Leaving Las Vegas [Paperback]

John O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 1995

Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O'Brien, is a disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it, a powerful tale of hard luck and hard drinking and a relationship of tenderness and destruction. An avowed alcoholic, Ben drinks away his family, friends, and, finally, his job. With deliberate resolve, he burns the remnants of his life and heads for Las Vegas to end it all in the last great binge of his hopeless life. On the Strip, he picks up Sera, a prostitute, in what might have become another excess in his self-destructive jag. Instead, their chance meeting becomes a respite on the road to oblivion as they form a bond that is as mysterious as it is immutable. Leaving Las Vegas tells a powerful story of unconditional love between two disenfranchised souls who connect for a fleeting moment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The wrenching but compelling story of unconditional love between two lost and disenfranchised souls. Sera, a prostitute, and Ben, an alcoholic, stumble together and discover in each other a respite from their unforgiving lives.

From Publishers Weekly

O'Brien's first novel, which uses a present-tense format for immediacy and heavy-handed irony to call attention to its characters' delusions and false optimism, explores a merciless world ruled by sex and booze. Sera, a surprisingly well-paid hooker from L.A., finds making a living in the squalid streets and casinos of Las Vegas fairly simple, provided that injuries from abusive tricks do not leave permanent scars; trouble starts when Al, her former pimp, tracks her down to reassert his authority. Her initial fear of Al's notorious cruelty turns to pity, however, and she frees herself of the self-destructive love she once felt for him to begin a gentler yet equally destructive relationship with Ben, a Southern Californian who has decided that Las Vegas's perpetually open bars are the perfect place to drink himself to death. Sera cares for Ben, and her compassion elicits the reader's sympathy and hope despite Sera's dead-end occupation and Ben's steadily worsening condition. Fast-paced and violent, this saga is derivative of such chroniclers of dereliction as Charles Bukowski and Larry Brown.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Ppbk Ed., Published 1995 edition (November 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802134459
• ISBN-13: 978-0802134455
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terse, brutal... as hard to pick up as it was to put down, December 12, 2001

By 

J. Malcolm McLean (NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leaving Las Vegas (Paperback)

The movie gives a lot of attention to the love affair before dashing its viewers against rocks. Here, hugs and kisses are few and far between. O'Brien's book injects its moments of passion and accepting love as brief moments of hope laced with doubt, when the overall tone should be enough to foreshadow its bleak and painfully real conclusion. It is written with the raw journalism of somebody who has seen what's on the bottom of the pool and has resurfaced to call for help. I offer this book five stars instead of, say 4, because it sticks to its guns throughout. It never flinches as it paints portraits of characters so desperately needy that somewhere inside you know they will never make it, with or without each other. This is true of more people than we care to admit. I don't know if I have the stamina or the desire for another reading. But I won't ever forget it.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The tragedy of alcoholism, June 5, 2000

By 

Vodka and Cranberry (Sydney) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leaving Las Vegas (Paperback)

There can be fewer books in the English language so poignantly tinged with tragedy as 'Leaving Las Vegas'. The author, John O'Brien, commited suicide shortly after the film rights to the book were sold. He was 34. With this background, the book itself takes on an almost unparalled sadness. The description of the the decline of a successful man into a sick and pathetic figure is brilliant, and the the character of Sera is equally convincing. Although this is a tragic tale, however, one must see the hope that lies behind it: in the end, Ben has found true love, and although it is too late to save him from the lure of the bottle, he dies as happy as his situation will ever allow him. The backdrop of Las Vegas is perfectly used, and the city of perpetual excess is the ideal venue to show what that excess can do. A book to put you off drink if ever there was one, and not one to read when depressed, but ultimately a beautiful, touching and liberating exploration of desperation and hope.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dark Masterpiece, April 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Leaving Las Vegas (Paperback)

"Leaving Las Vegas" is a dark tale that is not meant for the timid reader. It is real, it is gritty, it is graphic, it is depressing, and it is beautiful all at the same time. This book seriously deserved more credit than it recieved in its year of release, for it is a beautifully written account of unconditional love and loss in Sin City. Compulsively readable, and shatteringly honest, this is a book that will stay with you because of its frank and gorgeous language.