Title: The Real Deal
Review: First some disclosure - I am acquainted with Hal Rothman in a professional capacity and I saw a couple of chapters before publication.Neon Metropolis is the best book I've read that explains the city I've lived in for nearly 3 years.Sure, it's easy to be ironic about Las Vegas and offer postmodern gobbledygook about what the city means. There are dozens of third rate writers and poets making unoriginal observations about Sin City. Hal tells it like it is for the folks who live here - in and outside of the gambling industry.Rothman is rigorous in his academic asessment of the city, yet the book is highly readable in explaining why Las Vegas is so successful at convincing ordinary folks like me, that I deserve to be strolling the lobby of the Bellagio with a Cosmopolitan in hand, contemplating a meal at a restaurant equivalent to a weeks pay.This is the one book I'll be recommending to newcomers to the city to get a grip on Las Vegas.
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