Jitterbug Perfume, on the essence of beets

I just finished reading Jitterbug Perfume, a delightful novel by Tom Robins, which deals with immortality and (you guessed it) perfume! 


In this novel, Robins intertwines four separate stories, set in the 8th century Bohemia and 1980s New Orleans, Seattle and Paris. Each story has a common theme about aging, the sense of smell, individualism, independence, love, and religion. I found the plot to be intricate, constructed masterfully with descriptive metaphors that are uniquely “Robins”.

The book also deals with other things, but one that is most worth mentioning is the beet. That’s right, a vegetable that is very uniquely bold and often under appreciated. People who are not familiar with the magic qualities of the beet most likely did not grow up eating beets in the quantities Russians do and may, therefore, lack proper understanding of the value this vegetable adds to one’s life. Robins, however, gets the beet and saturates his entire novel with the essence of beets:

"The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious."

I agree with Robins - the beet is worth contemplation.