Leaving Las Vegas

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.

Rating:
Summary: The tragedy of alcoholism
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Intense
Review: There is only one way to describe this book, Intense! John O'Brien gives the most accurate account of alcoholism that I have every read. It show the desprate measures that a alcoholic will go to and the exhasting planning that goes into being a drunk.

Rating:
Summary: o'brien's brutal grace
Review: to explore the depths of desperation, john o'brien didn't have to look far beyond the bottle he was selling himself to; and in so doing, he linked himself with the only profession that requires selling yourself: prostitution. by joining a prostitute whose lost the capability to delude herself and an alcoholic whose done the same, o'brien made it impossible to write a book where any second of loftiness, fantasy, or anything less than pure gutsy wriing would have immediately destroyed the book. o'brien pulls it off masterfully; he never pulls any punches and manages to be endearing and hopeful at the same time. any writer whose emotional climax involves one of the characters "masterbating furiously" and can still make the moment tender and beautiful deserves an immense amount of credit.