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Leaving Las Vegas
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
In lesser hands, Leaving Las Vegas might sound flippant, sarcastic, or cruel. Luckily, L.J. Ganser voices this stark novel with just the right amount of existential dread, providing a clue to the emotional wrecks this story serves to highlight. In contrast to the bright neon lights of Las Vegas, John O’Brien paints a bleak background for the two main characters. Sera, a career prostitute, lives out a zombie-like existence, reacting neither to pain nor pleasure with any noticeable emotion. Ben is a drunk without remorse, drinking not just out of compulsion but also a benign resignation to an alcoholic lifestyle. For most of the novel Sera and Ben experience the decidedly not-glitzy side of Las Vegas separate, alone, and, until they meet, forebodingly aimless. Their union late in the book brings these damaged, lonely souls the comfort and solace they hadn’t realized they so desperately needed.
Ganser handles these characters with care: no one is judged for their emotional shortcomings, dubious moral decisions, or consequential failures. He instead reads the action with a professorial tone, and imparts equal parts whimsy and self-acknowledgement to Ben’s voice in particular. For all of Sera’s supposed strengths when dealing with adversity, Ganser’s voice reveals the frailties of self-doubt that O’Brien has subtly layered in. When Sera and Ben begin their doomed dalliance, Ganser gets to business upping the tension in revelatory fashion. It is here, late in the novel, when the story (and Ganser’s narration in particular) really shines. When a clearly drunk but also clear-thinking Ben says to Sera, “I hope that you understand that I understand,” Ganser gives the line all the weight it deserves, recognizing this as the perfect summation for the foundation of their entire relationship. Ganser’s performance of Leaving Las Vegas is an expertly narrated, subtly nuanced take on a devastatingly heavy-hearted story.
Throughout the novel, Leaving Las Vegas is much like its main characters: guarded, defeated, depressing. But like Sera and Ben at the end of the story, this book wears its heart on its sleeve, pushing even the most cynical of us to feel overwhelming sympathy. As first-time novels go, this one hits the jackpot. —Josh Ravitz
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Story
In the spring of 1978, a young Haruki Murakami sat down at his kitchen table and began to write. The result: two remarkable short novels—Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973—that launched the career of one of the most acclaimed authors of our time. These powerful, at times surreal, works about two young men coming of age—the unnamed narrator and his friend the Rat—are stories of loneliness, obsession, and eroticism. They bear all the hallmarks of Murakami’s later books, and form the first two-thirds, with A Wild Sheep Chase, of the trilogy of the Rat.
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FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY: Extra Ball at 600,000 points
- By Darwin8u on 08-12-15
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
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Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
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Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
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Babylon Sisters
- By: Pearl Cleage
- Narrated by: Pearl Cleage
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Catherine, busy working with refugee and immigrant women through her small firm, Babylon Sisters, has taken on a powerful new client. She doesn't have much time for Phoebe's complicated questions of paternity - that is, until Phoebe's real father, B. J., a renowned investigative reporter, shows up in town to work on a story connected to Catherine.
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Sister Love
- By Florence Graydon on 03-26-21
By: Pearl Cleage
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The Lost Weekend
- By: Charles Jackson
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1936, and on the East Side of Manhattan, a would-be writer named Don Birnam decides to have a drink. And then another, and then another, until he's in the midst of what becomes a five-day binge. A classic tale of one man's struggle with alcoholism, this revolutionary novel remains Charles Jackson's best-known book - a daring autobiographical work that paved the way for contemporary addiction literature.
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What a terrific audiobook!
- By Bill on 11-10-14
By: Charles Jackson
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Eat the Document
- By: Dana Spiotta
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In the heyday of the 1970s underground, Bobby DeSoto and Mary Whittaker - passionate, idealistic, and in love - design a series of radical protests against the Vietnam War. When one action goes wrong, the course of their lives is forever changed. The two must erase their past, forge new identities, and never see each other again. Now it is the 1990s. Mary lives in the suburbs with her 15-year-old son, who spends hours immersed in the music of his mother's generation.
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Great ensemble piece!
