This is my favourite book of all time. Beautifully written, hilarious, though-provoking and overtly sexual all at once. And gay cowgirl sex. Very, very good. A bisexual 12/10.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins isn’t his best but it serves well to measure the peculiarity of epoch it tells us about.

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…

We gravitate to illusions and so often we get caught by them and become their captives for life.

Gosh, but I hated this book. It felt smarmy. And mind you, I love people like Pynchon et al, but this felt like it thought it was smart but wasn't very, and it hasn't aged well. Made myself finish it because I'd been told I'd love Robbins, but this was my introduction and I never looked back.

I sure hope no one I know reads this and starts asking questions.

[⌂]

What an old sexist hawg. Anything I have read by him makes me feel like I need to shower.

Now listen, I loved "Jitterbug Perfume". I love Tom Robbins' twisted sense of humour, I love his philosophical meanderings and smatterings of bizarre facts, and I fully expected to love this book. However, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" made me want to spit nails.

Why? Because Mr. Robbins pretends he is writing a treatise on female rights, starring lesbians and cowgirls and a hitchhiking philosopheress with a strange but wonderful disfigurement who all resist 1970s society's inclination to turn them into homemakers. Cool.

But but BUT! All of these females are: stunningly pinup beautiful, young, small-waisted, voluptuously curvy, have no personality of their own (they all seem to speak with Robbins' voice, not counting the occasional "howdy podner"), and he can't seem to keep himself from writing about their "cute little ankles", their "adorable turned up noses", their "incredibly short skirts", their puffy "sucker hose" mouths, and their delectable "Fredericks of Hollywood panties". He delights in describing their mud wrestling, their pulling down their panties and going to the bathroom, their kissing and touching each other, their sexual concourse with every human creature they encounter. AND THEN! HE WRITES HIMSELF AS A CHARACTER AND HAS SEX WITH THEM!!!!

As the story unfolds, you begin to realise that his delight in Sissy's deformity is less heroic and more fetishistic. His appearance in the novel as the clever rebel psychiatrist is less Auster-ian genius and more sickening self-aggrandisement. The cowgirls of Rubber Rose Ranch are not feminist lesbians. They are Tom Robbins' porno fantasy lesbians, and for all of his philosophical ramblings, he humiliates and debases them, and worst of all -- it's all in the name of "respect for women".

BOO TOM ROBBINS! SHAME ON YOU!!!

I did, however, like the twisted sense of humour, the philosophical meanderings, and the smattering of bizarre facts -- so two stars from me.

Ο Τομ Ρόμπινς είναι ένας ιδιαίτερα μορφωμένος άνθρωπος και η οπτική γωνία υπό την οποία περιγράφει τις καθημερινές καταστάσεις είναι εντυπωσιακή. Η γλώσσα του είναι καυστική, ειρωνική και ρεαλιστική, με πολλές προτάσεις να χρειάζονται δεύτερες αναγνώσεις, κάνοντας την αφήγηση περισσότερο απολαυστική.

Τότε γιατί 3 αστέρια;

Καταρχήν, 5 αστέρια θα έβαζα μόνο αν με είχε εντυπωσιάσει, όπου γενικά ο Τομ Ρόμπινς δεν είναι από τους αγαπημένους μου συγγραφείς και δύσκολα θα του έβαζα 5 αστέρια (νομίζω έχω βάλει στον Τρυποκάρυδο που πράγματι με είχε εντυπωσιάσει). Από την άλλη, θα του έβαζα 4 αστέρια, αν η υπόθεση του βιβλίου... ήταν στην πραγματικότητα υπόθεση. Πολλές φλυαρίες, αδύναμη υπόθεση, γενικά δημιούργησαν ένα ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο, αλλά με υποτυπώδη πλοκή και χαρακτήρες που δεν είχε και πολλή σημασία ο λόγος για τον οποίο έκαναν ότι έκαναν (ή βασικά μπορούμε να πούμε ότι θα μπορούσαν να ήταν μαστουρωμένοι και να μην είχε και σημασία γιατί έκαναν ότι έκαναν!!!). Βασικά, μάλλον και ο Ρόμπινς ήταν μαστουρωμένος όταν το έγραφε και δεν τον πολυένοιαζε τι θα απογίνουν οι ήρωές του (πάλι καλά που δεν τους σκότωσε!!!).

Το βιβλίο θα μπορούσαν να το διαβάσουν - πέρα από τους φανατικούς του Ρόμπινς - και όσοι έχουν ελεύθερο χρόνο και χαλααααρή ζωή, χωρίς άμεσες υποχρεώσεις. Εγώ είμαι περισσότερο φαν της γρήγορης πλοκής τελικά!!

I hated this book and would give it half a star if I could.

Let me be clear- he is a good writer and knows his way around the words BUT the book reads like this: "I celebrate randomness... Random, random, in your face moralizing, random.... Ah ha, you think I've taken it too far, well, sucks for you because I'm going to take it further. In fact, if you don't enjoy this next tangent it's because you are not as enlightened and intelligent as I am! Random, random, in your face moralizing, random...." Having well written words doesn't excuse these faults for me.

The book was also a huge disappointment for me since I saw the movie and loved it. The movie, as I remembered it, was mostly a sweet love story between Sissy & Jellybean. The book is even less gay than Katy Perry. For all the lady-loving which the author clearly thinks is hot, he states definitively that women can't be complete without men in the moral wrap-up. And vice versa, but since he doesn't indulge in any man-on-man experimentation, the book specifically dismisses lesbianism. Tthe female characters are encouraged to seek some hot action, intimidate conversation, and care-taking from each other as long as it doesn't interfere with some dirty, casual sex with a dick- an idea as "freeing" and "fair" as the straight man looking to outsource the cuddling & emotional part of his hetero relationship. I think the conservatives who are afraid of something they can't understand are doing us less of a disservice than people who trivialize same sex relationships in this way. .

