Tom Robbins: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues author dies, aged 92

Writer was known for his audacious metaphors and ‘seriocomic’ tone

Tom Robbins, author of 'Still Life With Woodpecker' (Everett/Shutterstock)

Tom Robbins, the counter-cultural author of novels such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Jitterbug Perfume has died at the age of 92.

The news was announced by the writer’s wife, Alexa Robbins, in a post shared on Facebook.

“He was surrounded by his family and loyal pets. Throughout these difficult last chapters, he was brave, funny and sweet,” she wrote. “He asked that people remember him by reading his books.” No cause of death was disclosed.

Robbins’s work was known for its rich and eccentric comedy, as well as his strong female protagonists.

Born and raised in Blowing Rock, a small town in North Carolina, Robbins started out as a journalist, serving as an editor, reporter and critic at newspapers in Seattle and Richmond.

His debut novel, Another Roadside Attraction, was published in 1971 and featured a zany plot involving the theft of Jesus’s mummified remains. His follow-up, 1976’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, was later adapted into a movie in 1993 starring Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco and Keanu Reeves.

Robbins would go on to publish six more novels, as well as an essay collection (2005’s Wild Ducks Flying Backward), a novella (2009’s B is for Beer) and, in 2014, a memoir – Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life.

A contemporaneous review of his memoir by Slate described the author’s writing style as comprising “goofily overheated prose that suggests somewhere deep inside Robbins’ brain is a little engineer staring at the simile gauges and muttering nervously that she canna take no more, Captain”.

The reviewer notes: “Robbins’ books are built around very specific theses about how the world works – they rail about how the government or church or dominant culture will be telling us one thing, but reality lies in a different direction. He’s one of those writers who just clicks, and clicks hard, with some people.”

Asked about the “seriocomic” aspect of his work, Robbins once stated: “To say that you can't take life seriously and that life shouldn't be taken seriously is not to say that life is trivial or frivolous. Quite the contrary.

“There's nothing the least bit frivolous about the playful nature of the universe. Playfulness at a fully conscious level is extremely profound. In fact, there is nothing more profound. Wit and playfulness are dreadfully serious transcendence of evil.”

He is survived by his wife and their three children.