Leaving Las Vegas by John O'Brien
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Book Reviews of Leaving Las Vegas
Book Review: The Future & Past of Brilliance
Summary: 5 Stars
I need to collaborate on a biography of this O'Brien fellow...any takers?Book Review: Yo Eisenberg
Summary: 5 Stars
I've got my bio-ears on in Ohio.Book Review: alcohol
Summary: 4 Stars
I think the film is better than the book. neither seem to me to be a love story. the film focuses more on Ben, perhaps because of the stunning performance by Cage. For me, the strength of the film is showing how alcohol drags people with it: Ben, the alcoholic (the scenes when he moves out of his flat - added in the film) are gut-wrenching) and we see that Sera needs him because he gives her someone to look after (even if that isnt what he wants). So much has been written about relationships where one partner tries to stop the alcoholic drinking. Sera doesnt because that is part of the bargain. interestingly, the film puts the rape scene just after Cage has moved out- showing the downward spiral she is lead into. It shows how her attempts to have a "nice" time are frustrated by the drink (the casino, the outing to the desert) beacuse what Ben really wants is to drink himself to death.
This is really a review of the film. It is stunning, and I am amazed that it is currently out of stock in the main distrubution outlest (though not amazon)
I have given the book 4 because it keeps a separate structure for both characters while the film links them almost from ther start. I would give the film a 5+
Book Review: The tragedy of alcoholism
Summary: 4 Stars
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.Book Review: o'brien's brutal grace
Summary: 4 Stars
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.