The basis for the Oscar-winning buddy film. "There is no questioning
the rampant power achieved through shriveling, shattering scenes"
(Kirkus Reviews).
Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American
novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe
Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave
his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he
will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more
difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon
finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and
his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the
novel's emotional nucleus. This unlikely pairing of Ratso and Joe Buck
is perhaps one of the most complex portraits of friendship in
contemporary literature.
The focus on male friendship follows a strong path cut by Twain's Huck
and Jim, Melville's Ishmael and Queequeg, Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway and
Jay Gatsby, and Kerouac's Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty. Midnight
Cowboy takes a well-deserved place among a group of distinguished
American novels that write--often with unnerving candor--about those who
live on the fringe of society.
"Leaves the world of innocence that is muddied by sex for a world that
is innocent in the midst of sex, with a protagonist who is a sexual
entrepreneur." --The New York Review of Books
