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9780299317041 Academic Inspection Copy

Daughter in Retrograde

A Memoir
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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.
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.
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 fast-paced, funny, heartbreaking memoir about a midwestern mother-daughter Thelma and Louise, hard partying, wise cracking, and brave. A tragic-comic meditation on love, loss, and what we see in the stars." --Micah Perks, author of What Becomes Us "A fierce and funny meditation on family and loss that surprises the reader again and again, full of beautiful sassiness and skepticism even as it is so open to the numinous possibilities of what is unseen." --Tim Miller, author of Body Blows "Heartbreaking in its honesty, lovely in its artistry, succoring in its strength. A stunning memoir." --Mary Clearman Blew, author of This Is Not the Ivy
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