Mr. Vertigo - Softcover

Auster, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140231900 ISBN 13: 9780140231908

Publisher: Penguin, 1995

Synopsis

An enduringly brilliant tale of trial and triumph, set in America in the 1920s, from the author of 4 3 2 1: A Novel

Paul Auster, the New York Times-bestselling author of The New York Trilogy, presents a dazzling, picaresque novel set in the late 1920s - the era of Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, and Al Capone. Walter Claireborne Rawley, renowned nationwide as "Walt the Wonder Boy," is a Saint Louis orphan rescued from the streets by a mysterious Hungarian Jew, Master Yehudi, who teaches Walt to walk on air. Master Yehudi brings Walt into a Kansas circus troupe consisting of Mother Sioux and Aesop, a young black genius. The vaudeville act takes them across a vast and vibrant country, through mythic Americana where they meet and fall prey to sinners, thieves, and villains, from the Kansas Ku Klux Klan to the Chicago mob. Walt's rise to fame and fortune mirrors America's own coming of age, and his resilience, like that of the nation, is challenged over and over and over again.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Mr. Vertigo

"A charmer pure and simple. . .Nothing less than the story of America itself."
- The Washington Post

"Achieves a kind of sublime craziness. . .Nobody - nobody - has produced a better parable about the condition of the national consciousness at century's end."
- The Boston Globe

"A rollicking tale of greed and redemption. . .Auster has created a character who will remain aloft in readers' memories."
- People

About the Author:

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of The New York Trilogy and many other critically acclaimed novels. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2006. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0140231900
• ISBN 13: 9780140231908
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304