Once again Mr. Vertigo shows Auster's great narrative abilities. The story flows like an unstoppable river closely following the bank of America's modern history. Yet sometimes connections between Walt and history seem a bit too much artificial and even if the reader knows how much Auster enjoy coincidences, most of them seem to be, in this particular novel, only meant to help the writer moving forward in his story and they lack the uncanny force such coincidences, when well delivered, sometimes have in his best works. The greatness of the narration is thus diminished by the easiness of some of the tropes used by Auster in a few chapters which unfortunately make the whole book less plausible, imaginative and captivating as it usually is. Vertigo is never as ambitious and well-handled as Leviathan is for instance, especially because of a weaker third part in which Auster fast-forward on many important events in his hero's life and does not take the time to develop some of the topics he alludes to (like grief). It remains, however, a good story and a good introduction to Auster's great story-telling and when the reader closes the book, he remains convinced that a man can fly and in this respect the book delivered what it intended to. (less)