RIP, Tom Robbins, 2/9/25. In 1976, everyone I knew was reading this book, passing it along, sharing jokes from it in our bars, our first but not last Robbins book. A countercultural spokesperson for a generation of boomer hippies. Funny, whimsical, stoner work I now associate with Richard Brautigan. A book from one time in my life, my early twenties.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976; filmed 1994) is the story of a female hitchhiker name Sissy Hanshaw with enormous thumbs who visits a woman's spa in South Dakota. She's very popular at the spa because of the thumbs. But the image of a hitchhiking women with large thumbs also references R. Crumb's "Keep on Truckin'" image, too. There are (of course?) sexist elements of the book, as I recall. There's a cameo of Jack Kerouac, the hitching icon himself.

Oh, there's so much crazy, nonsensical stuff, including something about Clockworks, geological versus other kinds of time. Sissy’s gay make boss builds a fortune with Sissy as model for a time selling feminine hygiene products, though this leads to a women's revolution of sorts on his beauty ranch in the Dakotas, the Rubber Rose. And so on, as Kurt Vonnegut would write. I wouldn't guess the book was ever exactly a feminist icon, though I probably wasn't bothered by any of its problematics in my early twenties, mea culpa.

Enough is enough είπα και το έκλεισα! Δεν είναι ότι δε μ' αρέσει η γραφή του Ρόμπινς (το villa incognito μου άρεσε αρκετά και ο Τρυποκάρυδος είναι από τα αγαπημένα μου βιβλία ever)...δεν είναι ούτε ότι η ιστορία δεν είναι καλή- το θέμα, οι σωματικές δυσμορφίες ή/και η ομοφυλοφιλία, θα μπορούσε να δημιουργήσει ένα αριστούργημα... Όχι! Είναι ότι ο συγγραφέας ξεφεύγει πάαααααααααρα πολύ! Ατελείωτες παρεκβάσεις φιλοσοφικοχιομοριστικοοτιναναι θέματος που κουράζουν υπερβολικά. Πώς η Σίσσυ θα κουνήσει τα δάχτυλα της για να μη μουδιάσουν (32 παράγραφοι), ο Τσινγκ, ο τρελογιατρός και οι άνθρωποι των Ρολογιών (322 παράγραφοι)...
Επιπλέον δε μ'άρεσαν αρκετά πράγματα που αναφέρονται π.χ. ότι οι γυναίκες βρωμάνε (?!), κάτι που ελπίζω απλά να είναι αστείο και να μη το ενστερνίζεται ο συγγραφέας. Επίσης, στην αρχή του βιβλίου ο Ρόμπινς φαίνεται να θεωρεί φυσιολογικό το σεξ από τα 13-14. Τι να πω...
Σπάνια παρατάω βιβλίο με σκοπό να μη το ξαναγγίξω αλλά αυτό σίγουρα θα επιστραφεί στη δανειστική βιβλιοθήκη νωρίτερα χωρίς καθόλου τύψεις

Oh, Tom Robbins, I've adored you my entire reading life. How can you be gone?

It's been many, many years since I've reread your novels. I was a little worried about how they'd stand up. I'm in a very different place than I was in when I discovered you 40 years ago.

Well, I needn't be concerned. The sheer joy of reading your prose is undiminished. Yes, some of the philosophical musing feels a bit dated. But your creativity, and your humor are off-the-charts fantastic. Tom Robbins, you are among the greatest of all time. I thank you for the joy you've given me. May you rest in peace.

I love how Tom Robbins play with the words, layers of reality. I also like the way he promotes the matriarchal way of living, old and forgotten ancient beliefs.. It definitely takes time to go through the phrases and thoughts but the book has a different texture when compared to those books in which there are only actions and feelings. In every line, you can sense the extraordinary wisdom. Very well-written.

okay well LOTS of things to say here. First of all I bought this at a most excellent used bookstore in New Orleans and I bought it exclusively for the title and so I went in completely blind to one of the craziest books I’ve ever read which is probably the only way anybody should read this book. Robbins is probably one of the most naturally talented authors I’ve ever read, and his humor aligned a lot with the Vonnegut/Douglas Adams/ Hunter Thompson/Neil Gaiman crowd, which made it outrageously entertaining to read.
That being said,,,,, this book is about 50% hippie dippie philosophical musing and 30% problematic sentiment/racial slurs from the 70s, making about 20% of it a road novel about a hitchhiker girl with big thumbs moving to a lesbian cowgirl ranch and the hijinks therein, which was the part I liked, hence the two stars. Loved you Bonanza Jellybean

What a pedantic piece of hippy-dippy drivel. The message of this book may have been appreciated in the 70s, but it has failed to stand the test of literary time. Up to this point, I thought that Hemingway won the award for grossest patriarchal American writer, and...I still do. Robbins is, however, worse, as he does it under the guise of 'female liberation'. It's fucking embarrassing. Oh, and you know who I never really warmed up to? ANY CHARACTER IN THE BOOK. I don't care about your thumbs, pseudo-lesbianism, penis-dangling 'Chink', New York socialite life, or indefatigable need to hitchhike. STFU. Where have all the cowgirls gone?

