Mr. Bones knew that Willy wasn't long for this world. The cough had been inside him for over six months, and by now there wasn't a chance in hell that he would ever get rid of it.

Mr. Bones is a dog, Willy's pet and companion. Willy's full name is Willy G. Christmas and he is on his last legs. They have recently arrived in Baltimore in search of Willy's old teacher, Bea Swanson, the only problem is that he's not sure where she lives, or if he can make it there. Willy has two things to accomplish before he dies, firstly he needs to find a new owner for Mr. Bones and secondly he needs to find someone to whom he can bequeath his only valuable possessions, his manuscripts; although Willy has been homeless since the death of his mother, he is also a writer, and Bea is the only person he trusts. That he fails in both of these goals is typical of Willy.

Willy's sidekick was a hodgepodge of genetic strains – part collie, part Labrador, part spaniel, part canine puzzle – and to make matters worse, there were burrs protruding from his ragged coat, bad smells emanating from his mouth, and a perpetual bloodshot sadness lurking in his eyes.

The story is told from Mr. Bones' viewpoint; as Willy likes to talk and Mr. Bones likes to listen we find out about Willy's life. Born in 1947 (the same year as Auster) as William Gurevitch, he was brought up in Brooklyn by his Polish immigrant parents. When his father died just after Willy's twelfth birthday he was brought up by his mother alone. At university Willy took a lot of drugs and ended up in a psychiatric hospital. After he was released he switched from drugs to alcohol, which stabilised him a little, and he then had the experience that changed his life: one time whilst watching late-night T.V. he had a conversation with an on-screen Santa Claus, who convinced Willy to 'ask nothing from the world and give it only love in return.' Willy changed his name and had a tattoo of Santa on his right arm. His relationship with his mother was strained and it was at this point that Willy began to spend the summer months wandering around the country only to return to his mother's apartment in the winter. He also resumed his writing. But the years went by and Willy felt the need of a dog, both for companion and protection. So he got Mr. Bones. Mr. Bones loved Willy and Willy loved Mr. Bones. Indeed, Willy believed that Mr. Bones' body contained the soul of an angel.

When the narrative turns back to the present, an exhausted Willy has come to a stop on the steps of a building. Willy enters into a brilliant monologue about his life and then falls asleep. Mr. Bones curls up against Willy and falls asleep, then events get a little confusing.

That was when he dreamed the dream in which he saw Willy die. It began with the two of them waking up, opening their eyes and emerging from the sleep they had just fallen into – which was the sleep they were in now, the same one in which Mr. Bones was dreaming the dream.

Ok, it's a dream within a dream, which is nothing new, but it's done well, and when they both wake up events follow a similar course as the dream, with Mr. Bones fleeing from Willy, whom he believes to be dead, and fleeing from some policemen, whom he believes will take him into a 'shelter', something which Willy has warned him about. Mr. Bones now has to make his own way in the world and the narrative becomes a bit more of an adventure story.

Spoiler alert: I'm going to reveal the ending in this paragraph.
Mr. Bones has some bad times and some good times but as we get near the end of the book we realise it's not going to end well for him. After being adopted by a loving family he is then left at a kennel whilst they go on holiday, he escapes, only to find himself out in the snow, ill and exhausted, much like Willy was earlier. He ends up running into oncoming traffic to commit suicide—an ending very similar to the ending of The Music of Chance. It made me think that both novels have similar themes: aimless/lost wandering; characters with a lack of purpose; the death of a close companion or friend; being trapped in an almost inescapable situation; escaping from situation only to commit suicide. This is not meant as criticism of Auster as I often like writers who work away on their obsessions, each time from a slightly different angle, but I probably wouldn't have noticed the similarity between both books if I hadn't read them so close together. Timbuktu is another excellent novel by Auster and I'm glad I finally got round to reading it.

