The longest and most interesting story belongs to Alobar, a king somewhere in Bohemia sometime in the Middle Ages, who escapes a prescribed death (simply because his hair is turning gray) and seeks immortality. Priscilla's stepmother, Lily Devalier, owns a perfume shop in New Orleans, and is working on a perfume too, assisted by V'Lu Jackson - who knows Marcel "Bunny" LeFever, who is the scent genius of the LeFever perfume company in Paris. Priscilla is a divorced struggling waitress in Seattle who works on a perfume on the side. The book has four storylines that all come together at the end. I saw a mass market paperback copy of the book at a Friends of the Library sale some years later and picked up the book for a quarter to re-read it - and finally got around to doing so this month. When I created my LibraryThing account five years later and recorded the book, I gave it five stars. I first read this book in 2002 with the book club I belonged to back then.
There are a few things I will take away from it (the whole immortality thing) but the rest I will forget and it's not a book I would read again. Whilst at times the writing is beautiful, I still find all of his references to sex to be lewd and jarring, I am no prude but his way of talking about sex cheapens it for me and always seems out of place in his novels. 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 became more interesting as it went on (although it could definitely do with some heavy handed editing of chapters). 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 will admit though that I do much prefer this one to Still Life with Woodpecker. Hmm it seems I am never sure quite where to start with Tom Robbins' books.
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