It is definitely self indulgent drivel. Worse, I think it's probably not easy for some young girls/women reading it to see how exploitative it actually is. I read it years ago in school and picking it up now and trying to read it, I realized, this is not only C##p, but extremely dangerous C##p. No man should be allowed with impunity to write material about a young girl being sexually molested and enjoying it, to call it literature is the equivalent of calling a burnt hostess twinkie a cake.

And I feel a lot of anger because 30 years later I look back and see how the book and perhaps others like it influenced "my" sexuality in ways that now seem ... well, trivial and exploitative. Young women need to allow their complexity and confidence in themselves to exist, and the sexuality will take care of itself. Marketing sexual image like this is perhaps more a male weakness, and if so certainly not one that all males are subject to.

Ultimately, this is a long personal sexual fantasy by what some other reviewers have justly called an ASS. Boo, Robins, for making the world a less beautiful place for young women. I and I believe many others do not thank you.

Last time, I read it, impressed with his reputation, sensationalism, confidence and great if trivial writing. This time, it took me less than an hour to perceive reading it would be a waste of time. Do NOT buy new.

Right. I skipped the book and went straight to the movie because of course I wasn't about to waste no time reading another *book* by Mr Robbins but I did need corroboration of my intense dislike of this nut-job and of course the film was very convincing that I need never bother thinking about reading another of Mr Robbins' books. I think I'd rather read all the sequels to Wicked or something from Hermann Hesse than another Robbins book.

Passage From Book:

This sentence is made of lead ( and a sentence of lead gives a reader an entirely different sensation from one made of magnesium). This sentence is made of yak wool. This sentence is made of sunlight and plums. This sentence is made of ice. This sentence is made from the blood of the poet. This sentence was made in Japan. This sentence glows in the dark. This sentence was born with a caul. This sentence has a crush on Norman Mailer. This sentence is a wino and doesn't care who knows it. Like many italic sentences, this one has Mafia connections. This sentence is a double Cancer with a Pisces rising. This sentence lost its mind searching for the perfect paragraph. This sentence refuese to be diagrammed. This sentence ran off with an adverb clause. This sentence is 100 percent organic: it will not retain a facsimile of freshness like thoses sentences of Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe et al., which are loaded with perservatives. This sentence leaks. This sentence doesn't look Jewish ...This sentence has accepted Jesus Christ as its personal savior. This sentence once spit in a book reviewer's eye. This sentence can do the funky chicken. This sentence has seen too much and forgotten too little. This sentence is called "Speedoo" but its real name is Mr. Earl. This sentence may be pregnant This sentnece suffered a split infinitive - and survivied. If this sentence has been a snake you'd have bitten it. This sentence went to jail with Clifford Irving. This sentence went to Woodstock. And this little sentence went wee wee wee all the way home. This sentence is proud to be a part of the team here at Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. This sentence is rather confounded by the whole damn thing.

My all-time, absolute, favorite book ever. The 'stranded-on-a-desert-island-with-only-one-book' favorite. I can read this one over and over.

Hitch-hikers, lesbians, whooping cranes, feminine hygenine products - it has everything. And written in a lyrical manner that begs to be read out loud. (Trust me - I have done this. Parts of this book are poetry.)

I haven't given away as many copies of this as I have 'Good Omens' because I think it doesn't have as broad an appeal. I wish it did. Really - everyone in the world should read this book. It will make them realize that we are all individuals, and yet all human. Size, shape, color, religion, age - none of that matters. I'd mail a copy to George W. Bush, but I fear that his reaction would be "I liked the birdies".

And it has one of the best character names of all time. I love odd names. I have run across a lot of people with strange names (since I have worked in the payroll field for twenty years, I have seen a lot of people's paychecks.) Truly - I have known of people with names like Robbin Banks, Marina Fishman, Hedy Cheeseman, and Angel Frankenstein.

But none compare to the glorious, delectable, vivacious - Bonanza Jellybean.

This is some of the best writing I've read on the sentence/paragraph level. I wasn't particularly concerned with where things were going plotwise at first because it was such a pleasure to read Robbins's prose, but I eventually found myself drawn into the story too.

This book is silly, clever, thoughtful, endearing, sweet, dirty, poignant, thought-provoking, funny, pithy, punny and charming, etc. The feminism made me proud to be a woman without turning me against men. Robbins is critical and philosophical without being unkind or cynical. [spoiler alert, sort of] I thought he was proselytizing a bit much in the middle, but by the time I got to the end I realized he was just chewing on a lot of ideas, and that his ultimate conclusion was that each of us will have to decide for ourselves how to deal with the many truths and belief systems out there, and that we probably won't ever get it quite right, but the point is to keep chewing.

Super enjoyable read, as long as you can tolerate none of it making any sense. ;-)

Başından sonuna dek sanki bir şey olacak da daha var, zamanı gelince olacak gibi bir fikirle okudum ama açıkçası hiçbir şey olmadı. Robbins'in üslubunu kesinlikle seviyorum ama bu kitabı okumasam da olurmuş diye düşünmeden edemiyorum.