MIDNIGHT COWBOY

by James Leo Herlihy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1965

Whatever mixed reactions there have been to Herlihy's earlier books, The Sleep of Baby Filbertson and All Fall Down, all have acknowledged that Herlihy is one of the more arresting writers to make the scene and there have been dissonant comparisons from Capote and Williams to Steinbeck (!) with ""an edge of iron."" Whatever, his is an authoritative talent and this is again one of his itineraries of the dispossessed, the lonely (""They's no Beatitude for the lonesome. The Book don't say they are blessed."") exposed in a neon glare of monstrous horror. When Joe Buck is first seen in Houston, Texas, in all his animal swagger, his new ""beauty and hardness and juice and youngness,"" he is 27 but as innocent as an 18-year-old. He has grown up almost alone except for his grandmother and the years have been spent in truancy, idleness and high flying fantasies. One can easily suspect that Joe is schizophrenic. Now, at 27, following a terrible scene in a whorehouse, he heads north as a hustling cowboy with a sense of destiny. But his success as a freelancing stud is limited and after aimless wandering around New York, he makes an alliance with the crippled, crooked Ratso Rizzo who will pimp for him. The oldest profession turns out to be one of the hardest; there are encounters with two poisonous youngsters, with an older woman, with a middle aged man he kills (or does he?) before all his sick death dreams come true and he heads back South... Grotesque and desolate, there is no questioning the rampant power achieved through shrivelling, shattering scenes.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION