Customer Reviews

Midnight Cowboy

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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It's hard to understand why this '60s gem has become a difficult find. The film, a watered-down version saved by a great Dustin Hoffman performance, has certainly not been forgotten. Yet few people seem to have sought out the original work.

This is a shame because the novel is much more satisfying than the one-note film. The background of the guileless main character, Joe Buck (first cousin to "Being There"'s Chance) is brought out in a series of mysterious incidents that put his fateful trip to New York into perspective.

The book also benefits from a narrative voice that ranges from flat objectivity to the wise and knowing tone of a fable teller. This voice also manages to capture the benign anonymity of big-city life. Against this backdrop, we see Joe Buck wander in search of a truth he can not name.

His destiny arrives in the person of a street urchin/criminal, Enrico Salvatore (Ratso) Rizzo. Those who have not read the book but have seen the film will be surprised that Herlihy's character is a boy -- though of course street-hardened beyond his years. This detail hardly detracts from Hoffman's performance in the film. Yet in the book it lends a poignancy to the character and his tragedy that the movie didn't capture.

Post-modernists may be impatient with the streaks of '60s idealism that run through the book. For me, the book strikes just the right tone for our age: violence is juxtaposed with life-affirming ideals in the novel's summation.

A neglected minor classic; highly recommended.

Herlihy's gift to American literature was this novel. Though the rest of his work is less remarkable, the author created a special vision of American life in Midnight Cowboy. Herlihy's reputation was founded on his ability to write about "grotesqueries" in an authentic voice, and nowhere is this talent better illustrated than in the exploits of Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo. The novel is full of contrasting elements that go to the heart of Buck's desire to be more than he has been in his young life. His failures as a son, as a military man and as a women's man were only glossed over in the movie, but are fully explored in the book, and serve as impetus for him to continually seek what he perceives to be his destiny. Buck's transition from southwestern hayseed to knowledgeable New Yorker (with the characteristics of each location carefully explored) is painfully rendered; his ignorance of sophisticated (if not corrupt) urban behavior is contrasted against Rizzo's phenomenal knowledge of all things sleazy (though Rizzo maintains a kind of corrupt righteousness in his appraisal of his own bizarre talents). Joe Buck moves from the Purgatorial heat of Texas to the frozen Hell of New York City, and, with the help of the complex mentality of Rizzo, manages to find redemption in the dream of Florida sunshine. Again, this Dantesque journey of a naïve dreamer is beautifully explored in the most grotesque environments. That Joe Buck was able to carry Rizzo with him into that light of redemption is the most poignant aspect of the novel.

Our pop culture offers us numerous, superficial views of lives lived like sit-coms or melodramas, clothed in Gap attire, well-groomed and comfortably normal. Here is a compassionate story of friendship among two fringe dwellers, ugly on the surface, and whom few would deign to look at in passing on the street. Joe Buck is a young, dumb narcissist who believes he can take New York by storm as a stud sought after by rich, lonely high-society women. His backstory comprises the first third of the book, a prosaic telling of an unwanted, unexceptional child whose only caretaker is a preening, whorish beautician who may or not be his mother or grandmother. Loneliness, neglect and some brutal encounters leave Joe to fantasize about finding his place elsewhere. He comes to New York. Once there, his consciousness about the world and his place in it dawn on him with painful awareness; his prized leather jacket becomes stained, his boots begin to smell, he bathes in public toilets and catches glimpses of himself in store windows which shock and depress him. Just as his very survival becomes in doubt he meets a city-bred troll aptly nicknamed, Ratso. Through all Joe's encounters with duplicitous street preachers, suburban molesters and, comically, neurotic New York women, his only bond and loyalty come incongruously to be shared with Ratso, left homeless by the tragedies of his own childhood. The redemption which comes at the end for both of them, is dark, bitter and grim, and yet it comes as a result of the moral choices which these two outcasts make in a world that is otherwise brutally immoral.

I have just re-read Midnight Cowboy after reading it for the first time back in 1969, when the movie came out. I was startled once again by the gritty, desperate telling of Joe Buck's story. Joe is a complete loser, incredibly stupid, and seems to have no dignity. If anything, he becomes even more of an invisible non-person once he hits 42nd St. Things change when he pairs up with Ratso, a crippled swindler who is, perhaps, even more of a loser than Joe is. Together they form a team and a partnership, and for the first time, Joe is happy. Through their unlikely friendship, Joe finally has a center, and gains some limited insight into his true nature. The ending, though sad, somehow left me with a weird hope that Joe manages to make a life for himself after Ratso. I find myself wondering what happened to Joe- did he marry? have children? I look at Jon Voight 30 years after the landmark film, and imagine that he is still Joe Buck- weathered, aged, wiser, and maybe even content.

