Leaving Las Vegas Book

John O'Brien was an alcoholic. He died at the age of 34 by a self inflicted gunshot two weeks after learning that Leaving Las Vegas, published four years earlier, would be made into a movie. He was already too far gone by the time fame had found him.

The story is about two lost people (three if you count Al, Sera's former pimp) on the fringe of society, lonely and alone. It is a drunkard's fantasy, as O'Brien through Ben tells us numerous times, about a tragic drunk and a hooker with a heart of gold. This kind of thing has been done to death, but usually as a story of redemption. This is going to be an uphill climb for O'Brien, but he manages.

How did he do it?

The novel is by no means perfect. George Orwell had some rules for good writing, two of which go something like this: never use a big word if a little word will do and never use a complex construction if a simple one is readily at hand. John O'Brien never heard of George Orwell's rules for good writing. So, it you look at the reviews that mention O'Brien's prose, most remark on it unfavorably. It does take some getting used to, but after awhile you don't notice it.

Sera and her world are the subject of the first third of this short novel. Ben and his world take us a little past the halfway mark and the rest develops the relationship between Ben and Sera. O'Brien does the world building part pretty well, but good characterization allows the reader to understand why the characters do the things they do and anticipate future decisions/actions. Not so much here. They don't know why they do what they do and neither do we. Perhaps that's just the way it is.

Ben and Sera form a relationship out of loneliness and desperation. This isn't going to be a pretty thing and it could have easily descended to the maudlin, but O'Brien is too smart for that. Neither Ben nor Sera complain; their stoicism is remarkable. And O'Brien salts this sad tale with necessary doses of humor. In so doing, O'Brien has given the readers a rooting interest in the characters. There can be no happy ending to this story; the readers know how it must end and O'Brien delivers. It is the inevitable tragedy of flawed characters played out in slow motion and O'Brien has made us care all the way to the end.

That is the genius of Leaving Las Vegas.