Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, by Tom Robinson, is set in a time of an upcoming gender revolution. Woman can vote, talk, own property, but they still are not the same as a man. Our protagonist, Sissy Hankshaw, is in her own world, separate from the problems around her, but still finds herself in the middle of it all.
Sissy is a hitchhiker, just barely beating out the beatnik era. Unlike others, Sissy hitchhikes to move, not setting her sights on a certain destination. What makes her endeavor so successful as a woman, is what every hitchhiker needs: the thumbs. Like most people, Sissy has two thumbs. She has two, large, overgrown thumbs that look more like plump digits than a thumb. Her thumbs attract the eyesight of every passerby, but Sissy does not mind. Her thumbs are the source of her power, her magic. By magic, she means what makes her enlightened. By always moving around Sissy has avoided the problems of the world, which eventually provides her with a useful outlook from the outside that proves to be useful.
The author paints the story in the third person. Vivid descriptions are constantly used, which does get tedious to read. Whole chapters are sometimes devoted to descriptions, rhetorical, and sarcasm. At times I skipped portions of pages, but the third person style is refreshing. It made me really focus on what I needed to read, even if I skipped whole chapters.
The philosophical messages portrayed in the book really stick with me. One of my favorite quotes is, “I believe in nothing; everything is real. I believe in everything, nothing is real.” The book was all about how we find balance in chaos, and how chaos is needed to create balance. The quote sums up the whole book: in order to have balance we need the opposite of ourselves.
Overall, I would recommend the book. At times the book was a little promiscuous, but removing the parts would have detracted from the books meaning. The whole book is dedicated to the philosophies presented by an old man, and things are really kept unclear until the very last words the book babbles out. The mystery and confusion only heightens the enjoyment. Pick it up and read it, you might just learn something new.