The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books)

Author - Marc Cooper ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Nation Books was reviewed on 25-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:1560256648 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) Reference Book. Classifications : West State & Local United States Americas History Subjects Books General Sociology Social Sciences Nonfiction Subjects Books General AAS Sociology Social Sciences Nonfiction Subjects Books Essays & Tr . Click the following link to view the cover of The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books).

Related topics: West. State & Local. United States. Americas. History. Subjects. Books. General. Sociology. Social Sciences.

1) Paperback Book The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) by Nation Books. This is a fairly good hit and miss book on modern day Las Vegas. If you like Vegas, and want some snapshots of the modern incarnation thereof, this is a good book to read. There are some very interesting chapters (e.g. chapters on Oscar Goodman, and Binions) but there are also some so-so ones (e.g. homeless problem and transvesite stripper).

The writing is average but the book moves along at a good pace. It is a good airplane read but there are more interesting books on Vegas out there.¤

2) Paperback Book The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) by Nation Books. I picked this book up at the Mandalay Bay´s Reading Room bookstore during my last visit to Vegas but read it after I got home. How can anyone take time to read a book in Vegas?

Marc Cooper´s writing keeps moving for a quick overview of Vegas history, focusing on the couple of years after 9/11. For a book crammed with a lot of info and trivia, I didn´t find any chapter where it slowed down or lagged.

Cooper writes about his own experience as a Vegas gambler (where most visitors and tourists exist), and chats with a transsexual stripper trying to unionize nude dancers, Blackjack dealers and other older Vegas denizens who reminisce about the Sin City they used to know. He also profiles the "Big O," Oscar Goodman, who first made his mark as a mob lawyer and now acts as the mayor of Las Vegas.

Cooper then moves on to listen to professionals working with addicted gamblers and an activist-monk fighting for the homeless, showing an underside to the party.

(I think the book would´ve been more interesting if Cooper had used his investigative skills to take a closer peek at the ultra-rich in Vegas, juxtaposing that with the chapters about the bottom-dwelling addicts and homeless. At the same time I was reading this book, I also read the latest Vanity Fair article by upper-crust gadfly, Dominick Dunne, detailing a lavish visit to the opening of the new Wynn Hotel & Casino. It would´ve fit nicely into Cooper´s book, broadening it from the richest to the poorest in Vegas).

There are several complaints about Cooper turning political near the end of the book. There are snide comments about the War in Iraq and the Bush Administration, but the book doesn´t turn into a complete political screed.
The venom Cooper reserves for an abstinence group meeting near Vegas does interfere with the flow, however. He talks about strippers, gambling addicts, crazy homeless, mobsters and even mob attorneys while remaining objective and indifferent to any of their messy details--but he completely tears into virgins participating in an abstinence program. It just about ruins the book.

(Also, there are no less than six typos in the epilogue alone in the paperback I read).

But this is still a good Vegas read.¤

3) Paperback Book The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) by Nation Books. Marc Cooper´s book is a collection of essays about Las Vegas. The first quarter of the book is a history of the city, which will be old material unless this is the first book you´ve read on the subject. Why does everyone who writes about Las Vegas feel obligated to rehash the city´s history? The rest of the book is an assortment of essays about such things as the Ted Binion murder trial, a Franciscan monk who works with the homeless, corruption in local politics, the life story of the author´s favorite blackjack dealer, a self-help group for gambling addicts, and a transsexual stripper who is trying to unionize the city´s strippers. Cooper loves to gamble and conveys the addictive nature of trying to win at blackjack. What surprised me most is that for only $250 you can take a 100 hour course on how to be a blackjack dealer - surely a bargain for training that actually leads to a job.

I can´t help but compare this book to Hal Rothman´s "Neon Metropolis," which covers the same territory. Rothman´s book covers a wider variety of topics and focuses more on life away from The Strip than Cooper does. On the other hand, Cooper doesn´t seem to have an ideological axe to grind like Rothman, although both writers are politically liberal. Cooper´s theme, that Las Vegas is an "honest" place at a time when Americans have lost faith in other institutions, seems like quite a stretch.

Cooper´s book feels like it was published too hastily: There´s an epilogue with updates on his stories - why not simply revise the main part of the book instead? There are a few factual errors, there´s no index, and someone should tell Cooper that the possessive form of "it" is not "it´s."¤

4) Paperback Book The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) by Nation Books. I stumbled onto this book while prepping for my 1st ever visit to Vegas. What we have here is an outstanding piece of 1st person journalism, story telling and ground level interviews with long time "core" Vegas denizens from a long time Vegas expert. The narrative is colorful, imaginative and thought provoking. I cannot over state how much I enjoyed this sage piece of story telling and biting social commentary about Vegas and indeed our nation as a whole. I´d kill for an autographed copy.....¤

5) Paperback Book The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) by Nation Books. The writer does a good job of exploring the sides of the city that tourist seldom see, from advocates for the homeless to the personal lives of long-time casino workers. The book really hits its stride with the stories about the Honorable Oscar Goodman. However, as the book goes on, the writer´s political bias becomes more and more prevalent with the last few chapters turning into nothing but a political rant against the GOP and its supporters. I would recommend the first 80 percent of the book, but after that, one could read the New York Times Opinion page and see the same tired demagoguery you can see here.¤

6) Paperback Book The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) by Nation Books.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 22-Nov-2008, 15602566489781560256649, 650-970-481-421-001-451-8

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