DNF. I was asked to read this book as a possible book club selection. I struggled with it, as it reminded me of a book I read several years ago, " Good Dogs Don't Make it to the South Pole." I loved that book, and it had many of the same themes. It was sad but contained more laugh-out-loud humour than 'Timbuktu.'
A dog narrates both books, and we share their thoughts and worries. Both dogs were below the standard of their littermates and considered unsellable. They worry about what will happen to them when they lose the companionship and love of their masters or mistress. Both ponder aging, friendship, substance abuse, and death. Timbuktu represents where a person goes far across the desert when they die. The dog in this story wonders if animals are allowed entrance to Timbuktu so he will be with his dying master again. He is determined to fulfill his master's last errand. You will probably wonder how dogs interpret the human world as they understand things quite differently.

I probably would have enjoyed it more had I not read "Good Dogs Don't Make it to the South Pole" first. It was a Norwegian book translated into English. Timbuktu was written ten years earlier and may have inspired it.

I may be biased as an animal lover but the picture of the sad-eyed, shaggy dog on the cover had me sucked in from the start, and the down-on-his-luck Mr Bones & Paul Auster didn’t let me down.

“That's all I've ever dreamed of, Mr. Bones. To make the world a better place. To bring some beauty to the drab humdrum corners of the soul. You can do it with a toaster, you can do it with a poem, you can do it by reaching out your hand to a stranger. It doesn't matter what form it takes. To leave the world a little better than you found it. That's the best a man can ever do.”

Her kitapta bir şekilde New York sokaklarını arşınlayan karakterimizin yerini bu sefer Baltimore sokakları ve Kemik Bey, yani kitabın esas adamı pardon esas köpeği alıyor.

Kitabın ilk yarısında Kemik Bey’in insan dostunun (Ya bu da çok ilginç karakter! Willy G. Christmas’ın hikayesi de Kemik Bey’den rol çalarcasına insanın içine işliyor.), ikinci yarısında ise Kemik bey’in arkadaşı Willy’i kaybettikten sonraki maceralarını okuyoruz.

İçinize işleyen bir şekilde anlatıyor yine Ayster. Hem çok gerçek, hem çok gerçeküstü. Hem rahatlatan, hem huzur kaçıran. Hayvan katliamının devlet eliyle meşrulaştırıldığı, dahası yasalaştırıldığı böyle garip bir dönemde yaşamaktan utanır olduğumuz günlerde, bu kararın alınması ve uygulanmasında payı olan herkese okutmayı, vicdanları yakalarını ömür boyu bırakmasın, bu katliamın sorumluluğu kararmış kalplerini kemirsin dursun diye gerekirse hepsine zorla okutmayı isterdim.

Hamiş: Kitapta Thomas Mann’ın geçtiği çok ilginç bir parça vardı. Gerçek veya kurgu çok hoşuma gitti. Güzel bir anekdot olmuş.

يكتب بول أوستر نوفِلّا لطيفة حول الأحاسيس وما يمكن أن تؤدي بالكائن الحي - على العموم - وقراراته؛ وليس "مستر بونز" سوى تمثيل للمشاعر بشكلها المطلق (بحسب المفهوم الثقافي الغربي عن الكلاب) وكاميرا مسلطة على ثلاث أنماط من حيوات الطبقة الوسطى في أمريكا خلال بداية التسعينات.

لا أعلم لمَ كنت أنتظر هذه الرواية دون غيرها ممّا ترجمته المتوسط مؤخرًا، لكن لم تكن تجربة مخيبة لذلك الحد :)
ستكون المحطة التالية إما "صانست بارك" أو "كتاب الأوهام"، لكن في ما بعد.

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, outside real world.

Who saw "Old Yeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?

Nobody cried when Old Yeller got shot? I cried my eyes out.*

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

And you will fall for Mr. Bones too, as you see the world through his eyes. Or maybe his snout. There is, indeed, a Symphony of Smells within, and other assorted delights. (Some plot spoiling follows.)

Mr. Bones is smart, as dogs go. He knows what you're saying and is frustrated that he can't speak back. Woóf! Woóf! Woóf! He is loyal, and cautious. He is not bitter about his dog's life. That's just how it is, you know. He had a ten-day affair with Greta, a malamute from Iowa City; other romances had been brief, impetuous.

