| Title | : | Children of Las Vegas: True stories about growing up in the world's playground |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1800181388 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781800181380 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 176 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2016 |
Award-winning writer Timothy O’Grady lived in Vegas for two years. He finally began to understand it when he talked to people who had grown up there, the children of the card dealers and cocktail shakers, the jugglers and the dancers, young people who had been bearing witness to their strange city all their lives. One had her student loans and credit card limits stolen by her father. Another fled a sequence of exploiters until she found herself living in the storm drains under the casinos. There is the boy whose father entered him into a drinking contest when he was eight, the casino owner’s son, the erudite contortionist turned stripper. Each tells their own tale.
O’Grady here renews his partnership with renowned photographer Steve Pyke. Through short essays, Pyke’s portraits and ten witness testimonies, he pierces the city’s glittering façade. Children of Las Vegas shows us what we can expect to find when the global marketplace has found the addiction genes in us all. It is a book of broken dreams, but also of an extraordinary striving for transcendence.
Children of Las Vegas: True stories about growing up in the world's playground Reviews
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I have lived in Las Vegas fifty years…I am no apologist for the city—we for sure have our issues and problems; however, if living here were as bleak and miserable as the author attests after his two years in town, it would be shocking that anyone would choose to live here.
I appreciate the stories his subjects shared (and I even taught one of them when he was in high school…). I realize that everyone has his own story to tell—but by only sharing the dark stories of addictions, dysfunction, and malaise, a one-sided portrait is created.
Perhaps I am too close to the subject to view the book objectively—it was not to my taste. -
The Sin City begets sinful children, right? What about the majority? Who cares!
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a really eye-opening read about the darkness and struggles behind families and people who lived / are living in las vegas! would recommend everyone to give this book a read if you can get your hands on a copy.
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Having grown up in Vegas, I can relate to everything I DID read. Unfortunately, I just wasn't in the mood to relive it the whole thing, so I didn't get all the way through.
For those folks who have written reviews elsewhere rejecting the idea that the author only sought out a saturated handful of Vegas folks to interview and therefore only heard the down-and-dirty/skewed perspective: in my opinion, the majority of people who are raised in Vegas have a similar upbringing as these interviewees; they aren't the minority. Vegas isn't a place you think about when dreaming of raising a family, and for good reason--it's full of drugs, excessive drinking, addictive gambling, blatant sexualization of women, gangs, violence, transience, and poverty. The public schools are a joke, and when I grew up most folks had to work in the casinos--where there wasn't health care, vacations/sick time, or decent shifts, so sprinkle in all that comes from not having parent(s) at home and all the stress of having little to no job security.
Long story short, good for the author for shining some light on what it is like growing up in a city known for depravity. -
I found this book hard to follow at times. The subject matter seemed to jump around within the paragraphs. I understand these were interviews and may have been written in the format of how they were spoken.
As a child of Vegas, I found the stories relatable. I could empathize and feel the pain of the storytellers. I do feel like the stories are told from a completely pessimistic viewpoint. But that's just personal opinion.
These storytellers were raw and exposed in the book. I realize how hard sharing their pains was. I hope that each one of them has found some sense of peace in their lives.
While my own life carries some of these same themes, I consider my time living in Vegas as the years that shaped my character. I would not be who I am today without those experiences and viewpoints. Growing up Vegas, as I called it, shaped and molded me. It made me understanding of different backgrounds and socioeconomic classes. Vegas showed me life lessons that I carry with me to this very day. -
Este libro expresa en mucho y de una forma muy diferente a lo que yo hubiera podido decir, mi impresión de unas Vegas que visité y que no me impresionaron tanto como a mucha más gente que conozco. Como psicóloga social este libro me ha resultado interesante, sin embargo también como lectora me ha dado mucho para reflexionar y entender por qué ese lema de "lo que pasa en las Vegas..." no terminaba de parecerme tan esperanzador como lo quieren hacer sonar gracias al marketing.
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Interesting read but really depressing about how Vegas is such a haven for addicts of any sort. The poor kids have so many obstacles to overcome (most of them put there by their addict parents) and being able to grow up with any sort of life at the end is a credit to them. I've never seen the appeal in Vegas and this only confirms how horrible a place it is.
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Desgarrador.
Merece la pena leerlo para saber más y matar al mito de allí. Aparte de poder ver como la ludopatia destroza familias, ciudades y personas -
A collection of vignette regarding broken childhood racked with addictions and abuse common in Las Vegas. depressing reading but honestly spoken and vivid.
