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Overview
Mr. Bones, the heroic dog of Paul Auster's astonishing book, is the sidekick and confidant of Willy G. Christmas, a brilliant and troubled homeless man from Brooklyn. As Willy's body slowly expires, he sets off with Mr. Bones for Baltimore in search of his high-school English teacher and a new home for his companion. Mr. Bones is our witness during their journey, and out of his thoughts Paul Auster has spun one of the richest, most compelling tales in recent American fiction.
Synopsis
"Where the map of this world ends, that's where the map of Timbuktu begins." Paul Auster, whose idiosyncratic novels range from the noirish cult classics now collected as The New York Trilogy to the breathtakingly brilliant Leviathan, returns with the poignant story of Brooklyn-born poet/saint Willy G. Christmas and his empathetic canine companion, Mr. Bones. Though unable to speak, Mr. Bones understands every nuance of human "Ingloosh" and provides a dog's-eye view of his master's alternately troubled and beatific existence. Tubercular and knowing that his days are numbered, Willy sets out with his four-legged friend on a last, quixotic adventure—to Baltimore, and the last known address of his revered high school English teacher, Bea Swanson.
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
...[C]harming....[Tells] the story of a dog and his master from the dog's point of view....[It]...emerges as Mr. Auster's most touching, most emotionally accessible book....Mr. Auster....[puts] his philosophical theses across [by telling] an old-fashioned story, replete with sentiment and even flourishes of sentimentality...
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Over the past twenty-five years, Paul Auster has established one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature."—Michael Dirda, The New York Review of Books"[Timbuktu is] held aloft with audacity and brilliant, idiosyncratic language. . . . It's risk-taking and brazen energy suggest a writer on the verge of an even more rewarding leap into the air of his own uncharted territory."—Philip Graham, Chicago Tribune
"A novel of haunted love whose themes loop around one another like glowing coils, connecting gracefully beneath Auster's clear prose, eliciting the fanciful and the tragic."—Oscar Villalon, San Francisco Chronicle
"A modern parable that invites readers to probe below its deceptively simple surface for deeper truths . . . Auster demonstrates a well-honed talent for illuminating secluded facets of the soul."—Michael Hopkins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Lovely . . . Paul Auster is one of our most inventive and least predictable authors."—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World
Jim Shepard
Fans of Auster's work will recognize some familiar themes in Timbuktu: the nature of solitude and memory; the lost father and abandoned son; the power of contingency; the confrontation between the individual and the void....Throughout his story, Mr. Bones has been demonstrating the ways in which we're both haunted by and find solace in memory...—New York Times Book Review
Times Literary Supplement
One of America's most spectacularly inventive writers.Michiko Kakutani
...[C]harming....[Tells] the story of a dog and his master from the dog's point of view....[It]...emerges as Mr. Auster's most touching, most emotionally accessible book....Mr. Auster....[puts] his philosophical theses across [by telling] an old-fashioned story, replete with sentiment and even flourishes of sentimentality...— The New York Times
James Gardner
...[P]erhaps unconsciously, Auster has become the literary equivalent of that strange animal, the professional American....Clearly there is more than a little humbug to this book....[however] it would be unfair to deny that Auster handles the language better than almost anyone else writing today...—National Review
Publishers Weekly -
The always surprising and astute Auster (New York Trilogy; Mr. Vertigo) wrings one of his most poignant, immediate novels from the mind of an intelligent mutt named Mr. Bones who faces the crisis of a lifetime in the death of his deranged master and best friend. Mr. Bones does not talk, but he understands even the ravings of Willy G. Christmas, a "genuine, dyed-in-the-wool logomaniac" who has dedicated his life to serving as the earthly manifestation of Santa Claus through sporadic acts of kindness — when he's not drinking, wandering or writing poems. Willy initially adopts Mr. Bones as a measure of protection from life in the streets. But the two form a much deeper bond as constant companions through travels all over the country and winters in Brooklyn. As the novel opens, Willy is coughing up blood, realizing that his days are numbered; he and Mr. Bones have embarked on a mission to Baltimore to deliver a suitcase full of Willy's writings to an old teacher. After death comes for Willy, he continues to appear in Mr. Bones's dreams from the afterlife the dog knows as "Timbuktu." Mr. Bones's new existence is frightening and strange as he finds himself involved with children and members of mainstream society more subtly and deeply disturbed than his dear old friend. In this brilliant novel, Auster writes with economy, precision and the quirky pathos of noir, addressing the pernicious ubiquity of American consumerism, the nature of love and the core riddles of ontology. Above all, though, this is the affecting tale of a special dog's place in the universe of humans and in the fleeting life of a special man.Publishers Weekly
Abridged from Auster's 1999 novel of the same name, this wrenching but misguided production follows an existentialist dog named Mr. Bones who finds meaning through self-annihilation. Adopted by a suburban family after the death of his homeless master, Willy, Mr. Bones realizes that life as a pet in a rule-bound bourgeois world can never replace the "necessary" role he played in Willy's life. He decides to rejoin his old owner in "Timbuktu"-as the afterlife is known to him-by running into traffic. "He ran toward the noise, toward the light, toward the glare and the roar that were rushing in on him from all directions. With any luck, he would be with Willy before the day was out." Goschke's moving portraits of the bedraggled Mr. Bones, the complexity of her textures, the subtlety of her lighting and her ability to distill a precise moment from Auster's clotted prose make for a visually striking book. Unfortunately, the picture-book format and trim size will surely turn off those eager to put their lap-sit years behind them, while the abundance of text (in a hard-to-read, stencil-like font) short-circuits any resemblance to a graphic novel. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Meet discerning and sympathetic Mr. Bones, a dog who is unconditionally faithful to his troubled master, Willy G. Christmas. Auster's leading human character is once again a tormented writer from Brooklyn who blindly believes in his ideals and willingly chooses to become a vagabond (see, for instance, Leviathan, LJ 7/92). But the real hero is the four-legged creature who follows him on his impromptu journeys and leads readers through the story. Yes, he thinks and he understands, and although he cannot speak, he keenly observes and contemplates the questionable logic of human behavior. The beginning of the story is promising; the middle gets suspiciously trivial but is rescued by a clever and moving ending. This is not the kind of work Auster has been praised for, but it proves his hunger for innovation once again. Timbuktu will undoubtedly provoke mixed responses, but that is the price of originality. There is something plain yet mysteriously intricate beneath Auster's trademark smooth writing. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/99.]--Mirela Roncevic, "Library Journal" Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.London Review of Books
One of the impulses of the Post-Modern, and perhaps one of its saving graces, is the desire to retrieve those modes of sociability and relatedness which Modernism meant to dismantle or diffuse. That thought might go some way towards a charitable reading of Paul Auster's Timbuktu, 'a love story' between a dog and his master.Jonathan Yardley
Lovely…[Paul Auster] is one of our most inventive and least predictable authors.&151;The Washington Post Book World
Oscar Villalon
A novel of haunted love whose themes looped around one another like glowing coils, connecting gracefully beneath Auster's clear prose, eliciting the fanciful and the tragic.—San Francisco Chronicle
Paul Kafka
After reading Timbuktu we rambled through our world with reawakened senses and newly alert minds. This is the Auster magic…[His] books tease and challenge. There is an innocence in his work that is entirely compatible with the complexity of his artistry….Paul Auster is a genuine American original.—The Boston Globe
Ben Greenman
In addition to distinguishing himself as a critic, essayist and filmmaker, Paul Auster has written some of the most bewitching, intellectually provocative novels of the past 15 years. This disappointing trifle isn't one of them...Auster will certainly rebound, but this book is a dog.— Time Out New York