Midnight Cowboy

By: James Leo Herlihy

Narrated by: Michael Urie

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 Moriarity. 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.

©1965 James Leo Herlihy (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

A sad story

This is a sad story of two people who became friends due to their reliance on each other.

Excellent

Excellent reading of a story most people know from the 1969 movie. The voice actor (Michael Urie) who did the reading performed excellent, distinct, consistent voices for each character.

Very good

I enjoyed the whole story
Perhaps will listen to it again in another 10 years!

Superb

The narration was top notch! I loved this book. I didn’t want it to end.

One of my favorites, well narrated

This is one of my favorite books and, now, one of my favorite selections from Audible. I really liked the narrator. To me, this is one of the great American novels. Such a sweet story of friendship.

Disappointing

Midnight Cowboy, the movie, was one of my all-time favorites so was I hoping to be able to say the same about the book. And I may have had the narration been better, because of which, I couldn't finish it. I found many of the voices to be annoyingly exaggerated, especially Joe Buck's, which was consistently inconsistent. Joe's voice varied from reasonably well-read, to cartoonishly goofy, to effeminate, at times within the same scene, This became apparent within the first two minutes--I hoped it would get better. I returned the book. Maybe if the narrator had watched the film first...