Timbuktu: A Novel by Paul Auster (EPUB)

Description

Meet Mr. Bones, the canine hero of Paul Auster’s remarkable new novel, Timbuktu. Mr. Bones is the sidekick and confidant of Willy G. Christmas, the brilliant, troubled, and altogether original poet-saint from Brooklyn. Like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza before them, they sally forth on a last great adventure, heading for Baltimore, Maryland in search of Willy’s high school teacher, Bea Swanson. Years have passed since Willy last saw his beloved mentor, who knew him in his previous incarnation as William Gurevitch, the son of Polish war refugees. But is Mrs. Swanson still alive? And if she isn’t, what will prevent Willy from vanishing into that other world known as Timbuktu?Mr. Bones is our witness. Although he walks on four legs and cannot speak, he can think, and out of his thoughts Auster has spun one of the richest, most compelling tales in recent American fiction. By turns comic, poignant, and tragic, Timbuktu is above all a love story. Written with a scintillating verbal energy, it takes us into the heart of a singularly pure and passionate character, an unforgettable dog who has much to teach us about our own humanity.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Whenever I go to used bookstores, I look for copies of Paul Auster’s Timbuktu and then mail a copy to friends or family members. I have done this at least a dozen times. This is one of my all time favorite books, and I was so pleased that my book club decided to read it this year. The discussion we had was one of the best. I simply cannot recommend this book enough.

⭐Unique “down and out” story told from perspective of a dog.

⭐Timbuktu is a slim book and yet is a deeply affecting tale with Paul Auster’s wonderful prose. Mr. Bones, the hero of the tale is a Heinz 57 variety pooch who understands Ingloosh and is owned by Willie G. Christmas, who is a homeless bard who means to spread the gospel of Christmas around the country but sometimes becomes trapped in fits of psychosis and alcoholism.I love the way that Auster develops Mr. Bones’ character. I was able to see how truly precarious a dogs existence can be:”Was this what life was going to be like around here?, he wondered. Were they simply going to abandon him in the morning and expect him to fend for himself all day? It felt like an obscene joke. He was a dog built for companion ship, for give-and-take of life with others, and he needed to be touched and spoken to, to be part of a world that included more than just himself. Had he walked to the ends of the earth and found this blessed haven only to be spat on by the people who had taken him in? They had turned him into a prisoner. They had chained him to this infernal bouncing wire, this metallic torture device with its incessant squeaks and echoing hums and every time he moved, the noises moved with him”However much I loved this book and character, I could not escape the feeling of dread which accompanies many animal tales as Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, The Red Pony by John Steinbeck, and The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. If you can handle these feelings with the wonderful character development and prose, I encourage you to read this book.

⭐”To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring-it was peace.” Milan KunderaWilly G. Christmas has spent his summers wondering the continent with his dog, Mr. Bones. But now Willy is dying and Mr. Bones is contemplating his existence. Mr. Bones knows “a dog alone is no better than a dead dog” and is dreading the fact that once Willy is no longer at his side, “the world itself will cease to exist”.I adore this book. The characterization is wonderful. I love Mr. Bones. I identified with his struggles to make it without his master-his feelings of loneliness, his confusion. Timbuktu is told from Mr. Bones point of view which allows this story to raise questions about existentialism as well as distinctions between metonymy (the animal standing for the human) and metaphor (the animal likened to the human). This book was so emotionally moving, it’s been hard for me to analyze it critically. I was entirely lost in Auster’s prose and the emotions I felt for Mr. Bones and with Mr. Bones. Timbuktu is just a very good story.I’m suprised by the bad reviews of this book. Yes, Timbuktu is short. But there are only so many scenarios that can develop in the human-centered life of a dog. The experience of a dog is somewhat limited by the world people give them. Dogs rarely decide where they want to go. Dogs don’t get to choose what they eat, where they live or who adopts them. A dog can only shape his destiny in one way-Mr. Bones eloquently and heart breakingly demonstrates this painful truth at the end of Auster’s novel.One of my favourite books of all time. Michael Vick should be made to read this book every day in prison. Very highly recommended.

⭐I absolutely admire Paul Auster because whenever I pick up one of his books, I totally have no idea what to expect. You’ve surely noticed how some authors basically tell the same story over and over again? Not Auster. I’ve read quite a few of his works by now, and while he has similar themes delving into aspects of humanity, he delivers each and every one of said themes in a totally original and captivating manner.Timbuktu is unlike anything I thought Auster capable of writing. Our narrator and protagonist is Mr. Bones, a through-and-through mutt owned by a delusional and kind-hearted vagabond named Willy. We see life through Mr. Bones’ eyes, and Auster does a magnificent job of breaking we humans down to our most essential characteristics. Mr. Bones sees life as it is, and sees us for who we are.The story took a while to heat up because Willy proclaimed early on that death awaited him. The only problem was, while death certainly awaited him, I got irritated waiting for Willy to finally die so that Mr. Bones’ next step in life could begin. Once Willy headed for Timbuktu and Mr. Bones blazed a new trail in the world, I could hardly put the book down.Again, I can hardly believe the man who wrote The New York Trilogy, an utterly experimental and complex work, also wrote Timbuktu, a short novel told to us from the experiences of a dog.Auster is a true artist, a man willing to write whatever he wants despite externally imposed conventions, and I dare you to resist the warmth and charm of this story and Mr. Bones. Furthermore, I challenge you to keep a dry eye on the last page.~Scott William Foley, author of

⭐At its worst, this novella is a prolonged & sorrowful swan song. An existential meditation. At its peak however, it remains a radical exercise in stream-of-consciousness narration. Although reminiscent of Virginia Woolf at her most coherent, it’s a relief to have a book that does not require trips to the ever-faithful dictionary. And gratefully, this work is not rife with pretensions-galore (a-la “Book of Illusions,” which is thankfully newly off the 1001 Best Books List) and has the amount of imagination and sense of wonderment/awe which a work like this demands.The whole book in P.O.V. of a dog: there are moments when you think the author will absolutely fail, and the time seems impending… though it never really comes. Paul Auster succeeds in telling a sad, simple, organic tale of the universal connection that makes everyone part of the biological Brotherhood/Sisterhood/Universe. Even dogs with men connect; even a dog’s innermost psyche has substantial clout in the actual real world.

⭐This is a charming tale of the trials of Mr Bones after his homeless owner, Willy G Christmas, passes away. I read it on my Kindle but now must buy a paperback copy so I can send it to my mum in South Africa.Highly recommended.

⭐I’ve read it before, and I’ll read it again. A great story. Thanks.

⭐i read it to the end but was really sad did not like ending i had fallen for the mutt on the cover

⭐Love Paul Auster books as much as his screenplays- worth every penny and more

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