Rating: 
Summary: Yo Eisenberg
Review: I've got my bio-ears on in Ohio.
Rating: 
Summary: The book overcomes its shortcomings
Review: John O'Brien wasn't a strong writer, and he frequently loses control of this narrative. For example, he does strange things like assumes the point of view of a refrigerator ... but doesn't do anything with that. He's not really in control of his language, either -- grabbing words that seem out of context, e.g., "redolent of his prescience" instead of a straightforward "suggestive of his foresight," which would've fit better with his own rhetorical choices earlier in the novel. Some of the sex scenes with Sera also seem to betray a sexual aggression on the part of the narrator, which is weirdly blind for this narrator considering just how omniscient this narrator is in other places ... Nonetheless, these flaws may make the story easier to take. A perfect execution of this story may have been too dark. Instead, the flaws humanize the story (which is powerful) and the characters and make it a compelling read.
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Summary: Despairing irony & over the top subtlety a great novel makes
Review: Leaving Las Vegas is a unique novel destined to (and already has) become a classic of American literature. It succeeds by forcing you to care on the deepest level about Nick and Sera, 2 of society's casualties. The narrative starts off with Sera, a Las Vegas hooker and O'brien's original writing style takes the 1st part of the book to get used to. We get inside 1st Sera's mind and later Nick's, a man who has given up on life and arrives in Vegas to literally drink himself to death. Camus has said that a good book doesn't give every detail of a life, but rather implies the whole by focusing on a significant part. This novel implies alot that it never goes into. It implies 2 lives with intricate and tragic pasts, that converge in a city at the last possible moment. Nick's line that he forgot why he wants to die, he just knows that he wants to implies or inspires a whole tragic past the reader must manifest in his/her own mind. Sera's need for love with Nick as the vehicle implies the tragedy of a loveless past of prostitution. Both have taken wrong turns in life and ended up here in Vegas. To me this novel is not about alchoholism or prostitution on any level but the surface. It's about tragedy, loss, despair, love, injustice. The author's suicide can only imply a few things. 1, he got so much into the characters he created he sank into those characters' despair himself and/or 2, this was too autobiographical to deal with it becoming so big (major film and all that), and/or 3, alchoholism....but most alchoholics don't die at 34, especially when as successful as O'brien. The final part of the book, though, seems abbreviated too much. We get many short vignettes toward the end (half of the film only uses about the final 10 pages). Therefore, my only criticism is that the book is too short.
Rating: 
Summary: Leaving this Earth
Review: Man, John Obrien could write. This short novel packs a wallop like few others. The depth to which Ben sinks is nothing short of amazing. And the style of Obrien's writing reminds me almost of some classic literature. I can't remember the term I learned back in 11th grade (referring to Crane, Hemingway, Steinbeck), but it was, "Brevity" of something. this bleak, yet engossing novel, speeds along to its ugly, ugly climax. I can't explain exactly what drew me into this book, but its dark grip never seemed to let go...and I don't think it will for quite a while.
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Summary: The greatest love story ever told
Review: no-joke exploration of two terminally wounded souls whose demons find near-transcendent solace which each other
Rating:
Summary: The greatest love story ever told
Review: no-joke exploration of two terminally wounded souls whose demons find near-transcendent solace with each other
Rating:
Summary: The greatest love story ever told
Review: no-joke exploration of two terminally wounded souls whose demons find near-transcendent solace within each other
Rating:
Summary: A Psychic Masterpiece!
Review: O'Briens novel is much better than the screen version. Not only do Sera & Ben seem original and real they also portray a part of the true nature of the Las Vegas mind-set. A must for dark poet fans.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The book is great and the author has a great way with words in describing details. I personally thought Leaving Las Vegas the movie was the best movie I have ever seen. Reading the book just added some more insights into perfection. I love books and movies that have to do with real life, most of the stuff written today or put in the movies are awful with totally unreal characters or actors trying to act in unreal situations.Finally we have Leaving Las Vegas which shows not everything is peaches and cream.
Rating:
Summary: Terse, brutal... as hard to pick up as it was to put down
Review: 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.
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