Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Tom Robbins, where have you been all my life? My first venture into this iconic author collection of work- ‘Even Cowgirls’ was like a resurrection of the finer things of youth. Passion, fearlessness, idealism, quirkiness, rebellion, individuality--- this book made me ache for all of that absurdity. I never truly expected to get in touch with that special ‘coming of age’ optimism again. Perhaps Robbins does know a bit about magic. “Magic makes something permanent out of the transitory, coaxes drama from the colloquial.” Now that I’ve found him, I look forward to meeting Mr. Tom Robbins again and again though his host of works. I hope they are as funny and poetic as ‘Even Cowgirls.’

i was really glad to read this again; it'd been a while since i'd read tom robbins (about 8 years), and more than 10 years since first reading this one, my first of his. i remember liking certain things in it, which helped me keep going this time around. i really found the first nearly half quite hard to get into and through. but i was right in thinking it got better as it went along, once sissy made it to the rubber rose ranch. i think, actually, though, it was that i read the first 120 pages sooooo slooooowly over a week, and made myself read the next 240 pages in most of a day (in time for book group) that made the last 2/3 more palatable. his voice is so odd and so unusual, it makes it hard to read and get into, but when sitting and show more just reading it straight through, with virtually no breaks, it helps. (it also helps because, as i've said about him before, a reader needs to pay attention to random small things throughout a robbins book, small enough that if read slowly over a long period of time the references will be missed.)

i have such a hard time evaluating this. it wasn't fun to read. the first third was tedious and over the top and while there were passages that i loved or that made me laugh, there were more that made me question why i liked him so much in the past. the rest of the book very much improved for me but it still had plenty of those passages that made me groan or become frustrated or annoyed. but it also had far more places that made me laugh (like virtually every page, actually, once i got into it). it was much more crude than i remember, much more focused on sex, and some of the philosophical discussions were a bit...felt a bit too much like a lecture. still, i always enjoy that at the base of it all he discusses important themes, sometimes buried in a heap of weird stuff, but always there. this one seems to be about being ok with yourself no matter your shortcomings, time, freedom, and happiness.

bottom line is that i mostly didn't enjoy my reading experience this time, but i'm glad i read it, and i know that the more i think about it and the further i get from it, the more i'm going to like it and think i liked the reading of it.

"Water dives from the clouds without parachute, wings or safety net. Water runs over the steepest precipice and blinks not a lash. Water is buried and rises again; water walks on fire and fire gets the blisters...."

"It is questionable, for that matter, whether success is an adequate response to life. Success can eliminate as many options as failure."

"A book no more contains reality than a clock contains time. A book may measure so-called reality as a clock measures so-called time; a book may create an illusion of reality as a clock creates an illusion of time; a book may be real, just as a clock is real (both more real, perhaps, than those ideas to which they allude); but let's not kid ourselves - all a clock contains is wheels and springs and all a book contains is sentences."

i'm not sure if he's making an anti-gay statement at the end, but he's awful progressive so i'd be surprised if he was. still, i don't really like that he says "A woman without her opposite, or a man without his, can exist but not live. Existence may be beautiful, but never whole."

there's a lot that felt haphazard in the writing but i don't doubt that everything is very intentional and thought out. i might not always know what he's doing, but i believe that he does. i still think he's brilliant, i just didn't enjoy it quite as much this time, but it ended better than it started, and i'm feeling better about it already, so i suspect that i'll like it more and more as time goes on. (2 stars)

from may, 2008: this was my first tom robbins so i don't know if he always writes like this, but i have never read anyone like him before. what a quirky, unique way of writing. at times it was so weird that it was distracting, and overall i think it was just a little too over the top for me. but this book is funny at times, and has some really great themes, about freedom and happiness, about being yourself and embracing who you are, about time and how the world thinks about it...also i have to say it was amazing to be reading a book written by a male writer in the 70's who is articulate about patriarchy and gender issues. that was so refreshing and welcome. (3 stars) show less

I revisited this book with some misgivings. I read this book so many times my original copy fell apart. It was so heavily underlined and annotated that the original text was hard to make out. I was a teenager, in love with words and possibilities. I'm middle-aged now, still in love with words but more closed off, more apt to sneer at ingenuousness and hope. I was hesitant to open the new copy of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

I needn't have worried. Though some of it is undeniably dated, the core of joy and playfulness shines through Robbins' philosophical musings. It was surprising how much of this book I still knew by heart though I've not read it in probably 15 years. It's a paean to love and transcendence, a delightful romp through show more philosophies that can seem like blunt instruments in less skillful hands. show less

As is the case with all his books, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues makes you probe your mind. What seem like wacky out-there stories with wild crazy plot-lines, really get you thinking about all sorts of philosophical, ethical, moral, etc. questions. It’s hard to describe, but once you’ve read one of his books you understand what I refer to.

This story is plenty humorous and amusing, alongside the thought-provoking aspects. It's well-written, entertaining, and worth a gander. I didn’t feel this was one of his best, though. But of course, I did still enjoy it. A good quote from the book that helps sum up pretty much everything about his writing is this one: “The way I figure it, Heaven and Hell are right here on Earth. Heaven is show more living in your hopes and Hell is living in your fears. It’s up to each individual which one he chooses.” Jelly paused. “I told that to the Chink once and he said, ‘Every fear is part hope and every hope is part fear — quit dividing things up and taking sides.’ Well, that’s the Chink for you.” show less

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues has some unforgettable characters: Sissy, who has turned hitchhiking into her life's work, given her gigantic thumbs; Bonanza Jellybean and the other cowgirls at the Rubber Rose Ranch, the Countess (a feminine hygene product tycoon) and Chink the philosopher/dirty old man.

The book also presents wonderful ideas about feminism (from a male author in 1976, no less), the meaning of time, of success....

What it doesn't have is much of a plot, but that doesn't seem to matter too much as lots happens and the characters are so interesting.

I loved this book. Very easy read with lots of feminist musings. The narration is interesting and I like the moves between following the story line and the short writing on other subjects. Often times the narrator is directly addressing the reader. There is a lot of movement in the writing, which fits nicely into the hitchhiking theme.

eBook

I suppose one's tolerance for this book, or any other by Mr. Robbins, has a lot to do with how one responds to bullshit. Because, in truth, his most apparent skill is the willingness with which he flings the stuff at his readers.

I can only speak for myself, of course, but I enjoy it. I can't begin to imagine that Robbins actually believes half of what he writes (and if he does, what the hell does it matter anyway?), but I get a kick out of his willingness to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, onto the page and leave the rest of us to mop up the detritus.

In spite of the readily apparent flimsiness that results, what's left feel remarkably authentic. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was a very fun read, despite its many flaws. show more Admittedly, Robbins self-indulgence and complete lack of discipline did get tiresome from time to time, the verve with which he wrote it provides the book with the only excuse it needs.

As far as what he or the book are attempting to say? I'll be damned if I know. He seems to have severe issues in dealing with authority figures, from the political to the personal, and it's probably this, more than any latent misogyny or objectification of women that informs his peculiar brand of feminism. That's not to say that his female (or male, for that matter) characters are immune to a deeply-buried hatred of women or a painfully obvious yearning to fetishize the human form as little more than living, breathing, sweating, stinking sex toys.

And if that doesn't constitute my own personal pile of toro feces, I don't know what will. show less