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When she isn't eavesdropping on family gossip or gazing at taxidermy squirrels in smoky dives, Courtney Kersten charts the uncertainty of her midwestern homeland by looking to the stars and planets. As a teen she had plunged deep into the worlds of signs, symbols, and prophecy. But as her mother—her traveling companion into these spheres—lies dying, Kersten must learn to navigate without the person who always lit the way. Their last journey together, to swim in a Wisconsin lake, is a bittersweet, darkly comic, poignant climax to this transformative memoir.
Table des matières
- Prologue
- The Axis Point
- Part One: The Retrograde Pre-Shadow
- Tarot
- Off Script
- Sally's Chart
- Five Years
- The Lake
- Small Town Girls
- Signs
- Part Two: Retrograde Station
- Holes
- Viszontl
- WELCO
- Star Shit
- Moses
- Don't Tell Dad
- Elvis
- Pawn It
- Richard
- Fish
- Virginia's Closet
- Triple Pit
- Sing
- Freaks
- Prayer Blanket
- Commercials
- Eileen
- Say Hello to Your Grandparents Before They Fly Away!
- Actors
- Birthday
- Vicky
- Kneel
- Pit
- Gimme
- Four Hours
- Part Three: Retrograde Direct Station
- Wilma
- Our Stuff
- Vader
- Split
- Sarajevo
- Viktorijas
- Part Four: Post-Retrograde Shadow
- Plunge
- Acknowledgments
A propos de l'auteur
Courtney Kersten is an essayist and scholar. A native of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, she teaches creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her essays can be found in
River Teeth,
Hotel Amerika,
DIAGRAM,
The Sonora Review,
Black Warrior Review, and
The Master's Review.
Résumé
A fierce and funny memoir of midwestern life and death, as a young woman looks to stars and signs to help her navigate without the mother who had always lit the way.
