Midnight Cowboy – Books and Literature

Review of the book “Midnight Cowboy”, by James Leo Herlihy

There are titles that speak for themselves, that evoke appealing and suggestive images or sensations. midnight cowboy It is, without a doubt, one of those books. Classic novels, stories, landscapes, dialogues, scenes or unforgettable characters. And let’s forget that there is a movie (which won 3 Oscars but which, for me, is quite modest) involved. (And if I don’t say it, I’ll burst: don’t make the same mistake I made a few years ago. Don’t watch the movie before reading this book. In fact, take it from me: straight up, don’t watch the movie. Period.)

GOOD.

Well, later, once we have in our hands a work to which we presume some kind of special aura, of legend, of a certain fame around it or, even, of that snobbish and regrettable label: “cult novel”, one opens the book with the desire to truly disappear into it. To be trapped in some way and as soon as possible. That something or someone introduces you to your world and takes you out of yours for a few hours or a few days. To share the doubts, the problems, the adventures, the dangers, the sadness, the love or the joy of the one we read.

midnight cowboy It’s just that.

Kiko Amat, in the fantastic prologue of this impeccable edition by the friends of Bunker Books, defines it perfectly: this is a story, these are characters that come out of the pages of the book because they are so real, that they take you away. riding through them because of how plausible they are. Two guys you fall hopelessly in love with as soon as you see them appear.

Because here we are, without a doubt, before two of the most unforgettable characters in 20th century North American literature. One of the most fun, exciting and beautiful friendships you will ever find in a novel. Two real cowboys at night in the big city: alone and not really knowing where to go. With the only company of the stranger, the new friend they have at their side, their survival instinct and their desire to reach, once and for all, the damned horizon, whatever that means.

(And now add a little soul or seventies funk to the matter, and you will be in front of a mythical and eternal pop scene forever and ever and amen).

Oh: and I can’t stop mentioning it. The end. Damn, what an ending! And up to here.

Seriously, take it from me that we already know each other: you can’t miss this book!

And now I present to you and we’re leaving: This is Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo.

Two characters that no one would have ever put together. One is tall, the one with the hat and leather boots. As handsome as he is naive. As strong as candid. Another is short, the little thief. Very little about him. Lame and sick, too. A hustler. Practically a homeless man.

Buck, he’s our cowboy, of course.

Buck travels to New York in search of the fortune that life has denied him.

Buck flees from a childhood of abandonment surrounded by dangers, from gulfs and whores, from some disappointments in love, from Jesus Christ and the army, from violence, poverty and, mainly, loneliness.

For Buck, New York is the city of opportunities, and in the novel it represents the hope of the future, but also the harsh reality of life, with its disappointments, its traps, its violence and its inexplicable meaning.

Ratso, for his part, represents the lumpen element in the novel and the complexity of his character will fascinate you. Small-time thief wants to be Buck’s getter, pimp.

But Ratso is only trying to survive because he is also alone and, although he wants to take care of his friend in the Big Apple, he will find in him the person he needs to protect him.

Buck and Ratso. What a two.

Two sides of the same coin.

That of the losers, that of the excluded, that of those who are alienated, that of those who survive and fight against everything and against themselves to continue standing one more day until the train passes that takes them, definitively, to the happiness or death.

Midnight Cowboy It’s a wonder. James Leo Herlihy wrote it with honesty and simplicity until the fame of the novel devoured him completely, because some parts of this book are of unique and unrepeatable narrative beauty.

Enjoy it, savor it, and then if you want, look for it on Filmin.

Or not.

And Merry Christmas and such.