Jitterbug Perfume

Alobar is Jitterbug Perfume’s main character and the author’s chief mouthpiece. Alobar’s ideas sometimes come from himself, sometimes from the narrator, and the separation between the two breaks down throughout the story. Alobar is also the character who undergoes the greatest change throughout the novel, going from king to pauper to businessman to prisoner. Of the ensemble of central characters, his ending is the most ambiguous. He disappears from the text with a dire warning about the modern world being a sham stripped of choice.

If certain characters stand in for the author, Priscilla Pertido stands in for the reader. In some ways, she’s a construction made to produce Tom Robbins’s ideal of a reader. She’s smart, witty, and urbane. Her origins are humble, but she strives for greatness. She seeks answers to life’s biggest questions, some of which are metaphysical. She has a strong appetite for sex and sensual experience, and a deeply ingrained sense of humor.

Toward the end, Alobar recedes both as a narrative character and as a strong mouthpiece for the author. This is where Wiggs Dannyboy comes in. He is spoken of as a drug addict and a con artist. Everything about him, including his name, is heightened and slightly unbelievable.