Vegas: A Memoir of a Dark Season
by John Gregory Dunne
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Description
"In the summer of my nervous breakdown, I went to live in Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada." So begins John Gregory Dunne's neglected classic of first-person writing, a mordant, deadpan, grotesque tale that blurs the line between autobiography and fiction, confession and reportage. Panicked by his own mortality, despondent over his many failings as a writer and a man, Dunne leaves his wife and their three-year old child for the solitude of a crummy apartment off the Vegas Strip. There he show more plans to write an account of the city as he finds it; the book he ends up writing is "a fiction which recalls time both real and imagined." The remarkable central characters are Artha, a student at cosmetology college by day, a sex worker by night; Buster Mano, a private detective whose specialty is tracking down errant husbands; and Jackie Kasey, a lounge comic who opens for Elvis at $10,000 a night and wonders why he is still only a "semi-name." Pimps, bail bondsmen, parking-lot moguls, used-car tycoons, ex-jockeys, and women who look as if they had "spent a lifetime meeting guys in Vegas or Miami Beach or Louisville for the Derby": these are the people who wander through the lives of Artha, Buster, and Jackie—and, for a dark season, the life of the narrator. Contains mature themes. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
John Gregory Dunne was married to Joan Didion, I believe.
The book has a definite flavour of the darker parts of the works of Charles Bukowski, another man with a serious battle with the bottle. Dunne survives the time he spent in Nevada, and it is a state I don't recommend for self-treatment of a depressive. The prose is well crafted, and he has a real talent for writing, but not for self-help. I hoped that things got better for him after that.
The book has a definite flavour of the darker parts of the works of Charles Bukowski, another man with a serious battle with the bottle. Dunne survives the time he spent in Nevada, and it is a state I don't recommend for self-treatment of a depressive. The prose is well crafted, and he has a real talent for writing, but not for self-help. I hoped that things got better for him after that.
A much different look at Las Vegas, than the greedy cesspool it is now. The book takes place in the early 70’s.
The author focuses on the lives of a couple of people he has randomly become friends with: A Prostitute, a private investigator, and a standup comedian. Plus a number of others living in Vegas. An interesting look back and it is a true(ish) story.
The author focuses on the lives of a couple of people he has randomly become friends with: A Prostitute, a private investigator, and a standup comedian. Plus a number of others living in Vegas. An interesting look back and it is a true(ish) story.
Bra och underhållande och helt utan filter om privatdeckare, prostituerade, män med livskris och bilskojare i Las Vegas.
May 10, 2022Swedish
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41 works; 2 members
Author Information
18+ Works 1,477 Members
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Awards
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Belongs to Publisher Series
McNally Editions (41)
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- Members
- 82
- Popularity
- 388,229
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.96)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 5
