it. Of course you want to know a lot about.

But this book was hysterical. In the beginning I was so enthusiastic, and Alobar had a face and body of Gerard in ‘300’ movie. Oh la More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 26, 2008

Tori rated it:

This book is RIDICULOUS! Its a huge, dense story in a small package. I thought I would speed right through it, but it is so dense that it has taken me nearly 3 weeks to get through it.
I recommend this book highly. Its smart, thought-provoking, and over-the-top. I have never read anything like it before.
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that the incessant absurd metaphors that Robbins uses grow tiresome after the first few chapters. At first they seem clever, but then More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2008

S rated it:

Breathe properly. Bathe often. Eat your veggies (especially beets). Have lots of sex. These are the keys to staying young and living longer. Oh, and it's all intimately linked with our sense of smell.

At times hysterically funny, at times excruciatingly tedious ("Dannyboy's Theory" at the end made me want to gouge my eyes out with a shrimp fork), this book was, overall, good.

Not great. Not wonderful. Just good.

The book is full of odd characters More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2008

Kelly rated it:

As I'd said to my friend 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 Buddhism (both of which have figured crucially by p. 116) back in 1996. And then, oh my God, an accordionist, a crucial accordionist, appears! I mean really.

So maybe I had to, you know, ge More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

Vanessa rated it:

This was my first Tom Robbins novel, and is still my favorite. I am reading it again because after a TR drought, I tried to read Another Roadside Attraction (my 6th TR I think) and have really not been able to catch on... So I feel like I've forgotten what it was that I like about TR and I'm getting to know him all over again.

For being my first Tom Robbins, I can see now why I started to like him: the epic style, millenia-crossing arcs, the witty metaphors, the dabbling in religious More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

Jen rated it:

Jitterbug Perfume was the first Tom Robbins book I ever read, back in the spring of my freshman year of college in 1996 (thanks, Yanek!). I fell in love instantly. If you've never read a Robbins book before, I will warn that they are not for everyone - he likes to push the envelope when it comes to social pre-conceptions, religion, relationships, etc. - but if you tend to like weird, quirky, philosophical stories, you owe to yourself to give at least one of his books a try. This one focuses o More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2009

Kim rated it:

(Contains very small spoilers)

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'm not opposed to lecturing per se, but when it's on a topic in a fiction book, I tend to feel that the author is wasting my time. Any pacing or momentum in the book screeches to a halt the second this More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 09, 2007

Tiffany rated it:

In all of Tom Robbins' books, even the ones I love, there is something about the way he treats gender that keeps me a little on edge. It seems that in one moment of time (1970, Sexual Revolution, there was a Fu Manchu mustache involved), he discovered a new way of thinking about women, and since then, he hasn't found a plot twist, metaphor, or character that doesn't, in some way, lead back to our orgasms, in all their Robbins-inflected glory. That said, nobody tells a story like Tom Robbins. More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 05, 2007

Kristain rated it:

I LOVE this book. It is my favorite by Tom Robbins that I have read so far. It talks about SOOOOO much. All in all the message is basically: "lighten up." In other words, be light hearted and just live life. It talks about how science and art, although they tend to oppose eachother, actually intercect and are just two parts of the same thing. It implies that everything is just a part of one big thing. It also talks about living life with a healthy attitude. It even gives credit to " More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Orr added it

Abstract: Too clever for its own sake. Too new age for my sake. Too long for anybody's sake.

Ok. So I have something anti-New-Age. But unlike what many think this is not because of basic assumptions, or at least the more bluntly obvious ones. It's because of the lack of other such. For instance "control your thoughts and you can control everything". Instead of arguing about its truth or falseness, which is what most pro New-Age conversants bring up, I would rather discuss the nature of More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Holly rated it:

Here's a discussion board assignment I wrote for an advanced English class regarding Jitterbug Perfume:

My favorite author, Tom Robbins, was my favorite author even before he wrote my favorite novel of all time. My copies of Robbins’ first three books, Another Roadside Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and Still Life with Woodpecker (especially the latter) were tattered and dog-eared with repeated readings long before I got my hands on Jitterbug Perfume. It was 1985, and I was More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Chanel11 rated it:

Hmm it seems I am never sure quite where to start with Tom Robbins' books. I will admit though that I do much prefer this one to Still Life with Woodpecker. It had more of a storyline and dare I say it, the almost random musings did seem to actually tie in with the book and become relevant (although they are talked about to DEATH - e.g Beets, Pan, scent ect).
I struggled in the beginning to stay interested and almost decided to give up, but I am glad I continued as the story and characters More...

0 comments like

Oct 26, 2011

Baker rated it:

This is the third time I am reading this book. I was first introduced to Sir Tom Robbins when I was but 14 yrs old. I had placed 100 out of 100 on my entrance exams for english/lit for highschool (which was a surprise even to me!) and my teacher took an interest in me. He began to take me aside after class and loan me his books. Jitterbug Perfume was the first that I was loaned.
At first glance, I assumed it was some silly romance as I had seen it many times upon my mother's bedside table More...

0 comments like

Sep 12, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

I'm going to be honest with you: I didn't really know what to think about this book. I know that I liked it, though.

So this is an epic, but it's short. It narrates the life of the ancient king Alobar, who decided he was not ready to die. After escaping death twice, he makes it his mission to find a way to live forever. Interjected amidst this chronicle are the stories of Priscilla the waitress, Madame Devalier the perfumer, and Marcel, the scent genius of the LeFever perfume house. The More...

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Aug 25, 2011

Coquille rated it:

Wow. This is an amazing book written with a healthy dose of wordplay, foreplay, and even some foul play -- oh yeah, and lots of beets. Each sentence is a joy to read just to see how Tom Robbins strings words together, then ideas, and finally ties this crazy-ass story together in a neat bow at the end. Seriously, wow. I read this as my "lunch break" book for work, which was perfect because it made me laugh constantly during a stressful time. Robbins is freaking hilarious, especially if More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Hannah rated it:

Jitterbug perfume left me with a good taste in my mouth. For someone who gets carried away with philosophy easily, it was refreshing for me to read Tom Robbins. He brilliantly strings deep philosophical themes throughout the novel and somehow left me feeling lighter, not weighed down. I started off skeptical and did not understand what I thought at the time was his pointless humor. About half way through the book though, his silliness grew on me, and I felt like I was on Tom Robbins crack. At th More...

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