Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew up... in the East. She went to college where she studied art. But don't ask her about anything else – especially about her Dad.
Living... in Las Vegas. She went there deliberately to carve out a life. She was in L.A. before, but that's a long story. Her place is pretty plain. The main thing she has to come home to is a bottle of Listerine to wash the taste of sex out of her mouth. She doesn't like living alone, so she asked a guy she met named Ben to stay with her.
Profession... prostitute. She's on her own now, but she used to work for the worst pimp, Yuri. He thought Sera owed him for taking her off the streets, so he made her have sex with groups and do other things she hates. She even has some scars from where he cut her. Luckily for her, he got in some trouble and told her not to come back to see him.
Interests... spending time with Ben. He started off as a trick, but now he is essentially her boyfriend. Though it's not a long-term relationship; he said that he came to Vegas to drink himself to death. Although it's not obvious why, she finds him intriguing. As she says, "In between the hundred and one proof breath and the occasional drool, some interesting words fall from his mouth. And I've never done so much talking in my life." Also, he never asked her why she was a hooker, which she appreciated.
Relationship Status... getting more serious than expected. Ben needs her. In fact, she is probably the only reason he's still around. And in a strange way, he is returning the favor by helping her feel more alive.
Challenge... understanding her complicated relationship with Ben. She knows that Ben is jealous when she is with other men. But she still expects some kind of loyalty. As she puts it, "Just because I have sex for money doesn't give him cause to start picking up women and leaving me looking silly."
Personality... smart and kind. It seems so unfair that she has the life she has. She deserves better. Maybe some day she will realize that, and hopefully she will have the power and strength to forge a new path.
Get to Know her in...
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Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
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“Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O'Brien, is a disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it, a powerful tale of hard luck and hard drinking and a relationship of tenderness and destruction. An avowed alcoholic, Ben drinks away his family, friends, and, finally, his job. With deliberate resolve, he burns the remnants of his life and heads for Las Vegas to end it all in the last great binge of his hopeless life. On the Strip, he picks up Sera, a prostitute, in what might have become another excess in his self-destructive jag. Instead, their chance meeting becomes a respite on the road to oblivion as they form a bond that is as mysterious as it is immutable. Leaving Las Vegas tells a powerful story of unconditional love between two disenfranchised souls who connect for a fleeting moment.
