Sin City

Hundreds Of Hopefuls Enter Competitions, Few Expect To Win – Not Even Carole Joseph, Who Has Entered The Same Contest 63 Times, Under A Variety Of Names, And Is Astounded By Her Prize Of A Holiday For Two In Glitzy Las Vegas. The Winning Name She ‘borrowed’ Is That Of Norah Toomey, A Middle-aged Psychiatric Patient – Not Exactly The Ideal Travelling Companion For A Lively 18-year-old Out For Kicks. The Two Depart Together, And A Surprising Bond Of Affection And Dependence Develops Between The Unlikely Pair: Impulsive Carole With Her Seesaw Moods And Explosive Sexuality Egging On The Shy, Unworldly Norah, Whose Only Break To Date From A Lifetime In Institutions Has Been The Annual Hospital Day-trip To Littlehampton. But Las Vegas Isn’t Littlehampton, As These Two Innocents Discover To Their Cost, As They Are Plunged Into A Lurid World Of Strippers And Gamblers, Brothels And Crime. Sin City, On The Surface, Is A Fairy-tale Come (almost) True, A Disneyland For Grown-ups, But Beneath The Neon Rainbows Lies Not A Crock Of Gold, But Danger And Delusion. Carole Chases Romance As Well As Lady Luck, Changing Names To Match The Men She Meets; Lands Up In A Whorehouse In The Desert. Norah, Holy Fool, Finds Total Freedom More Threatening Than Total Constraint. Her Muddled Perception Of The Non-stop Noise And Neon, The Garish Merry-go-round, Which Won’t Stop And Let Her Off, Is Both Hilarious And Moving. For Both Women, Las Vegas Is A Watershed, A Crisis-point. ‘one Of The Most Interesting Novelists Of Her Generation. Intelligent And Accessible . . .’ Sunday Telegraph ‘a Writer Of Authority And Skill, With A Wicked Ear For Conversational Quirks.’ Sunday Times