I have watched the movie many times and recently, based on the reviews here, decided to read the book. While I am not a big reader of fiction, I could not put it down!!! Herlihy is one of those rare authors that can articulate the human condition in a way that resonates with everyone. I found myself reading certain paragraphs over and over because they were so beautiful. Joe is a symbol of loneliness and alienation. Emotionally stunted by a neglectful past, he becomes a full human being through a series of events that enable him to become aware of how broken he really is and what he really needs.

If you loved the movie, I highly recommend reading the book -- you will never see Joe Buck or Ratso Rizzo the same way again.

The movie was great, but the book WAS better. Joe Buck leaves his native New Mexico to "lasso Manhattan" Along the way he suffers the problems and indignations that many who come to the big city with a few dollars and no viable plan do. Buck meets up with local swindler Rico "Ratso" Rizzo and the two plan their adventures together. This book takes us back to a gritty, tough New York City. It creates a "Noir" mood that no other urban novel can. And this book was printed back in the mid sixties. I highly recommend this book

Not being an expert on the modern American novel, I'm reluctant to state that "Midnight Cowboy" is one of the great American novels, but I will, anyway. It's vastly superior to the film, a shallow and perverse adaptation. (Please see my Amazon review.)

Herlihy's characters are so vividly realistic, and his writing so elegantly simple, that one is not immediately aware that the story is an attack on American society's grossly materialistic "values".

The ending leaves the reader hanging. Joe has decided to abandon prostitution, to find a regular job and get Ratso the treatment he needs, but before he can do any of these things, Ratso dies. Lacking another human being to help -- and thus, no unselfed purpose in life -- what will Joe do?

The implication is that Joe will fall back into a life of aimless prostitution (he's learned enough to know how to turn tricks), as he no longer has the motive -- a sincere personal relationship -- for changing. If Herlihy _wanted_ Joe to be "saved", would he not have shown it?

Herlihy might be suggesting that we are what we are, and it is almost impossible to change our values. But that is perhaps reading too much into the novel's intent. Nevertheless, this is hardly an "uplifting" story. One might even interpret it as cyncial.

However you interpret it, "Midnight Cowboy" is an exceptional novel, one of those rare books that rewards the time spent reading it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

If you think that seeing the classic film is enough, please think again. The novel reveals dimensions of "cowboy" Joe Buck's personality and experience of the world that would be difficult to fully express on film. Read part one of the novel, pause reading, then watch or re-watch the film and you'll experience Joe in a whole new way. Continue reading afterward and you'll experience Joe and Ratso's friendship more profoundly.

Midnight Cowboy is one of those rare and wonderful instances in which novel and film are on artistic par.

Yes, I've seen the movie. We've ALL seen the movie, and heard the landmark 60's soundtrack from the film. Jon Voight's memorable portrayal of Joe Buck lingers on through the years. Reading the original novel is like entering a time machine, and finding yourself transported back to a gritty Pre-Disney Times Square, and meeting once again, the tired and greasy denizens of 42nd Street we used to step over and ignore back when we were foolish and young enough to bravely tramp along, confident in our youthful invulnerability.

Meeting up with Joe Buck now, it's almost astonishing to see how he's, or we've changed.
Can it be that poor simple Joe, was really a primordial Forrest Gump? Or is it we who've slipped further down the slippery slope of cynicism as we romp through author Herlihy's lushly descriptive, and yet hauntingly innocent text, lo these 30+ years later?

Just as the cinematic Gump drifted as a cork over the waves of history, the literary Buck too, finds himself cast into a world niether he, nor we had any hand in making. Like our two fellows, we also find what we are looking for in the last place we look.

Having seen the movie a couple of times now, I finally bought and read James Leo Herlihy's famous novel, and I loved it. The movie, which I also loved, is faithful to the novel but not slavishly so, leaving enough room to carve out its own artistic vision and individuality. I found that the book did explain and clarify a few things which were left to the imagination in the film (especially about Joe Buck's backstory), and I liked that too. Really, a wonderful work of art and truly a great read. The formatting of the ebook is less than perfect, but the read is worth every one of those five stars. It's also a steal at $4.49.