Paul Auster - Timbuktu

Pros: entertaining, funny, touching

Cons: Might cause you to smile, cry, laugh in public

Review: I read novels only sparingly because most fail to capture my imagination. To say that this book caught my attention is a SEVERE understatement. The only bad thing I can say about Timbuktu is that it is too short of a novel, and so the joy of reading it...

Pros: Enjoyable read, simple prose, engaging narrator

Cons: Weak plot?

Review: Willy G. Christmas says as he lay dying against a fence surrounding Edgar Allan Poe's house. Mr. Bones, his trusting, intelligent mutt, listens to Willy's freeform monologue, imbibing every crust of knowledge Willy talks at him. Seconds later though, a...

Pros: It's both simple and unpredictable

Cons: it's a little short for such an interesting idea.

Review: Five years have gone by since the master of enigma and mystery wrote "Mr. Vertigo", an astonishing story about a little boy who learned how to fly.

Now, in Timbuktu, Auster shows another facet of his enormous talent. Leaving his...

Pros: Interesting perspective, a good, fast read

Cons: Story could use a bit more development

Review: I picked up "Timbuktu" to read during an overseas flight. I chose it somewhat randomly... but the dog on the front caught my eye, and the description of the novel on the back cover sounded intriguing. A novel written from a dog's perspective?...

Pros: Good characters and humor; one can pretend to be a dog!

Cons: Not a lot of meat on the bones; a far cry from his best works

Review: Paul Auster's early work (City of Glass, Moon Palace, Music of Chance) is some of the best writing I've ever come across. His precise choice of words, his clear insight and ability to set a scene are some of the reasons he remains one of my favorite...

Pros: brilliant prose

Cons: different from Auster older novels

Review: Next time i want to go to Timbuctu, a place full of winding souls, speaking dogs and romantic heroes.
Maybe we should call timbuctu a fairy tale and not a novel, anyway the brilliant prose of Paul Auster makes the reader walk side by side with Mr....

Pros: Cute story, creatively written

Cons: Obscure, unsatisfying ending

The Bottom Line: Great short story for a dog lover, but poor ending

Review: Paul Auster is another author on the "read everything" list - after seeing Smoke I plowed through everything until there was nothing left to read (I skipped his memoir, however).

Timbuktu is his latest, and probably his shortest, but this is a...

Pros: felicitous phrases intermittently

Cons: plotless, characterless novel flunking the problem of perspective

The Bottom Line: For adult dog lovers, there's My Dog, Tulip, for younger dog lovers, there's Old Yeller.

Review: Having admired and enjoyed Paul Auster's New York trilogy,• his memoir of odd jobs (Hand to Mouth, and his script for "Smoking," I was surprised by how vapid his novel Timbuktu is. Having grown up despite weekly dosings of CBS's Sunday...