Mr. Vertigo door Paul Auster

1) summary

The story is set in the U.S.A at the beginning of the 20th century. The story is about Walter. One day master YEHUNDI found him begging on the street of Saint-Louis and they made an agreement: master YEHUNDI promised Walter to teach him how to levitate before his thirteenth birthday and if Walter was not able to levitate after that period master YEHUNDI would give him everything he possesses .
Walter went with him and the training was very difficult , but he did not give up because of AESOP and mother SIOUX who kept supporting him. After 2 years of hard work Walter was able to levitate .They decided with master YEHUNDI to go across America to show the world what Walt the wonder boy could do and to become as rich as possible.
One day Walt’s uncle, who had abandoned him when the master found him, paid them a short visit and he tried to get some money. But the master and the wonder boy were of course against that idea. But uncle Slim did not give up and tracked them during 5 long month and he finally kidnapped Walter and held him for ransom. Luckily Walter escaped and used his celebrity to get his uncle in jail. After that lousy kidnapping they went on tour and they used the kidnapping as fuel to launch Walter the wonder boy on orbit and it was a big success . But one day Walter was victim of the gravity revenge because he had levitated to much . It means that for every second he stays in the air he will have 3 minutes of horrible and that meant the end of his career .But for Walter this did not mean the end of his business. They decided to go to Hollywood to start a knew career. But during their travel to Los Angeles uncle Slim attacked them and master YEHUNDI were killed. Walter tracked his uncle for 3 long years and when he found him he killed him .
During the second world war he went to the army and after he got married with MOLY he wrote the book MR.VERTIGO (about his adventure with master YEHUNDI)

2) Main Characters

-Walter :he is a dirty and small orphan ;a piece of human nothingness (that how master YEHUNDI called him at the beginning);his mother died when he was younger and he lived with his uncle Slim and his aunt PED ( the did not love him in fact°
His father lived in BELGUIM, he is a product of the city and was at the beginning of the story afraid for everything that looked different)a real conservative American .

-Master YEHUNDI: he is a Jew born in Budapest , he grow up in Brooklyn(N-Y);his father and his grandfather were rabbis; he was also able to levitate when is was younger but he was also victim of the gravity revenge; he is very sever but he is a nice guy and a wizard.

-AESOP: he is an Ethiopian boy, he is very black so black that people think he is bleu; master YEHUNDI teached him science, history, art, literature, French … he was very smart ; at the beginning Walter hated him because he was black but they almost became brother and he was killed by the KU KLUX KLAN

3)Title

MR Vertigo is the name that master YEHUNDI gave to Walter when he couldn’t levitate anymore; it means :dizzy in the head and it is also the name of the book Walter wrote at the end of the story.

4)Message
Tolerance, love and loneliness and that everything is possible when you work hard for it.