FICTION

LEAVING LAS VEGAS by John O’Brien (Watermark Press: $19.95; 189 pp.) Sera, a prostitute with an abusive, on-again-off-again pimp, and Ben, a drunk determined to drink himself to death in tolerant Las Vegas, meet for a love story that is, in its own twisted way, as innocent and guileless as any found in a romance novel. Sera is a sagacious, loving angel, and Ben manages to be charming and eloquent even when emerging from blackouts. Both are appealing and unrepentant, a combination which helps balance the gruesomely accurate accounts of an alcoholic’s last days and desert despair. This dark, intense novel is overwhelmingly depressing as it slides towards the inevitable yet irresistible conclusion.