Iako se čini malo zbrzanom na kraju, ova priča nije bliska samo ljudima koji svoje živote dele sa psima (popularne kerovodje; njima/nama je samo nekako sladje, draže) već i svima ostalima, pa i onim jereticima sa mačkama. Ima tu što šta da se nadje: jedan impresivan monolog, jedna stara duša u psećem telu i (nekako setan) smisao za humor, ali i (nekako setnu) emociju.

4

تمبيكتو مرّة أخرى

تتمحور الرواية حول السيد بونز الكلب، الذي يكافح ويسعى إلى حياة هانئة مطمئنة، ومرضية لسيده الشاعر المتشرد ويلي في جي كريسماس، الرجل الذي ظنّ نفسه خليفة سانتا كلوز، وكذلك تتمحور الرواية حول قلق السيد بونز مما يحدث له بعد الموت، في احتمالية أن لا يرى سيده مرّة أخرى، أو أن لا تدخل الكلاب إلى تمبكتو، أو (الحياة الآخرة) التي اقترحها ويلي جي. كريسماس الشاعر، والتي يراها الجنة الموعودة، وعنوان الكتاب
الأمر الذي يسحرني في تمبيكتو أن الأحداث ليست واضحة، وضبابية، وكأن بول أوستر لم يكن مشغولاً في الرواية، فالصراعات محكومة النهايات مسبقاً، له1ا أرتضى أن لا يفعل شيئاً حيالها، تركها تتحدث وتتغمغم وترقص وتمشي على هواها وراحتها، وما أن تعبت، حتى عادت والتفتت إلى بول أوستر وسألته أن ينهي الرواية لطفاً، فأنهاها

Stop Press!
This is not your typical Paul Auster book. This is what Paul Auster books would be like if he suddenly decided the murky world of convoluted, maze-like po-mo literature was not for him and thought "I know, I'll write a nice book for children." Except this is a nice a book for adults.

I was suckered in by the picture of the moist-eyed dog on the cover and the fact that this is on the 1001 books to read before you die list meant that of course I was going to read it. I'm pretty sure this comes under the Marmite book category (vegemite if you live in the upside down part of the world) where you either love it or hate it. In fact the only way to make it more of a Marmite read would be to toast it, smear the cover in butter and then apply a generous lashing of the aforementioned brewer's yeast by-product.

This book is written from a dogs perspective and the narrative voice is that of a dog. I'm definitely a dog person so loved the idea of a book written through a canine perception of the world. Sadly this view point is given minus the cat chasing, butt licking and rolling in other dogs poop (why do dogs do that?) which whilst slightly more sanitary, does seem like a glaring omission. Mr Bones is the loving side-kick of urban camper Willy G Christmas. Willy G is not long for the world and Mr Bones soon finds himself alone on the mean streets of... well the mean streets - I'm pretty sure dogs are not bothered about geography given that they use their noses as sat-navs and different kinds of other dog pee as road signs. A dog-day musing on life, death, friendship, suicide and whether or not we ever get to see our loveable pooches again once we kick the bucket. Personally I hope we do, although in heaven I am anticipating that my deceased capering canine (who in life went by the name of Buster or The Pog) will have been provided with Sminty fresh breath and a drool-control mechanism.

Saben, mi bebé viejita está enferma y este libro me hizo churro el corazón.

Kirja koirien ystäville ja niille, joita kiehtoo ihmiselämän katsominen koiranäkökulmasta. Yleisesti ottaen ei siis minulle. Mutta Austerin pieni koiratarina oli aika lystikäs, välillä osuva ja sopivasti surullinenkin.

Mr Bones, sinä pikku karvaturri, analysoit osuvasti erilaisia perhesuhteita ja eläinrakkauden ilmenemismuotoja. Boheemi newyorkilainen kulkuri vai oman pihan omistama ydinperhe - kumpi on koirahenkilön unelmien isäntä?

