Midnight Cowboy
by James Leo Herlihy
- Used
- good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Good
- ISBN 10
- 0795350414
- ISBN 13
- 9780795350412
- Seller
-
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Softcover as pictured. Normal wear from age/use. Clean text. Binding sound. PLEASE NOTE: corners slightly bumped from use. If you can overlook that flaw; it's a good reading copy.
Synopsis
In some ways, it was unfortunate for author James Leo Herlihy that his novel Midnight Cowboy was adapted into the landmark film of the same name starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. Although the film, which won several Oscars including Best Picture, certainly brought the rising author a new level of regard and notice, its almost legendary status in the history of American filmmaking has somewhat overshadowed its literary progenitor. This is especially unfortunate since Herlihy's work is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The novel's protagonist is Joe Buck, a naive young Texan who decides to leave his dead-end job and find a grander, more glamorous life in New York City. The city, of course, turns out to be a much harder place to conquer than Joe expected, and he soon finds his dream compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus, and the unlikely pair is one of the most sensitively-drawn and complex portraits of friendship in recent literature.The focus on male friendship is in fact a longstanding motif in American literature: Twain's Huck and Jim, Melville's Ishmael and Queequeg, Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, and Kerouac's Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity are some of the notable examples. Herlihy's Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo continue this venerable tradition in their unique, starkly-drawn fashion. Midnight Cowboy also takes a well-deserved place among a group of distinguished American novels that write-often with unnerving candor-about people living on the "margins" of society: Nathaniel West's Miss Lonleyhearts, John Fante's Ask the Dust, Kerouac's On the Road, and William Burroughs' Junky, to name a few. Midnight Cowboy, written by Herlihy with a unique mixture of severe realism and sensitivity, may well prove to be the best and most durable of these accomplished works of fiction.
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Details
- Bookseller
- the trader (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 468
- Title
- Midnight Cowboy
- Author
- James Leo Herlihy
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0795350414
- ISBN 13
- 9780795350412
- Publisher
- Rosetta Books
- This edition first published
- 2016-11
Terms of Sale
the trader
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Reading Copy
- Indicates a book that is perfectly serviceable for reading. It may have a defect or damage. As such, reading copy is not a...