oriana's Reviews > Jitterbug Perfume
My rating:
Jitterbug Perfume
by Tom Robbins
by Tom Robbins
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 way. Plus there's that anxiety you get when you're, oh, twenty or so pages from the end of a book, thinking There's no way he can pull it all together satisfactorily in so few pages! But he does! It's a tiny bit cheesy, maybe just a wee bit pat, but c'mon. He had an awful lot of balls in the air.
Less for a few reasons. I'd kindly blocked out the fact that everyone in a Tom Robbins novel sooner or later launches into a discourse that sounds exactly like Tom Robbins, which can get pretty annoying. Also, I forgot how letchy he can be. There's a lot of sex in this book – in fact, it's one of the four pillars of immortality – which is fine; it's just that the descriptions of it are often a bit much. ("Alma hiccupped the mushroom scent of his spurt," ex, not to mention lots of glistening, semen-encrusted thighs, and that sort of thing.)
The other thing, which isn't really bad or good, exactly, is that I think Tom Robbins is kind of a victim of himself. He's too much Tom Robbins sometimes. Too hippie-cliché; too cerebral-in-an-understandable-but-trippy-way; too specific with his characters, to the point where they become caricatures that are hard to take seriously; even, sadly, too over-the-top with his metaphors ("his knuckle began rapping at his eye patch like a mongoloid woodpecker drilling for worms in a poker chip"? Are you kidding?); just too... too much.
I guess taking a few years off between Robbinses allows one to forget these drawbacks just enough to come back to him fresh and be able to enjoy his shimmering originality again.
mid-read: It's not that I'd forgotten, exactly, but no one does metaphors like Tom Robbins. For example: The sky was a velvety black paw pressing on the snowy landscape with a feline delicacy, stars flying like sparks from its fur. Fuck, really??
pre-read: Last night I made the most amaaazing beet salad. And this afternoon, as I was pondering a middle ground between all the new new new new things I've been reading and something (Proust) too, ah, weighty to take on vacation, I saw my little half-shelf of Tom Robbins. I can't believe I don't have Another Roadside Attraction, but I thought I'd maybe check out this one, which I haven't read in like a decade.
The whole book is about beets!!
And oh my god, how have I not read Tom Robbins in so long?? He is so fucking cool.
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 way. Plus there's that anxiety you get when you're, oh, twenty or so pages from the end of a book, thinking There's no way he can pull it all together satisfactorily in so few pages! But he does! It's a tiny bit cheesy, maybe just a wee bit pat, but c'mon. He had an awful lot of balls in the air.
Less for a few reasons. I'd kindly blocked out the fact that everyone in a Tom Robbins novel sooner or later launches into a discourse that sounds exactly like Tom Robbins, which can get pretty annoying. Also, I forgot how letchy he can be. There's a lot of sex in this book – in fact, it's one of the four pillars of immortality – which is fine; it's just that the descriptions of it are often a bit much. ("Alma hiccupped the mushroom scent of his spurt," ex, not to mention lots of glistening, semen-encrusted thighs, and that sort of thing.)
The other thing, which isn't really bad or good, exactly, is that I think Tom Robbins is kind of a victim of himself. He's too much Tom Robbins sometimes. Too hippie-cliché; too cerebral-in-an-understandable-but-trippy-way; too specific with his characters, to the point where they become caricatures that are hard to take seriously; even, sadly, too over-the-top with his metaphors ("his knuckle began rapping at his eye patch like a mongoloid woodpecker drilling for worms in a poker chip"? Are you kidding?); just too... too much.
I guess taking a few years off between Robbinses allows one to forget these drawbacks just enough to come back to him fresh and be able to enjoy his shimmering originality again.
mid-read: It's not that I'd forgotten, exactly, but no one does metaphors like Tom Robbins. For example: The sky was a velvety black paw pressing on the snowy landscape with a feline delicacy, stars flying like sparks from its fur. Fuck, really??
pre-read: Last night I made the most amaaazing beet salad. And this afternoon, as I was pondering a middle ground between all the new new new new things I've been reading and something (Proust) too, ah, weighty to take on vacation, I saw my little half-shelf of Tom Robbins. I can't believe I don't have Another Roadside Attraction, but I thought I'd maybe check out this one, which I haven't read in like a decade.
