Wild at Heart (novel)

For the book by John Eldredge, see Wild at Heart (Eldredge book).

Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula is a 1990 novel by Barry Gifford.^[1]

Author	Barry Gifford
Language	English
Genre	Fiction
Publication date	1990
Publication place	United States

Critical reception

Publishers Weekly wrote: "In the visual equivalent of sound bites, novelist and poet Gifford ... cuts to the heart with sharply focused shots of young lovers on the lam."^[2] Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Gifford's South is ersatz, tarred up with Forget-Me-Not Cafes and Dixie beer, his Romeo and Juliet more treacly than tragic."^[3]

Series

Wild at Heart begins the adventures of two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists, Sailor and Lula, on the road in the American South.

It is followed by:

• Sailor's Holiday: The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula
• 59° and Raining: The Story of Perdita Durango
• Sultans of Africa
• Consuelo's Kiss
• Bad Day for the Leopard Man
• Imagination of the Heart

Film

The novel was adapted to the film Wild At Heart (1990) written and directed by David Lynch and starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. The adaptation won the Palme d'Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival.^[4] The success of the film boosted interest in Gifford's novels.