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''Mr. Vertigo'' is a novel written by the American author
Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...
.
Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...
first published it in 1994 in Great Britain. The book fits well in Auster's bibliography, which has reappearing themes like failure and identity and genres like
absurdist fiction Absurdist fiction is a genre of novels, plays, poems, films, or other media that focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless action ...
,
crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
and
existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
. Mr. Vertigo tells the story of Walter Claireborne Rawley, in short Walt. He is a neglected orphan dwelling on the streets of
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. Master Yehudi takes the boy to a lone house in the countryside to teach Walt how to fly. Throughout the story, they encounter real-life dangers like the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
and the
Chicago Mob The Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or The Organization) is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, tha ...
.


Plot


Part I

Walt Rawley lives with his uncle and aunt in St. Louis. They treat him badly, he is forced to be outside during the daytime and he receives little to no education. Walt is a beggar without prospects. This changes when he meets Master Yehudi. He tells the boy: "You're no better than an animal. If you stay where you are, you'll be dead before winter is out. If you come with me, I'll teach you how to fly" (page 3). Walt accepts the offer, and starts the terrific journey to the art of loft and levitation. Walt has other difficulties apart from gaining the skill to fly. Walt is a racist and is shocked when he meets his new housemates: the Ethiopian boy Aesop, the Indian Mother Sioux and the Jewish Master Yehudi. He eventually accepts this diversity and focuses on the thirty-three steps towards the skill of loft and levitation. After many humiliating tasks including living burial, cutting of a finger joint and being struck by lightning, he experiences levitation for the first time. When Walt tries to do a somersault above the lake near the house, a dramatic event happens: The Ku Klux Klan kill Aesop and Mother Sioux and set the house on fire.


Part II

Master Yehudi and Walt, whose aversion against the victims had changed to love, are emotional wrecks. They bury the dead and go to live with Mrs Witherspoon, a good friend of Master Yehudi. Master Yehudi's grief continues for months and he stays distant from Walt and Mrs Witherspoon. The latter two are forced to spend time with each other and therefore they become fond of each other. Master Yehudi is suddenly relieved of his grief and life continues again. Master Yehudi plans performances starting in little country festivals. Walt's first public performance turns out horrible because of the drunken public. They do not give up, but alter the performance with Walt's ideas. The stages get bigger and bigger. When everything seems to be perfect, Uncle Slim kidnaps Walt. He claims a big part of the profit Walt has made, because of the deal Slim and Yehudi have made. After Walt has been kidnapped for a while, he manages to escape and return to Master Yehudi. Walt the Wonder Boy makes a big comeback, and he has all the success and fame he could want. However, after a show in New Haven, Walt suffers terrible headaches after levitating. He and Master Yehudi decide to stop this career, because this has happened to other levitators in the past. Walt will become a movie actor in Hollywood. On the way towards Hollywood, they are attacked by Uncle Slim and he robs them of all their money, leaving Master Yehudi fatally injured. Yehudi shoots himself through his head, for Walt to move on.


Part III

Walt sought for revenge on his uncle for killing Master Yehudi. In the three-year search for Uncle Slim, Walt turns into his old, city dwelling self again. He finds Slim working for drugs smugglers in Chicago. After Walt kills his uncle by poisoning him, Slim's boss (Bingo) appears and offers Walt a job, which he accepts. Walt climbs up the criminal ladder and eventually opens his own nightclub named Mr Vertigo. At the top of his success, Walt unexpectedly meets Mrs Witherspoon again in a hotel. She offers to get him out of the criminal circuit, but he does not see the necessity. Walt starts to lose his mind and ends up threatening the professional baseball player
Dizzy Dean Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974), also known as Jerome Herman Dean (both the 1910 and 1920 Censuses show his name as "Jay"), was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career ...
. Walt has to go to boot camp.


