Tom Robbins.... I think we would've gotten along rather splendidly.
"The beet is the most intense of vegetables." What an excellent start. I was curious from moment one, and have remained curious until the moment at the end. Aside from earning brownie points for setting a small fraction of the novel in Pan's homeland 'Arkadia', for me it was the genius you revealed at, possibly, all moments in the book. "... while the king was as conscious as an un-sheated knife." King Alobar. My favourite character was probably whale-mask wearer Marcel, although Bingo Pajama comes pretty close solely for the whack name.
My favourite sentence is probably not: "There's an old axiom: "A couple's first quarrel is Cupid's laxative."", but it comes pretty close. I feel like you rationalised irrational imagery and constructed a coherent narrative out of wild characters and wild circumstances, and tied it all up in a glowing red bow at the end. Brava.
I will, all my life, search for the perfect taco. Au revoir, until next time.

Before I knew that magical realism was a thing, I loved Tom Robbins. Before I fell hard for postmodernism, I fell for Tom Robbins. Before I had developed a literary taste that I can be proud of, there was the beacon of hope for me that is Tom Robbins.

There aren’t many things I loved in high school that I still love now: Listening to the same Dashboard Confessional CD on infinite repeat, running to Livejournal to unselfconsciously document every oh-so-significant spike in my emotional temperature and wearing brightly colored tights under fishnet stockings are all things I’ve let slip into the past but Robbins has seen me through all the milestones and minutia of my teenage and twentysomething years.

Jitterbug Perfume was not my first foray into the weirdly wonderful and wonderfully weird worlds that Robbins builds from the gossamer threads of imagination unbound (I'm actually not sure which one popped my Robbins cherry but I do know I first read this one during my last summer of college when I was a live-in nanny -- which was a surprisingly good summer for bibliomania, actually). It is, along with Skinny Legs and All, tied for the honor of being my favorite of his, and both novels are longtime mainstays of my desert-island reading list. So when my craving for Robbins got to be too demanding to be delayed any longer and the heady of perfume of spring was calling too loudly for the only companion novel that successfully captured the power of scent in words, I knew I could rely on this book to deliver everything I needed and more.

It is tempting (like, it is taking an inordinate amount of self-control to fight the impulse) to say something about how beets are the beating heart of this novel but that's only because I have a sick, unironic penchant for puns. Really, this is a story that spans 1,000 years (or about as long as I've been staring at the computer screen while waiting for this review to write itself C'MON BOOZE LUBRICATE MY THOUGHT PROCESS NOW) and connects Seattle to New Orleans to Paris to Bohemia of yore with the wafting of a fragrance. There's also a very loyal swarm of bees serving as the halo a modern-day Christ figure would wear and Pan comes and goes to prove that man creates and destroys gods with a fury and jealously no spiritual figurehead would ever dare to act on. And a fallen king who proves that love can last more than a lifetime and winds up behind bars in the process (if that's not a metaphor for modern times, I don't know what is).


...


You know, I thought a little liquid creativity would help me here but it is just so damn hard to express how much and why I love this book and how excited I am that, almost eight years later, it is actually even better than I remembered. This is so much more than beautifully playful prose, a caution against taking oneself too seriously lest you forget to stop and smell the beet pollen, more inventively evocative metaphors than a whole hockey team could shake some really long sticks at -- just to mention a few of the things that established my seemingly eternal entrenchment in the Tom Robbins fan club so many years ago. That's not to say that I wasn't thoroughly tickled by those elements this time around but the more subtle aspects of the storytelling were what really got to me during this most recent reading.

This book is a little disarming because it addresses so many issues, Big Ticket and otherwise -- life, death, love, immortality and the conflicted yearning for it, what happens on the other side of death, the individual vs. societal norms, the search for perfection, scientific pursuits, religion (and the lack thereof) -- in such a lighthearted, unexpectedly connected way that its moments of seriousness pack a brutal but enlightening punch. A character who triumphs over death for a good millennium is bound to lose more than he gains in his willful longevity, and his moments of introspective contemplation are a little hard to watch unfold, especially as some of the other characters are revealed to be carrying around the kind of sadnesses that compel them to keep moving; I can now appreciate that there is a definite Pynchonian element of contrasting goofiness of the highest order against some truly sobering sorrows to maximize the impact of each emotional extreme.

I was a little worried that, like so many things I've outgrown, my love of Robbins's unique storytelling might now be a thing of the past tense. But he so intricately layers and pieces together so much in his books that there is plenty to notice for a first time (like how Jitterbug Perfume really does follow the format of a hero's journey, complete with help of and hindrances from mythical beings, a never-say-die determination to reach the finish line, the occasional occurrence of wine-dark liquids, and even a visit from a cyclops) and even more to rediscover anew.