Ihmisten elämä on hullunkurista, koiralle tahattomasti vaarallista tai saattaa olla vaillinaisenakin parasta mahdollista. Tämä kirjanen usuttaa arvioimaan tavanomaisuuksia epätavallisesta vinkkelistä, vaikka sitten koirankulmasta.

Ja Timbuktu ei muuten tällä kertaa ollut paikka Malissa.

In essence, this book seems to be about society's downtrodden....the invisible, forgettable outcasts.
Willy G. Christmas' story shows the human outcast side, while Mr. Bones' story tells the stray's side of the story. These two characters aren't a part of our society but they have a lot to give and contribute. We just don't see it. Willy's poems and stories are (presumably & suggestively) tossed and unread; Mr. Bones' loyalty and love isn't accepted or seen after Willy's departure. He's at the mercy of whomever he meets.
I think Auster is trying to say that society can be cruel to anyone/anything that lives outside of its well-defined parameters and that we should see these "outcasts" and treat them with respect and dignity, to include them and see their achievements & contributions. For dogs & animals, he may also be saying that we run the risk of not including them completely into our lives, even as we care for them and give them a home; that a home is more than a roof over one's head and food in the belly.
This is also a story of grief and learning to live with it. At times, it is very touching, as when Mr. Bones learns that Memory is a place that one can visit and enjoy; that it keeps a person with us always.
I also enjoyed the tiny touch of spirituality and continuation that Auster added with the later dream sequences.
Mr. Bones is a loveable dog, with a great personality and outlook. My heart went out to him many times.

That said, there were times that I found it harder to connect with the story because it's written in a rather "arm's length" manner. There were times that I didn't feel connected to the events; more like reading a newspaper account of something: the facts are there but they have nothing to do with me or my surroundings. Again, could Auster be writing this intentionally so to make me look harder at the "outcast" and connect with him? Very probably so, in which case that aloof writing style is rather ingenious....but it risks turning a reader away. Rather courageous of Auster, if this is what he meant to portray. Kudos.

There's a lot in this little novella. The stories of Willy and Mr. Bones will remain with me.

A while back I began a “project” to re-read all the works of Paul Auster. After a break of several months, I’m back to doing so, and just finished reading Timbuktu from 1999. If you count The New York Trilogy as three novels, then Timbuktu is his ninth. And while Auster has been my favorite male American novelist for over two decades, I’d be the first to admit that his work is generally not very emotional, but rather more stark and ascetic. Many of his previous novels rely on somewhat formalist constructions such as in The New York Trilogy, on bizarre consequences and the interiorized investigation of identity and the status of the self as in Moon Palace or Leviathan, or on an almost magic realism as in Mr Vertigo which matter-of-factly tells of a boy who undergoes a severe mentorship in order to learn how to walk in the air.

With Timbuktu, some of that magic realism continues as the protagonist is a mutt, and ironically, with a dog as the central character, this beautiful story becomes, as Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times: “Auster’s most emotionally accessible work.” And as Publishers Weekly put it: “The always surprising and astute Auster wrings one of his most poignant, immediate novels from the mind of an intelligent mutt.” And this mutt, named Mr. Bones is a character who will live in the mind of the attentive reader long after the final page.

Auster seems to uncover deep and universal truths from the simple particularities of his character’s situations. Just “listen” to this description of a budding friendship between Mr. Bones and a young boy named Henry:

"In age they were only three and a half years apart, but the boy was young and the dog was old, and because of that discrepancy, each wound up giving to the other something he had never had before. For Mr. Bones, Henry proved that love was not a quantifiable substance. There was always more of it somewhere, and even after one love had been lost, it was by no means impossible to find another. For Henry, an only child whose parents worked long hours and had steadfastly refused to allow a pet in the apartment, Mr. Bones was the answer to his prayers."

If you’ve not read any Auster, Timbuktu makes a wonderful introduction to one of America’s most prolifically creative and thought-provoking writers. Check out this slim, but bursting with originality, novel. I think you’ll find it worth your while.

جميلة وحزينة

رواية قصيرة رائعة.

