But they’ll need a very strong perfume to cover up his stink and keep him incognito…Ĭenturies later various perfumiers are hard at work trying to capture an elusive scent, found in an ancient bottle, while also getting entangled with the Last Laugh Foundation which is hoping to find the secret to eternal life. Alobar and Kudra spend centuries living simple lives that are occasionally interrupted by having to flee villages due to not ever ageing but as time moves on and Pan finds himself believed in less and less, he loses more of his corporeal form, leaving Alobar and Kudra to attempt to take him to the New World. Setting out on a quest to find the secret to eternal life, Alobar meets a partner in incense maker Kudra and makes a friend of the god Pan. Jitterbug Perfume sorta starts with the story of Alobar, an ancient king who decides when it’s his allocated time to die that he really doesn’t want to. But I found the absurdity trying, the characters flat, and the description on the back of the book incredibly misleading. A book whose plot spans hundreds of years complete with manifestations of Pan, some nymphs, a cast of other less godly but no less colourful characters, and an absurd outlook really should have appealed to me. This really shouldn’t have been the case. Having since got my hands on a copy, I’m now wondering if a ten year build of anticipation was always going to end it disappointment as I found this to be completely underwhelming.

I was first recommended this book around a decade ago by a colleague but couldn’t find a copy of it at the time, and so over the years I’ve kept my eye out for so I could snatch up a copy as soon as it appeared.

Jitterbug perfume by tom robbins