Arkadaşımdan ödünç aldıktan sonra okuduğum, daha sonra satın alarak yıllar sonra yeniden okumaya karar verdiğim bir kitaptı Parfümün Dansı. Nasıl hissettireceğini, farklı birşey çıkarıp çıkarmayacağımı merak etmiştim.

Bundan 15 yıl önce ilk kez okuduğum zaman sıkıldığımı ve ancak sonunun beni etkilediğini hatırlıyorum. O zaman New Orleans ve Mardi Gras'a daha çok ilgi göstermiştim. Şimdi ise kitabın sonu hariç geri kalan tüm kısımları daha ilginç ve sürükleyici geldi. 19 ve 34 yaş arasında böyle bir fark oluyormuş demek ki.

Kitaba 3 yıld��z vermemin tek sebebi benim tarzım olmaması. 3 yıldız, yani "I liked it" bu kitap için beni daha iyi ifade ediyor. Elimdeki 14. basımdı. Sanırım şimdi 35. basıma gelmiş. Bu nedenle kitabın ne kadar iyi olduğuyla ilgili bir tartışmaya gerek yok bence.

Herkese keyifli okumalar!

Όταν η ποπ κουλτούρα συναντά τραγόμορφους καυλωμένους θεούς, ακόλαστες νύμφες, εκκεντρικούς συνωμοσιολόγους μεγιστάνες, απαθείς βουδιστές, σουλτάνους, χαλίφηδες και μονομάχους, αχθοφόρους, χανούμισσες και μία γαβάθα παντζάρια, το αποτέλεμα δεν μπορεί παρά να είναι απολαυστικό!

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 theory... I felt it all to be very refreshing, especially after spending most of my 20s reading chick novels about despair over crappy boyfriends and girl power bringing the man-of-her-dreams right to her door.

Read this book if you:
wonder how anyone can base a novel on beets and perfume,
wonder what happened to Pan,
have an imagination,
and want to laugh.

2,5/5

kitaptan tamamen nefret ettim diyemem ama uzun zamandır bir kitaba böyle güçlü negatif duygular beslememiştim. parfümün dansı sevdiğim bir konu olan ölümsüzlük hakkında, konuyu güzel işlediğini de düşünüyorum aslında. ilgi çekici karakterlerin yüzyılları aşan ilişkilerini okuyoruz, favorim pan oldu. yazarın dili de zaman zaman sıksa da genel olarak keyifliydi. ama, ki bu kadar pozitif şeyin ardından bayağı büyük bir ama bu, yazarın kadın karakterleri hakkında yazdığı şeyler iğrenç. erkek yazarları okurken bazen yüzümü buruşturmama neden olan cümlelere denk gelmeye alışkınım zaten maalesef, ama çoğu yazarda bu koca kitapta bir iki yerde olduğu için görmezden gelebiliyorum. tom robbins görmezden gelmenin mümkün olmayacağı kadar tuhaf, rahatsız edici şeyler yazmış kadın karakterlerinden, hatta bir yerde 12 yaşında bir kız çocuğundan bahsederken. bu oluşturduğu dünyanın tüm büyüsünü, okuma zevkini mahvetti benim için. bir ara kitabı yarım bırakmayı bile düşündüm. bitirdiğim için mutluyum yine de, sonunu beğendim ama bir daha bu yazarı asla okumayacağıma da emin oldum.

Colto, ironico, imprevedibile, stravagante e surreale, questo romanzo è incentrato sulla ricerca dell’immortalità, sull’inseguimento attraverso i secoli di una bottiglietta di profumo irresistibile e sull’importanza determinante delle barbabietole nelle vicende degli individui e dell’umanità intera.

Il tutto è distribuito in oltre trecentocinquanta pagine fitte di situazioni pirotecniche, trovate fulminanti, improponibili metafore e associazioni logiche che sconfinano nell’assurdo. L’impressione che se ne ricava è quella di un abile gioco, forse venato di astuzia e non esente da un certo autocompiacimento narcisistico dell’autore, ma talmente accattivante e ricco di creatività da irretire inesorabilmente il lettore trascinandolo, in un misto di allegria, curiosità e sconcerto, fino alla scoppiettante risoluzione finale.
Ovviamente a passi di jitterburg.

L’insegnamento che se ne può trarre è interamente racchiuso in una sola parola: "erleichda".
Leggere per credere.

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 writing skills. You end up sounding like a pervy 14 year old no matter what.

But it did inspire me to cook some beets, and I'm seriously in love now. With beets. Weird, I know, but they're great. Since this is a book forum, I won't go on about it, but ask me sometime and I'll tell you all about how awesome beets are.