He learned most of what he knows from his first master, Willy G. Christmas, a promising young poet until college happened and Willy's mind followed the drugs. "We're talking about highly combustible materials here, aren't we? You walk around with nitroglycerin in your brain, and sooner or later you're going to bump into something." But Mr. Bones learned some dog tricks and some human tricks too.

He would have a short stay with Henry, a Chinese-American boy who hides Mr. Bones from his restaurant-owning father and re-names him 'Cal'. See, Henry is a Baltimore Orioles baseball fan. Mr. Bones has to flee to avoid being the 'Chicken' with broccoli and rice entrée, or so he imagines.

His next stop is a family of four. He is found by daughter Alice. Auster tells us that Alice is no ordinary person -- and isn't it nice that he only tells us that much? Alice's mother, Polly, is whom Mr. Bones falls for though. We do too. Her husband is appropriately named. Dick is the one who insists on getting Mr. Bones fixed.

It is Polly who says, "You understand what we're saying, don't you, old dog? ... You're a special one, aren't you? And you're tired and beat-up, and you need something to put in your belly. That's it, old-timer, isn't is? You're lost and alone, and every inch of you is tuckered out."

You got that right, Polly.

I really liked this. Chien à tout faire. Recommended for mutts.



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*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmCH...

برخلاف انتظارم خیلی از این کتاب خوشم اومد
این کتاب از زبان سگی به اسم مستر بونزه. و داستان خیلی جالب هم روایت می‌شه. تجربه‌ی جالبی بود. اینکه بدونیم یه سگ با خودش چی فکر می‌کنه :دی
خلاصه اینکه، مستر بونز صاحبی به اسم ویلی داره که درمورد "تیمبوکتو" با مستر بونز صحبت میکنه. تیمبوکتو جاییه که افراد وقتی مردن اول اونجا می‌رن.
و خب به دلایلی که اسپویل نمی‌کنم مستر بونز مجبور می‌شه یه مدت با افراد دیگه سر کنه...
آخر داستان خیلی خوب تموم شد. خیلی غم‌انگیز.

در مورد ترجمه.... خوب و روان بود، ولی کاش واسه اسم‌ها و اینها پانویس می‌داد. من خودم خیلی پانویس دوست ندارم، ولی اینکه برای اسامی اصلا پانویس نداشت رو دوست نداشتم.
یک مورد دیگه اینکه، وسط نثر کتابی یک هو عبارات گفتاری می‌اورد که من فقط موقع خوندن ؟؟؟! میشدم!

"لا أحد يمكنه أن يبلغ أي شيء في هذه الحياة دون وجود شخص آخر يؤمن به.."

I originally rated this four stars, but after realizing that the book stuck with me and after additional reflection about the story, I bumped the rating up to five stars. I can't say anything about the ending without giving anything away, but I can say that the ending was a complete surprise to me. This is a book where I just didn't realize how much I liked it until I finished the entire thing.

The book started out a bit slow for me, particularly the parts about Willie's life, but I found myself becoming more engrossed as the tale went on. And what's not to like about a main character named Mr. Bones? I love stories that are told from the dog's perspective, and this was no exception. The ending left a little bit to the imagination and was bittersweet.

The theme that stuck with me is the bond between human and dog. I have an 18 year old dog who is my "heart" dog, and over the years, I have thought about what would happen to her if I was no longer around. If you like books from a dog's perspective and love dogs, you will probably enjoy this one. There were a few parts that were odd to me, such as when Mr. Bones had a dream that he was a fly and could see what was happening to Willie, but I got through those parts.

The narration was very good, and I'm glad I listened to it on audio. I find that the shorter audio books work well for me, as I listen to them during my commutes to and from work.

Ese libro que lees y cuando terminas de hacerlo vas a darle un besito a tu perro esperando que entienda lo que sientes.

هیچ نیاز نیست بگم داستان درباره چیه
هیچ نیاز نیست اینارو بنویسم و بگم چقد لذت بردم.
هیچ نیاز نیست بگم چقد درکش کردم
فقط انگار هر بار دارم یک بخش از وجودم رو در کتابای استر پیدا میکنم