The novels of Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction (1971), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), and Still Life with Woodpecker (1980), are set mostly in Washington state and the Dakotas, yet at first glance seem to have little in common with the formula Western or with Western writing in general. However, a more than cursory reading of Robbins's novels shows that climactic showdowns and shootouts are present, conflicts between unambiguously good and bad guys are, at least temporarily, resolved, and heroes do ride off into the sunset. When the construction and themes of his work are examined, it becomes clear that Robbins has reworked in an unusual style many of the conflicts familiar to the genre.
By redefining and reorganizing the confrontation of the individual and society, he has been able to go beyond the dead-end of the formula Western to suggest new resolutions to these conflicts that traditionally have been embodied in most Western fiction. As is the case with many other Western writers, Robbins's romantic vision enhances and idealizes the American pioneering spirit. However, while Robbins clearly believes in the value of individualism and diversity, he also seems to recognize the need for some kind of social structure, even if it may be radically different from anything we have now. Through this vision his characters work out the conflicts between their love of free, primitive, pantheistic lifestyles and the complex restrictions of a sophisticated, bureaucratic society. Robbins's characters often seek a physical frontier environment along out-of-the-way roads or in unpeopled mountains, but more importantly, they carry a new American frontier of the culture and spirit with them wherever they go. Robbins's "romantic" novels are some of the few sources we have today of positive, concrete suggestions for living in the modern world. (pp. 6-7)
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