Timbuktu by Auster, Paul [Paperback]

Paul Auster (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 181 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312975287
• ISBN-13: 978-0312975289
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,380,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Travels in the Scriptorium, The Brooklyn Follies, and Oracle Night. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, I For One Found It Very Moving..., June 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Timbuktu: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'm surprised by some of the nasty reviews here, especially from Kirkus. In truth, this book is too slim and too sad to appeal to the masses at all, and I'm absolutely certain Auster didn't see this as a potential best-seller.

It's a flawed book -- too short, and not completely fleshed-out. It reads like it was written completely by feel, and in fact I heard Auster describe it this way, since he was intending for these two characters to be in a longer novel, but they just took over the story by themselves.

But I wanted to say that I was very, very moved by the story...enough so that I couldn't sleep the night I read it. I think Paul Auster explores loneliness like almost no contemporary writer. I don't understand anybody writing this off as a sentimental doggy story. Mr. Bones is a dog only because dogs are the ultimate disenfranchised group; even religions have no dispensation for them. I thought Auster hit on something really important here, that the circumstances of the story perfectly cut to the heart of the absolute lack of security in loving someone.

I'm frustrated by the book, too, mostly because I think Auster basically started the story near the end and didn't know where the heck else to go with it. Much of the middle feels like filler. But these are two characters who will stick with me a long time. Not Auster's best, but well worth reading.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nostomania (Homesickness) of the Disregarded, July 14, 2000

By 

R. M. Calitri (California,USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Timbuktu: A Novel (Paperback)

Once you've read Timbuktu, you may wonder if author Paul Auster is the quintessential dog reincarnated--so sensitive, authentic, and convincing is his portrayal of the mutt Mr. Bones. He is the canine sidekick (and doppelganger) of the sympathetic Willy G. Christmas, a devastated bard who, much too early in life, has found himself homeless and dying and thus trekking across Maryland in search of 316 Calvert Street. These two original characters share protagonist struggles in this heart-crushing, slice-of-life story.

Through a successful omniscient, third-person narrator, Timbuktu portrays a climactic period in the lives of these two discounted characters. Their street experiences have an interesting and very subtle effect of a hybrid parable/fable which is easy to miss upon a casual reading. Willy has spent his life writing and abusing his body due to psychological condition and a deep hurt that is never (and need not be) identified. His conversations with the cognizant Mr. Bones while teetering on the outskirts of a cold society to which Willy has been generous and compassionate are engrossing as they illustrate both the wit and deterioration of a bright mind. But Auster's story doesn't shout, is not didactic. Instead its subtleties may cause readers to reconsider the demise of community--for people as well as domestic companions.

Auster's writing is smooth as silk but his story has barbs. After reading this book, Willy and Mr. Bones continued to haunt my thoughts. Timbuktu is so smoothly delivered that it took me days to realize the concealed ethic in this humanitarian story. This is a seemingly simple book with hidden power, worthy of any reader.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A miss by a master, July 4, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Timbuktu: A Novel (Paperback)

Paul Auster is generally a master of his craft - using language well. This book is no exception. However, this is a book that reads as if it were crafted rather than grown out of the characters. Willie, as a homeless, mentally ill individual, is developed as a realistic character avoiding many of the cliches that are ascribed to such a character. However, none of the characters Mr. Bones meets after Willie's death are more than cardboard characters.

As for Mr. Bones himself, each reader will have a private opinion as to how well the dog is portrayed - an opinion based on the reader's presuppositions about dogs. That is to say that the author does not develop Mr. Bones in a manner to cause the reader to suspend disbelief if the portrayal is significantly different from the reader's opinions on dogs.

Nevertheless, the book is an enjoyable read - and a reasonable reread - especially for dog lovers. But if you've not read Paul Auster before, this is not the book on which you should judge the quality of his work.