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? Double check. Glad I read the book? Check...But somehow this is all never enough to get me to grab his next book off the shelf. Robbins is one of my wife's favorite authors, and I can see why, but somehow his work just doesn't grab me on a long-term basis. Still though - great book. If you want something a bit unique & haven't read his stuff yet, give this a try. Unlike me, you'll probably want more.

Uniquely written, deeply satisfying as well as profoundly alarming, Jitterbug Perfume has it all. As a lover of Tom Robbins' writing style, his flexible plot lines, and the unique way he portrays his characters, I consider this his Magnum Opus. The clever, captivating, and quite often smug prose is the only right tone for these profound characters to evolve, and the carefully-crafted complex setting compliments a plot full of excitement. A Must-Read for sure.

Γιατί τα 4 αστέρια είναι πολλά:
Για τις πρώτες 150-200 σελίδες αναρωτιόμουν ποιο είναι το πρόβλημα του συγγραφέα, γιατί οι χαρακτήρες του να είναι πιο επίπεδοι κι από κοιλάδα της Ανδαλουσίας, γιατί διαβάζω ένα βιβλίο που ξεκινάει με μια σύγκριση μεταξύ ραπανιών και παντζαριών και κυρίως - πώς την έχω πατήσει έτσι με τον Τομ Ρόμπινς για δεύτερη φορά μετά τον Τρυποκάρυδο. Εξού και μου πήρε περίπου μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα για να τις διαβάσω.

Γιατί τα 3 αστέρια είναι λίγα:
Αυτό που κάνει τελικά ο Τομ Ρόμπινς, είναι μαγικό. Είναι πιο μαγικό από το μαγικό ρεαλισμό του και τους μεσαιωνικούς τ��υ βασ��λιάδες που κόβουν βόλτες στο χωροχρόνο. Εκεί που νομίζεις ότι διαβάζεις έναν χιουμοριστικό παραλογισμό γεμάτο με άρωμα, σεξ και μυθολογικές αναφορές, καταλήγεις να έχεις διαβάσει πολύ ουσιώδεις σκέψεις για πολύ βαθιά ανθρώπινα θέματα.

To προτείνω πάντως στα αγγλικά, για όσους έχουν άνεση με τη γλώσσα, κυρίως γιατί πιστεύω ότι η κωμωδία δεν μεταφράζεται ποτέ πλήρως.

7 / 10
İlk 200 sayfadaki akıcılığı sonrasında bulamadım. Belki de bana, gereğinden fazla uzadığını düşündüğüm için sonradan sıkıcı geldi. Ölüme, zamana ve hayata dair güzel betimlemeler içeriyor. Genel olarak benim tarzım olmadığı için çok beğenmedim.Ama "pancar" kelimesini her duyduğumda aklıma bu kitabın geleceği kesin..

"...Burada öğrettiklerine göre varoluşun çoğu ıstırap çekmek. Istırap da arzulardan geliyor. Demek ki eğer arzuları ortadan kaldırabilirsek, o zaman ıstırabı da kalfırmış oluruz. Bu tabii doğru bir bakıma. Dünyada çok ıstıtap, çok sefalet var, tamam, ama bir yığın da zevk var. Eğer bir insan ıstıraptan kurtulmak uğruna tüm zevkleri de en baştan reddediyorsa ne kazanır? İçinde ne ıstırap ne de zevk olmayan bir hayat boş bir hayattır. İsteyerek hiçliği aramak yenilgiden bile beter. Bu teslim olmak demek. Korkakça teslim olmak. Bu zavallılar acı çekmekten öylesine korkuyorlar ki hayatın en tatlı zevklerini feda edip canlarının yanmasından o sayede yakayı sıyırıyorlar. Bu tür bir zayıflığa insan nasıl saygı duyar? Bilerek yavanı, sıradanı, güvenliyi kucaklayan, bunu sırf hayal kırıklığının getireceği acıdan kurtulmak için yapan bir insanı nasıl bağrına basabilirsin?... Hayatı bu kılığa sokmak insanlara da tanrılara da yakışmaz... Eğer dünyanın gündüz kadar geceye de ihtiyacı varsa, ruhun da aydınlığı dengelemek için karanlığa ihtiyacı olması gerekmez mi ?

... tanrılara karşı dimdik ayakta durması, adları ne olursa olsun onların karşısına dikilip zevkin karşılığını acıyla ödeme sisteminin hesabını sorması, bu sistemde acıya karşı kazanılabilecek tek zaferin zor elde edilen bir unutma olduğunu söylemesi, bu sistemin ele geçirdiği kölelere oyunun süresi konusunda pek az bir seçme hakkı tanındığını ileri sürmesi inanılır gibi değildi."