Many people may not know, but the classic film "Wild at Heart" by David Lynch - one of the top 10 favorite films of his life - was based on this novel. The manuscript of the book, not yet completed, fell into the hands of the iconic director in 1989 when he was starting to film "Twin Peaks". Lynch immediately fell in love with Barry Gifford's work and decided to adapt it for his next project. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1990 - winning the Palme d'Or - and the book was published months later, in November of the same year.
More than 30 years later, I finally managed to read the novel, and I was surprised to see how faithful the film was to the book! Lynch adapted the text almost literally, reproducing in full several dialogues from the book. The main changes the filmmaker made were only to add mentions to "The Wizard of Oz" (which do not exist in the book), add some cool aesthetic details (such as the snake skin jacket and Nicolas Cage's character's obsession with Elvis Presley) and change the ending of the story, which in the book is much sadder.
The story, a typical "road novel", revolves around a mismatched couple in their early twenties, Sailor Ripley, fresh out of prison, and his girlfriend Lula Fortune. Determined to escape the clutches of Marietta, Lula's overprotective mother who disapproves of the relationship, they decide to cross the United States towards California (violating Sailor's parole), passing through New Orleans and Texas, where things become complicated in the tiny town of Big Tuna.
The book always has a surreal tone, with one character weirder than the other, and the dialogues are all written in slang and a Southern accent, which is done masterfully, giving great authenticity to the work, although it can be difficult for those who don't handle English so well. A very powerful novel that remains astonishingly current, as brilliant as its cinematic adaptation. Incredible that it has never been released in Brazil.