- By Buyer009 on 08-08-17
By: Dana Spiotta
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Burn
- By: Linda Howard
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Money certainly changes Jenner Redwine’s life when she wins a lottery jackpot. But it also costs her plenty: Her father rips her off and disappears, her fortune-hunting boyfriend soon becomes her ex, and friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything. Flush with new money, Jenner can’t imagine ever finding a place in the world of the wealthy. Seven years later, though, she’s rubbing elbows with the rich, despite the fact she still feels like a party crasher.
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UGH!
- By Nadine on 02-01-10
By: Linda Howard
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The Hustler
- By: Walter Tevis
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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To Fast Eddie Felsen, a young pool hustler, there was only one thing that mattered: to make the big time and the big money in the world of pool by beating the best in the country. Hustling suckers in small towns for good stake money was practice for his goal, and when he felt ready he went to Bennington's pool hall in Chicago to find Minnesota Fats. Eddie and Fats pit nerve against skill in a fantastic match over an unbroken 36 hours.
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Love Tevis in general
- By Darryl on 07-01-16
By: Walter Tevis
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Atheists Who Kneel and Pray
- By: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese, Finty Williams
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Yara Phillips is a wandering muse. She dates men who need her, but always moves on to something new, never staying in one place for very long. David Lisey is in need of a muse. A talented musician lacking lyrical inspiration. When he first sees her, he knows he's found what he's been seeking. Yara believes she can give David exactly what he needs to reach his full potential: a broken heart.
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Heart-shattering good
- By Jennifer on 12-28-18
By: Tarryn Fisher
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A Hymn Before Battle
- Legacy of the Aldenata
- By: John Ringo
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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With Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the Galactic Federation offers help to the backward humans - for a price. You can protect yourself from your enemies, but God save you from your allies!
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Another heads up!
- By Dr. Daniel Chapman on 06-12-14
By: John Ringo
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God-Shaped Hole
- A Novel
- By: Tiffanie DeBartolo
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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When Beatrice Trixie Jordan replies to a personal ad, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent 30-something free-spirit writer passionately seeking life. He possesses his own turns of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision. As they rollercoaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance, they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by both of their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.
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To see a fortune teller or not to see one...
- By Renee on 08-08-18
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French Exit
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Frances Price - tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature - is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts. Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit.
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deWitt deLivers Eccentric Quirky Characters
- By Liberty on 09-23-18
By: Patrick deWitt
What listeners say about Leaving Las Vegas
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jakk
- 01-06-23
As dark as the Vegas Strip at night
This is self destruction on steroids, so get ready.
Leaving Las Vegas is gritty, smelly and sad. It is also a masterpiece. I kept wondering... is it even possible to purposely drink oneself to death? I guess with an unlimited amount of alcohol and and a limited amount of time, one can. Ben has decided to check out of his nightmare life in his his own way. Sera is also caught in a dark existence where men cut her up, beat her up, sodomize her and people treat her like trash. She accepts this and minimizes her own pain.
Two lonely people share a few weeks of love, life, death, and terrible understanding.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Siobhan Ricci
- 04-11-21
A tragic masterpiece
John O’Brien knocks it out of the park. It’s a sad book but superbly written, it’s a shame he’s no longer with us. An absolute classic.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Libby
- 05-13-21
drunk man's fantasy camp
entertaining and sometimes insightful but definitely a fantasy piece for a wishful thinking drunk guy
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- Derek
- 04-23-12
REAL
Well-written. Captures the essence of the aloneness and separation of the two main characters.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Ronda
- 11-23-22
Powerful and haunting
Well done! Great voice! Great writing!
Profound and disturbing at the same time. I’m left very sad but maybe a little hopeful.
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- Jules
- 01-23-24
Smooth read
Narrator was a little boring but I listened to this after watching and loving the movie so much. Great book!
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- Teresa Curry
- 03-24-15
Leaving Last Vegas
Pretty good overall. Just watched the movie, had to give the book a try. I liked both:)
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2 people found this helpful
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- steve
- 11-10-10
A true love story
Gross, vulgar, and so sad.... A great movie and a great book, which was well-written. The author has a great knack for telling a story and the narrator does a superb job as well.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jim Reeves
- 05-23-21
Raw as an open cut on your face!
Being a recovering alcoholic (your never fully recover) I have empathy for Ben & understand the emptiness of his life once he's in too deep. And like a wife who just can't leave an abusive husband, Sera hangs on to the familiarity of her sorted life at all costs. The movie is exceptional, the audiobook better!
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