Matthew O'BrienBesprekingen

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.

Excellent book. Exposes the reader to a side of Las Vegas most people never see. The stories are all interesting, while at the same time some are sad and some are funny.

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.

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.