Structure has been a
recent focus of my reading. How a story unfolds is increasingly more important,
and when a story is layered with four story lines I feel I’ve got a book that
is worth getting excited about.
“Breathe properly, stay curious. And eat your
beets.” This is the guiding
principal of immortal life according to Alobar. But there is more to living a
thousand years: take baths, have a lot of sex, and choose life. Alobar is king,
but as soon as his age begins to show he will be killed out of the fear that
the weakness of the king will bring weakness to the Slavic community in the
year 900. Alobar chooses to not accept death as a part of life and so begins
the epic journey of a king that will become a janitor.
Most develop an obsession
with beets while reading Jitterbug. Alobar attributes his strength of mind to
the bloody vegetable. On his cross-Asian trek to escape death and discover the
secrets of immortality, Alobar meets the goat god Pan, the Lamas monks of the
Himalaya, and the Bandaloop. Already not aging, he finds Kudra who has chosen
to run away from her life and live as a widow instead of dying in the funeral
pyre where her husband’s body will be consumed (lovely Hindu tradition). “From the thick parabolas of her eyelids to
the pronounced balls of her now bare feet, she was nonstop curve…” Kudra is
obsessed with smells, her childhood was spent helping her family sell incense,
but her adult life has been as the wife of a rope maker. The only thing these
two have in common is the choice of living over dying, but together they become
soul mates.
Every 10 pages or so,
Robbins mentions sex. The encounters with Pan are especially vivid, but Kudra
knows Kama Sutra from her marriage.
Sex. It’s exciting, funny, creative, life giving. This book is dirty, absurd,
and lovely.
The other three plot
lines revolve around perfume in three cities: Seattle, New Orleans, and Paris.
Priscilla is a genius waitress/chemist trying to recreate the scent found in a
blue bottle. M. Devalier is a perfumer interested in creating a new scent
focusing on pungent Jamaican Jasmine flowers (Bingo Pajama is a street flower
salesman with bees swarming around his head as accompaniment). And the Lefever
family is a fragrance power company in Paris. The connections are obvious and this may be the weakest part
of the book, but it’s told in small pieces between the epic of Alobar and
Kudra. I looked forward to the breaks from immortality, but that theme comes
back with Priscilla and her love affair with the Irish Dr. Wiggs Dannyboy.
I like the challenge of
multiple perspectives (I want a second reading of The Savage Detectives after reading this) and the ultimate unity of
all four stories coming together for a complete feeling. Jitterbug feels done when you finish it, but everything isn’t
wrapped up. There is no answer to immortality, not everybody gets what they
want, but the perfume has settled.
Tom Robbins’ style is not
for everybody. He’s crude most of the time, funny all the time, and flirting
with deeper philosophical questions throughout. The wild metaphors and puns can
touch readers the wrong way. His writing has a sense of magic realism that can
be compared to some worlds created by Kelly Link. This is the first I've read by him, I know I’ll read more.
8 comments:
If you had hated this book you could have been all like, "This book stinks." That would have been clever.
Better than you saying my review stinks, and my choice of books stinks? Olfactory puns are great.
i loved this book, I read two others by him but this was by far the best. Still Life With Woodpecker was good, and had a similar layers of an onion vibe, but then Villa Incognito was just disjointed and kind of gross.
I read this book a very long time ago, but it has always stayed with me. Nice to hear what others have to say about it. I was trying to remember what he wrote about "baths" why they are so important. Can anyone help with that?
Dr. Robin, the baths are important because they honer the element of water.
Not only that, they are soothing, relaxing, and relieve tension. (my thoughts)
Amazing thoughts on immortality! I Have been actively researching the subconscious mind, and that has led me to the RAS (Reticular Activating System) which filters all of the sensory input in your body to mediate consciousness EXCEPT for the sense of smell, which is directly connected to the emotional part of the brain. With Mr. Robbins delving so deep into this matter so long ago I am absolutely intrigued to go back and read for a fifth time! I mean this book is so determined to sell us on the sense of smell, it blamed the dinosaurs dying out on the advent of flowers! with science backing this emotional connection to smell, the fact that it is not "filtered" well that is just mind boggling!!!!
Nathan! I have read Another Road Side attraction and I would say it is my second favorite by him! Also Even cowgirls get the blues! Have not read the 2 you listed! He is not for everybody for sure!
Dr. Robin, the baths are significant because they heat the body and than cool it, the baths must be hot, but the heating and cooling process was key to the main characters in extending longevity!
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