Part IV

Walt stayed in boot camp until 1945, because his eyes were too weak for flight school. He starts dwelling the city again and has several small jobs in three years. When he eventually gets a job at a baking company, Walt meets Molly Fitzsimmons. They marry, but are not able to have children. Molly dies of cancer after twenty-three years of marriage. Walt becomes an alcoholic, but Molly's family helps him get sober and finds him a job. On his way to the city he will work, Walt decides to visit the village he lived in the times of levitation. He knocked on Mrs Witherspoon's door and is surprised to see her still living in that house. She has her own Laundromats and invites Walt to work for her. He accepts it, and from then on Mrs Witherspoon and Walt live together like husband and wife. After she dies, Walt decides to write a book about his life.


Characters


Walter Claireborne Rawley

Walt is the protagonist and narrator of the story. His life is followed from teenager to elderly and the story shows his changing personality. As a young boy, Walt is an uneducated, rebellious racist who either does not have or show his emotions. It gradually changes after he starts living with Master Yehudi. Walt learns to have respect for opinions and nationalities other than his own. Aesop teaches him how to read and Walt becomes eager to learn. When he is at the top of his success, Walt becomes very proud. Walt becomes his own self again after Master Yehudi's death: he starts dwelling the streets and his old dialect returns. In his elderly days, he becomes very caring for Molly and Mrs Witherspoon.


Master Yehudi

The Hungarian Jew Master Yehudi came to America when he was a young boy. Yehudi spends much of his time reading
Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...
. He has a many-sided personality. On one side, Master Yehudi is a business man with interest in nothing but profit numbers, shown by the plans he makes for Walt and Aesop. On the other side, he is a strict fatherly figure, hiding his care. However, when Walts gets ill, Yehudi does show his emotions and regret.


Aesop

The crippled Ethiopian boy Aesop was rescued by Master Yehudi and he received a high quality education. Aesop is therefore very intelligent, which occurs only little in that time for black people. Aesop takes it upon himself to teach Walt about history and make him literate.


Mother Sioux

The Indian Mother Sioux is the mother figure of the household. Her grandfather was the brother of
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock I ...
and she was a rider in
Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but ...
's Wild West Show. When she was a young woman, she was treated badly. Master Yehudi decided to help her and since that moment, Mother Sioux lives with him. She is loving and caring for everyone.


Uncle Slim

Uncle Slim is the antagonist of the story. He has treated Walt very badly and gave him no attention. When Walt is at the top of his success, Slim kidnaps Walt. He has planned this carefully. Later on, he attacks Yehudi and Walt. Also this has been prepared thoroughly. Slim gets into the criminal drugs circuit.


Themes and historical context


Racism

Many Americans in the 1920s were unhappy about the immigration from Eastern Europe. A group called
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs are an ethnoreligious group who are the white, upper-class, American Protestant historical elite, typically of British descent. WASPs dominated American society, culture, and politics ...
tried to reduce the number of immigrants to the US and the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
tried to get rid of people who they considered to be a threat to the USA. The latter is responsible for a switching point in the novel, as the Ku Klux Klan kills Aesop and Mother Sioux and put the house on fire. Also Walt is full of racism before he meets Master Yehudi. He does not want to live with a Jew, a negro and an Indian.


Education

Master Yehudi chooses Walt to learn the skill of levitation because of his poor education. Walt has no clue about the world, and because of his ignorance he has the best chances of success. The other boy Yehudi has taken into his house, Aesop, is totally different from Walt. Master Yehudi wanted to make Aesop an intelligent boy and therefore gave him the best education and taught him how to read. Eventually, Aesop teaches Walt how to read.


Adaptations

In 2009,
Audible.com Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model where the user receiv ...
produced an audio version of ''Mr. Vertigo'', narrated by Kevin Pariseau, as part of its ''Modern Vanguard'' line of audiobooks. In 2011, it was announced that
Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
was working on a film adaptation of the book. In June 2018, Gilliam announced at the Brussels International Film Festival that he was working again on Mr. Vertigo, and that it might be his next film, and that he had
Ralph Fiennes Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes ( ; born 22 December 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he excelled onstage at the Royal National Theatre before having further success at the Royal Shak ...
attached to star in it.


Footnotes

{{Authority control American thriller novels 1994 American novels Novels by Paul Auster Novels about orphans Faber and Faber books Novels about the Ku Klux Klan