Revertigo: An Off-Kilter Memoir

224 Pages·2014·0.984 MB·English

by  Floyd Skloot

UWP: Skloot: Revertigo pagei
Re ver tigo
UWP: Skloot: Revertigo pageii
Ter race Books, a trade im print of the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin Press, takes its name
from the Me mo rial Union Ter race, lo cated at the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin–Mad i son.
Since its in cep tion in 1907, the Wis con sin Union has pro vided a venue for stu dents,
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the Union, visit www.union.wisc.edu.
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Revertigo
ff -K
O cilt
An e Me moir
r
Floyd Skloot
Ter race Books
A trade im print of the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin Press
UWP: Skloot: Revertigo pageiv
Terr ace Books
A trade im print of the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin Press
1930 Mon roe Street, 3rd Floor
Mad i son, Wis con sin 53711-2059
uw press.wisc.edu
3 Hen rietta Street
Lon don WC2E 8LU, En gland
eu ros pan book store.com
Copy right © 2014 by Floyd Skloot
All rights re served. No part of this pub li ca tion may be re pro duced, stored in a re trieval system,
or trans mit ted, in any for mat or by any means, dig i tal, elec tronic, me chan i cal, photo cop y ing,
re cord ing, or oth er wise, or con veyed via the Inter net or a web site with out writ ten per mis sion
of the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin Press, ex cept in the case of brief quo ta tions em bed ded in crit i cal
ar ti cles and re views.
Printed in the United States of Amer ica
Li brary of Cong ress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Skloot, Floyd, au thor.
Re ver tigo: an off-kilter me moir / Floyd Skloot.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-299-29950-7 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-299-29953-8 (e-book)
1. Skloot, Floyd. 2. Au thors, American—20th cen tury—Biog ra phy.
3. Au thors, American—21st cent ury—Biog ra phy. I. Title.
PS3569.K577Z46 2014
818´.54—dc23
[B]
2013028359
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For Bev erly
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His dizzy brain spun fast,
And down he sunk.
George Gor don, Lord Byron,
from Don Juan, Canto II, 110
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Con tents
Ac knowl edg ments ix
Pro logue 3
Part One: O Won drous Trans for ma tion!
1 Some Things Nearly So, Oth ers Nearly Not:
The King and I and Me 11
2 Sen ior Speech 27
3 Beep Beep 42
Part Two: On and Off the Page
4 Play ing the Cock 59
5 The Bot tom Shelf: On Nov els I Keep Try ing and
Fail ing to Read 73
6 The Top Shelf: On Books I Need Beside Me 88
7 Some thing to Mar vel At: Dis cov er ing Jules Verne
at Sixty 104
Part Three: A Spin ning World
8 The Side Ef fect of Side Ef fects 121
9 Re ver tigo 129
10 Sway Me Smooth: Sound track for an MRI
of the Brain 140
11 An ni ver sary Fever 156
vii
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Part Four: Cart wheels on the Moon
12 El lip ti cal Jour ney 167
13 To Land’s End and Back: A 1,512-Mile Drive
Around South ern En gland 181
14 The Fa mous Rec ipe 198
viii Contents
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Ac knowl edg ments
Chap ters of Re ver tigo: An Off-Kilter Me moir orig i nally ap peared in
the fol low ing pub li ca tions, some times in dif fer ent ver sions. I thank
the ed i tors for their sup port of my work:
Boule vard: “An ni ver sary Fever,” “Beep Beep,” “Re ver tigo,”
and “To Land’s End and Back: A 1,512-Mile Drive Around
South ern En gland”
Col o rado Rev iew: “The Fa mous Rec ipe”
Ec o tone: “Sway Me Smooth: Sound track for an MRI of the
Brain”
Har vard Re view: “Play ing the Cock”
Post Road: “El lip ti cal Jour ney”
Prai rie Schoo ner: “Some thing to Mar vel At: Discovering Jules
Verne at Sixty”
The Sen eca Re view: “The Side Ef fect of Side Ef fects”
The Se wanee Re view: “The Bot tom Shelf: On Nov els I Keep
Try ing and Fail ing to Read” and “The Top Shelf: On
Books I Need Beside Me”
South west Re view: “Sen ior Speech” and “Some Things Nearly
So, Oth ers Nearly Not: The King and I and Me”
“The Fam ous Reci pe” was rep rinted in Best Food Writi ng 2011. “Seni or
Speech” was cited as a Not able Essay of 2009 in The Best American
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