I realize this book was written in a different time wherein the author might have seen this as progressive rather than selfish and dismissive- but in real time, all I got out of this book was aggravation and disappointment (which is why it took me over 2 years to finish it even though I finish pretty much every book I start)

Just when you start to pride yourself on the fact that you have read so many good books varying along different story lines, plots, characters and narratives along comes a book like "Even Cowgirls get the Blues" that takes you on a journey that makes you almost forget everything else you've read so far.

Cowgirls is beyond doubt one of the most thought provoking and insightful books I have read. With an unusual third person narrative (which the author is nice enough to warn you about in the beginning) the book is fresh, unique and perceptive. Metaphors, similes, puns, personification and aphorisms of the kind most people don't even bother using (or probably don't even think about) are used here to enrich a tale that is as distinctive as one can get.

The book sheds light on various topics ranging from feminism to nature conservation, tolerance to humility. It tells in an inimitable way what is wrong with the world and the people in it. It teaches a lesson in valuing oneself, in loving oneself, accepting one another for who they are. You can open the book at a random page and find something of interest, some lesson, if nothing at least a unique spin on something as inconsequential as your navel.

Be it the sweet and thoughtful Sissy Hankshaw, the rambunctious Bonanza Jellybean, the spiritual and wise Debbie, the enlightened Chink, the eccentric Dr. Robbins, the asthmatic Julian Gitche or the self indulgent Countess, every single character will have something of value to give the reader, regardless of whether you end up liking the character or not.

This book is reality questioning, gasp-inducing, smirk rearing, chuckle eliciting, eye widening and most importantly thought provoking. The latter I have already mentioned before, but, I found it to be the most vital and enjoyable part of the book. After all, what use is a book if it does not make you think something. And here there is a lot to think about. It will bring to light things you have probably thought about yourself at some point and find it nice to see concurrence to it in text. If you have not thought about it, it will make you do so. If you don't think at all...then I think you have to question that aspect about yourself.

This book is for women everywhere, it is for dreamers, it is for the unique ones, it is for nature lovers, for the challenged, for the oppressed, for the intellectually stimulated and for the intellectually stagnated, it is for peace lovers, it is for intolerant and tolerant people, for bigots and for humanitarians. It should be read by everyone, at least once.

Before you decide if you want to read the whole book, just read through chapter 104 which narrates an interesting conversation between the brain and thumb (yes, the human brain and the human thumb and no, it does not affect the rest of the story or lead to spoilers). And if you are not sold on it there then at least let me know why.

In conclusion, stick out your thumbs and hitch a ride on this book for a journey that is promising and exciting. Read this book, if it the last thing you do. Read it.

Reading this right after finishing his much better Another Roadside Attraction, I feel I can sum up my impression of this book in four words (and a comma): wow, what a comedown. This is a featherweight and barely coherent farce that pokes fun at a lot of different types, probably meant to provoke and/or outrage the buttoned-up mid-70s American establishment, which it probably did. It may fit what passed for counterculture at the time, but in fact it’s the kind of book that was bought off the paperback rack at the drug store, back when drugstores sold books, so it wasn’t that counterculture. Reading some of the raunchy b-grade sex scenes, including the unnecessary and unnecessarily graphic anal sex passage, it may seem surprising that such alleged literary fare was so openly sold to the masses, but such were the lasting effects of our original culture wars that you could also have bought Valley Of The Dolls and Harold Robbins at that same drugstore. There is a lot going on here story-wise, too much to ever gel properly even if he’d used a thousand pages, which thankfully he didn’t. The freak thumbs, the inexplicable marriage, the incomprehensible clockworks, the all-girl ranch owned by the douche maker, the whooping cranes, and of course the gratuitous vulgarity… what was Tom Robbins’ drug of choice, anyway? Was it the truck full of peyote used to feed the cranes? I should give this a single star, but I’m upgrading it two because of some straight-up funny work he does with a set of dentures. Or maybe I’m just trying to justify the time I spent on this disappointing drivel.

"AMAZING! This book came into my life by chance and I am glad it did. A hilarious and engaging read that also questioned and affirmed pieces of my own life in powerful ways. Apparently this book has been around for a generation, but I think it needs a rebirth - it is still relevant, maybe even moreso now that the "mainstream" has changed.

Some specific points from the novel that I love:
Why are white people always looking for spirituality in other cultures? We have a full, real, historically grounded tradition that we actively have thrown away and ignored. Stop going to Buddhist temples and sweat lodges - just look back a few generations of grandmothers!
Women living in community - oh how close to home some of this landed. All of the conflicts, controversies and dilemmas of what it means to be a woman, especially in the absence of men. Is it a question we even want to answer? Meaning, to answer that question definitively would mean some separation, isolation, and denial that seems untruthful to me. Seriously though, there are some great kick-ass role model characters that put the options out there.
Relationships on the move - the whole idea of wandering, creating real relationships, and also staying in the present and allowing life to flow as it comes. Our parents "got it" but I think more young people could internalize this message. On the other hand, see my notes on "Into the Wild" and note the difference between staying in the moment with your relationships, and being so self-centered that you don't allow yourself to trust or care for others and thus HAVE to wander...

Anyways, classic Tom Robbins style keeps this an interesting read, with a fair amount of hilarious static to sort through before getting messages. But also interesting and hilarious in a way that is ultimately affirming and inspiring no matter what crazy situation you find yourself in. Read this to get/keep perspective on yourself and remember to laugh!

3.5⭐