Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas (edition 2007)

by Matthew O'Brien (Author)

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65	3	404,773	(2.92)	4
The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Christians. When surveyed in the early 1800s, the sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels, and relics of the revolution. And thousands of people lived in the subway and train tunnels of New York City in the 1980s and '90s. What secrets do the Las Vegas storm drains keep? What discoveries wait in the dark? What's beneath the neon? Armed with a flashlight, tape recorder, and expandable baton, Las Vegas CityLife writer-editor Matthew O'Brien explored the Las Vegas flood-control system for more than four years. Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas chronicles O'Brien's adventures in subterranean Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a flood. He parties with naked crack-heads. He learns how to make meth, that art is most beautiful where it's least expected, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.… (more)

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Member:	sarahweston
Title:	Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas
Authors:	Matthew O'Brien (Author)
Info:	Huntington Press (2007), 292 pages
Collections:	Your library
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Tags:	to-read

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Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas by Matthew O'Brien

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investigation, journalist, homelessness, hopelessness, las-vegas, nonfiction

Matt goes into the flood control drains beneath the surface of Las Vegas in 2004, originally to follow the trail of a convicted deranged murderer. It became something more for him as he met the men who lived down there, some of them for several years. Each chapter is the result of interviews and experiences in a particular drain. The descriptions of sights, sounds, and impressions are as clear as if drawn with more than pen and ink. Well done!
Alan Carlson narrates as convincingly as if he was the writer, and that's a very good thing. (

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jetangen4571 | Aug 22, 2019 |

Too much tunnel size and reading about the authors feelings of being scared. I was disappointed by the writing style ( or lack thereof), and the superficial way the story was told. (

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jeanie1 | Dec 4, 2009 |

There is a whole society beneath the streets of Vegas and Matthew O'Brien painstaking drawns this community out. Drain by drain, dark tunnel by tunnel he explores their world and shares their stories with the likes of us. From the moment I spied the words "drooling algae" on the first page (p 1), I was hooked. The trip Matthew takes us on is creepy, dark, violent, sexy, artistic, tragic, ill, romantic, pitiful, dangerous and sweet. Everyone in the drains has a story: running away from drugs, running to them. Gambling. Hiding. Healing. Living. Dying. Some say they are saving to "get out", others know they will die where they sleep. Some are moved to tears, others could care less. Sleep to dream, sleep to die. It makes no difference in the tunnels under the Vegas Strip. (

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SeriousGrace | Sep 27, 2008 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Matthew O'Brien	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Mollohan, Danny	Photographer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

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To the poets, artists, and madmen of the Las Vegas storm drains

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[Intro] The Weber Drain. Standing in front of the storm drain, a stream of runoff pressing against my boots, I felt as if a double-barreled shotgun was pointed at my head.

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Beneath the Neon

Matthew O'Brien

▾Book descriptions

The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Christians. When surveyed in the early 1800s, the sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels, and relics of the revolution. And thousands of people lived in the subway and train tunnels of New York City in the 1980s and '90s. What secrets do the Las Vegas storm drains keep? What discoveries wait in the dark? What's beneath the neon? Armed with a flashlight, tape recorder, and expandable baton, Las Vegas CityLife writer-editor Matthew O'Brien explored the Las Vegas flood-control system for more than four years. Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas chronicles O'Brien's adventures in subterranean Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a flood. He parties with naked crack-heads. He learns how to make meth, that art is most beautiful where it's least expected, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.

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