The whole book is about beets!!
And oh my god, how have I not read Tom Robbins in so long?? He is so fucking cool.
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Yes, he is! I haven't read Robbins since--since--10 years ago! It's time to start anew. As soon as I'm out of my Vonnegut phase, perhaps. Thanks for the reminder.
hello oriana,
got a recipe for your beet salad? i had beet green gnocchi last night, but can always eat more beet greens.
plus, my uni library has "jitterbug" and i can't wait.
Oh yeah, Tuck! Here's my recipe. I doubled it and have been eating it for a week!Beet Salad with Orange Garlic Walnut Sauce:
2 pounds red beets, about 4 large, trimmed of greens
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves, for garnish.
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash beets well. While still wet, wrap them individually in foil and place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Bake beets, undisturbed, for 60 to 90 minutes, until a thin-bladed knife pierces each with little resistance. (They may cook at different rates; remove each one when it is done.)
2. Meanwhile, put oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. When it is warm, add garlic and cook until fragrant and beginning to soften, about 6 minutes. Add walnuts and continue to cook until they begin to color, about another 4 minutes. Let mixture cool slightly and then put it in a small food processor; process until you have a relatively smooth paste. Add orange juice to taste and sprinkle with salt and lots of pepper.
3. After beets have cooled, peel off skins. Slice beets into wedges or cubes and toss with dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish with parsley, and serve.
Yield: 4 servings.
(You want to share your Beet Green Gnocci recipe? That sounds effing incredible!!)
oriana wrote: "Oh yeah, Tuck! Here's my recipe. I doubled it and have been eating it for a week!
Beet Salad with Orange Garlic Walnut Sauce:
2 pounds red beets, about 4 large, trimmed of greens
1/4 cup olive oi..."
ok orianna, here is the gnocchi. it isn't really as complicated as it sounds. and the jerusalem artichokes were just added cause we dug some up from the flower bed. regular irish are ok too, or a mix of sweet potato and irish. lots of garlic is the best though, whatever you do.:
Basic green gnocchi:
1 lb potatoes, boiled until tender and mashed (we used 1 large russet potato, skin on, and an equal amount of Jerusalem artichokes that we boiled with skins on then peeled after tender. These take approximately the same amount of time to cook)
5 cups raw greens (we used beet greens, but we’ve made it with spinach, too. Any tenderish green would be good, I think)
1 recipe marinara sauce (I make mine with a glug of olive oil, 1 head garlic mashed up with salt, 1 big can of tomatoes smashed up by hand WITH juice and basil to taste and sautéed about 15 minutes)
¾ cup all purpose flour
Wilt your greens, chop them up small, and squeeze out the liquid. Add to your mashed potatoes, then add the flour. Mix thoroughly. Roll out this dough to a well-floured countertop and roll the dough into little cylinders. Use your hands to make little gnocchi, usually the size of the end of your thumb or a big marble. Have a big pot of boiling water ready, then when you’ve rolled out your gnocchi, boil until they float to the top. This can take anywhere from 2-5 minutes, not long. Put your marinara in a baking pan and drain your gnocchi into it. Here, you can also add any sautéed vegetables you might like, or just keep it the gnocchi and sauce. First time we included sautéed carrots, onions and celery. This time, we sautéed a bell pepper and some mushrooms to add. Bake in a 425 F oven until kind of bubbly, between 5-15 minutes, depending on how much sauce/veggies you have. Very delicious!
Oh, man. I read this at seventeen, after it was recommended to me by Bo Lockwood, and I swear it was one of the most joyous reading experiences of my life to date. (I am kind of in love with how his metaphors are so way-too-much, though, as well as with all the sex. I love the glistening encrusted!)
