I'm always interested to know which books end up as dog-eared copies on people's shelves, so I've taken to asking guest authors to write about a book they've loved. John Vorhaus, author of the Radar Hoverlander series, was happy to oblige. He chose a book by Tom Robbins, a bestselling author that, I have to admit, I've never gotten around to reading. After snickering my way through the John's hearty endorsement, I think I have to go ahead and give Even Cowgirls Get the Blues a try. Vorhaus's latest book, The Texas Twist, comes out this month.
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Hi there, Worducopians. John Vorhaus here, author of the new “sunshine noir” humorous mystery novel, THE TEXAS TWIST. Because writers are, first and foremost, readers, I thought you’d be interested to know what book has most informed my experience as an author. It’s Tom Robbins’ EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, and if this modern classic has escaped your attention, you should put it on your must-read list immediately. If it blows your mind half as much as it blew mine when I first read it, why then it will have blown my mind twice as much as yours.
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Hi there, Worducopians. John Vorhaus here, author of the new “sunshine noir” humorous mystery novel, THE TEXAS TWIST. Because writers are, first and foremost, readers, I thought you’d be interested to know what book has most informed my experience as an author. It’s Tom Robbins’ EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, and if this modern classic has escaped your attention, you should put it on your must-read list immediately. If it blows your mind half as much as it blew mine when I first read it, why then it will have blown my mind twice as much as yours.
COWGIRLS notionally tells the story of Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash
lovely born with the affliction – or gift – of thumbs so large that she can
have but one destiny, and that is to hitchhike her way around the world and
into our hearts. On that level, the book works terrifically well. It delivers
adventure, danger, thrills, laughs, romance, oddball characters, and enough
food for thought to sate even the most questing head. But that’s not what the
book is about, not really.
Because beneath the surface, COWGIRLS is subversive on two
profound levels. The first is in the realm of social philosophy. Robbins,
writing in the heart of the 1970s, takes the post-hippie ethos and turns it on
its ear, delivering to us a way of looking at men and women, gay people and
straights, native and invasive Americans, and the left and right ends of the
political spectrum in a way that quickly moves past “Come on people now, smile
on your brother,” and gets to the essential realization that each of us is the
same, purely as a function of the hopes, dreams, tears, and fears that we all
share. In our post-modern world of acceptance as the political norm, this might
not seem so groundbreaking. Back then, it was nothing less than a revelation.
The other revelation COWGIRLS has in store is the powerful
capability of modern English. In the hands of a master like Robbins, each
sentence is not just an explication or an explanation, it is an adventure, a
revelation, a happy journey to the magical wonderland where poetry and prose
collide. You want an example? How about this bone-chillingly beautiful
sculpting of words? “The author is attempting to draw a shaky parallel between
the manner in which the oyster, when beset by impurities or disease, coats the
offending matter with its secretions, thereby producing a pearl, a parallel
between the eliminatory ingenuity of the oyster and the manner in which Sissy
Hankshaw, adorned with thumbs that many might consider morbid, coated the
offending digits with glory, thereby perpetuating a vision that the author
finds smooth and lustrous.”
The eliminatory ingenuity of the oyster… Man, the first time
I read that phrase I suddenly knew that there was much more to this business of
writing than just communicating information or spewing the news. There’s art.
There’s the potential for art in every word. And when that idea took root in my
brain, I think I understood for the first time what it meant to be a writer. I
knew what I wanted to achieve.
From that day to this, I’ve kept Tom Robbins in my heart and
in my mind. I don’t consciously emulate him – who can consciously emulate
genius? – but I do strive to be a worthy acolyte. That’s why when you read THE
TEXAS TWIST, you’ll get not only a ripping yarn about the crosses and
double-crosses that inform my world of con artists and their kind, you’ll also
see evidence of my attempt to put color and spin in every sentence, to raise my
prose to the level of art – if not to the level of Tom.
John Vorhaus’s new novel, THE TEXAS TWIST, is available now.. All his other books (and they are not few) can be found via his Amazon author page. He tweets for no apparent reason @TrueFactBarFact, and secretly controls the world from www.johnvorhaus.com.
What a great idea! I always wonder what authors read :) I've only read one Robbins (not this one) and I'm not sure he's for me, but because so many people love him I'll probably give him another chance someday. Maybe this one!
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