In the backdrop of the Twenties, Mr. Vertigo follows the life of Walter Rawley, a street urchin picked up from the gutters of St. Louis by Master Yehudi, a mysterious man dressed in black. Walt is told before his 13th birthday, he could learn to fly. While skeptical, he decides to follow Master Yehudi to an isolated Kansas farmhouse where he meets Aesop, a crippled black boy, and Mother Sioux, the grand-niece of Sitting Bull. In the house of misfit toys, Walt starts his journey through the thirty-three steps he must pass to learn to fly.
While the training consists of physical agony, including being buried alive and cutting off a part of his finger, an emotional battle rages on within Walt. Through the process, the Master attempts to break Walt's spirit in an attempt to free him of what he has been taught was impossible. But this freedom is a difficult lesson to learn as he is not only asked to accept that people can fly, but that all people include Aesop and Mother Sioux are create equal. Walt is resistant at first, angry and bitter at having been forced to leave the stimulus provided by the city into a house whom he views as his inferiors but who are treated as his superiors by the Master. The physical brutality Walt successively undergoes as part of his training to fly underscore the need to let go of attachment and emotions. His mutated pinky, for example, only serves as a visual manifestation that he must leave the unnecessary parts of him behind to learn to fly.first time Walt learns is to levitate, it is after Walter believes the Master has left him. After crying out his soul,"there was no more thoughts in his head, no more feeling in his heart... [he felt] utterly detached and indifferent to the world around him."
His journey takes off in a face-paced tumble as he goes from an obscure circus performer to an aerial artist. It is in the spotlight that Walt grows up, not just physically, but as an artist, taking ownership of his performance rather than being simply the obedient to Master Yehudi's plans. There are major scuttles in between, including a major kidnapping by Uncle Slim, his mother's brother, who wants revenge and ransom. But it turns out the narrow escape from Uncle Slim only served to sky-rocket his popularity, however short-lived. As gravity takes it's revenge on Walt as he hits puberty, his fame crashes to the ground with the same unexpectedness as It was short-lived, however, as puberty and gravity took their toll on Walt, he crashed to the ground with the same unexpectedness as the stock market crash of 1929.
The book only gets faster as the rest of his life is unfolded for us. After an attack by Uncle Slim in desert of California on their way to Hollywood to start a new career, Master Yehudi kills himself. Walt searches for years and finally gets his revenge and takes over his uncle's job as an underling to a powerful mob boss. On the way he meets Mrs. Witherspoon, the benefactress to Master Yehudi and himself when he was still Walt the Wonderboy, who gives him an opportunity to clean up his act and work for her instead. With his pride, he refuses, setting up a new club in Chicago called Mr. Vertigo, where stars of the past come to enjoy a night with the booze and girls. Overnight Mr. Vertigo becomes the hot place to be but after a serious of mistake on Walt's part, he must leave. The story comes back full circle, not to St. Louis but to Wichita, Kansas with Walk taking care of Mrs. Witherspoon until her death and running her laundromats all over the state.
While the training consists of physical agony, including being buried alive and cutting off a part of his finger, an emotional battle rages on within Walt. Through the process, the Master attempts to break Walt's spirit in an attempt to free him of what he has been taught was impossible. But this freedom is a difficult lesson to learn as he is not only asked to accept that people can fly, but that all people include Aesop and Mother Sioux are create equal. Walt is resistant at first, angry and bitter at having been forced to leave the stimulus provided by the city into a house whom he views as his inferiors but who are treated as his superiors by the Master. The physical brutality Walt successively undergoes as part of his training to fly underscore the need to let go of attachment and emotions. His mutated pinky, for example, only serves as a visual manifestation that he must leave the unnecessary parts of him behind to learn to fly.first time Walt learns is to levitate, it is after Walter believes the Master has left him. After crying out his soul,"there was no more thoughts in his head, no more feeling in his heart... [he felt] utterly detached and indifferent to the world around him."
His journey takes off in a face-paced tumble as he goes from an obscure circus performer to an aerial artist. It is in the spotlight that Walt grows up, not just physically, but as an artist, taking ownership of his performance rather than being simply the obedient to Master Yehudi's plans. There are major scuttles in between, including a major kidnapping by Uncle Slim, his mother's brother, who wants revenge and ransom. But it turns out the narrow escape from Uncle Slim only served to sky-rocket his popularity, however short-lived. As gravity takes it's revenge on Walt as he hits puberty, his fame crashes to the ground with the same unexpectedness as It was short-lived, however, as puberty and gravity took their toll on Walt, he crashed to the ground with the same unexpectedness as the stock market crash of 1929.
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| Cover of the book |
The ending can use some attention, however. He writes in the present describing how he had come to write this autobiography. There are several points I think are relevant at this point. First, is the parallel between Aesop writing his autobiography after a successful entrance into Yale and Walt writing his autobiography after an eventful life. Just as Aesop died shortly after he wrote his book, if the parallel proves true, it foreshadows that Walt too will soon be joining his loved ones. Second and perhaps the most interesting is the last two words of the book: "like so." Walt speaks to the audience as though he is showing an audience how he levitates, which does not make any sense since it was implied that Walt would not be meditating because the consequence would be paralyzing headaches. I'm still not sure what the metaphorical implications of this last bit is. If I end up figuring it out, I'll write it here. I'm hoping a dinner date with my librarian will clear it up. I'm going to be reading Sophie's World next.
Until then,
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