Midnight Cowboy is a 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy that chronicles the naïve Texan Joe Buck's odyssey from Texas to New York City, where he plans on realizing his dream of becoming a male prostitute servicing rich women.

[1] The book opens with would-be gigolo Joe Buck leaving Houston to seek his fortune back east, chasing his dream of becoming a hustler for sex-starved rich ladies in New York City.

He is raised in Albuquerque by his grandmother, Sally Buck, a flirty blonde hairdresser who takes care of his needs but emotionally neglects him in favor of an endless string of boyfriends.

Annie is swiftly institutionalized, and the unsavory rumors surrounding Joe's involvement only serve to depress and alienate him.

Joe's simple delight at having attention paid to him by a cool new friend is misinterpreted by Perry as a reciprocation of sexual attraction.

Perry takes Joe to a hotel room, gives him marijuana for the first time, and attempts to initiate a sexual encounter.

Instead, the drugs cause Joe to suffer an existential crisis, and he babbles tearfully on the floor about his desire to have a blonde wife to fawn over him and take care of all his needs.

An annoyed Perry takes Joe to a Tex-Mex brothel run by a grotesque madam and her sexually deviant son.

Joe is thrilled by this apparent gesture of friendship, though it's implied that Perry intends the trip as a punishment for having been led on.

He resolves to harness all his anger to reinvent himself and focus on a goal, inspired by an offhand comment made by the brothel madam: He will become a hustling cowboy and seek his fortune in New York City, servicing the legions of sex-starved society women waiting for him there.

Afterwards at a bar, Joe meets Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo, a crippled young swindler who takes $20 from him for ostensibly introducing him to a pimp.

One day, Joe is scouted by Hansel and Gretel MacAlbertson, a pair of bohemian siblings, and handed an invitation to a Warhol-esque loft party.

Joe gets high off a pill Gretel gives him, and leaves the party with a socialite who agrees to pay him $20 for the novelty of spending the night with a male hustler.

Meanwhile, Joe is aghast to find himself unable to perform in bed, but after reflecting on his wearying experiences in New York City he successfully makes wild, raw, violent love to the socialite.

In 1969, the novel was made into the movie Midnight Cowboy starring Dustin Hoffman as Ratso and Jon Voight as Joe in his first film role.