(Book 70 from 1001 books) - Timbuktu, Paul Auster

Timbuktu is a 1999 novella by Paul Auster. It is about the life of a dog, Mr Bones, who is struggling to come to terms with the fact that his homeless master is dying. The story, set in the early 1990's, is told through the eyes of Mr Bones.

The story centers on his last journey with his ailing master, Willy G. Christmas, to Baltimore, but the details of both of their early lives are told in flashback.

The title of the book comes from the concept of the afterlife as proposed by Willy G. Christmas, a self-titled poet, who believed it was a beautiful place called Timbuktu.

A major running theme in the book is Mr Bones' worry that dogs will not go to Timbuktu, and he won't see Willy again after death.

تیمبوکتو - پل استر (افق)ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه نوامبر سال 2008میلادی

عنوان: تیمبوکتو؛ نویسنده: پل استر؛ مترجم: شهرزاد لولاچی؛ ویراستار: لیلا نبیفر؛ تهران، افق، 1385؛ در 190ص؛ شابک 9643692922؛ چاپ دیگر 1395؛ در208ص؛ شابک 9786003532632؛ فروست: ادبیات امروز؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

تیمبوکتو، داستان زندگی سگی به نام «مستر بونز» است؛ که از صاحبش «ویلی»؛ که نویسنده ای دوره گرد بوده؛ میآموزد، که دنیایی به نام «تیمبوکتو» وجود دارد؛ جاییکه افراد، پس از درگذشت به آنجا میروند؛ کتاب حاضر که یکی از آثار متفاوت «پل استر» است، از نگاه یک سگ، رخدادها را بیان میکنند؛ سگی که پس از مرگ نخستین صاحبش «ویلی»، با انسانهای دیگر نیز آشنا میشود؛ انسانهایی که تنهایی، وجه مشترک همگی آنهاست، و «مستر بونز» وارد دنیایی که آنها صاحب او هستند، میشود؛ اما «بونز» هیچگاه نمیتواند «ویلی» را فراموش کند، به گونه ای که حتی رویای رفتن به «تیمبوکتو»، و دوباره بودن در کنار صاحب نخستین خویش، او را ترغیب به خودکشی میکند....؛

نقل از متن: (آدمها بعد از مرگشان به آنجا میرفتند، وقتی روح آدم از بدنش جدا میشود، جسمش را خاک میکنند، و روحش به آن دنیا میرود، هفته های گذشته، «ویلی» مدام از این موضوع حرف میزد، و حالا دیگر شک نداشت، که سرای باقی وجود دارد؛ اسمش «تیمبوکتو» بود، ...؛ جاییکه دنیا تمام میشود «تیمبوکتو» شروع میشود)»؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 14/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 08/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Called this at page 108. The book is so corny and sappy and takes such an over-simplified approach to life and death for people with mental illness I just could not abide another page. I should know not to read books where the main characters are dogs. Some of my best freinds have been dogs, but I did not love them for their intellect and insight, their ability to see life in a holistic way. I loved those dogs because they have none of those things. They have unquestioning love and loyalty, and if they have thoughts beyond "I love you" "I want to play, please play" and "people food, please please please" I don't want to know. Auster knows how to craft a sentence, but this book reads like the work of a pretentious Nicholas Sparks, which is the worst of all worlds.

Un racconto di estrema grazia mescolata a un po' di dolcezza ci porta a scandagliare, vivere uno dei rapporti maggiormente intensi che si instaura tra un cane e il suo proprietario. La storia tra Willy e Mr Bones è un esempio in tal senso ed è raccontata dal punto di vista del cane. Un rapporto di grande simbiosi, quasi umano tra i due.
Ma cosa succede se il cane sopravvive al padrone? E' proprio quello che accade a Mr Bones, il quale deve cominciare a trovare cibo e un riparo, ma lungo il cammino non sempre si riescono a trovare persone gentile che possono aiutarti e venirti incontro.
Ed ecco, allora, che la sola e unica soluzione possibile è raggiungere Timbuctù, una "oasi di spirito" in cui cani e umani possano coesistere e conversare da pari a pari in totale armonia e serenità.