SOURCE: “It's a Dog's Life,” in Washington Post Book World, May 23, 1999, pp. 1-2.

In the following review, Yardley offer positive assessment of Timbuktu.

To say that Paul Auster's new novel is a departure from his previous work is true but inadequate, for each of his novels has been a departure; he is one of our most inventive and least predictable writers, forever exploring new territories and taking unexpected risks. Still, there is nothing in his other books—nothing, at least, of which I am aware—to prepare us for a novel the protagonist of which is a dog, “a hodgepodge of genetic strains—part collie, part Labrador, part spaniel, part canine puzzle”: a creature that thinks human thoughts yet remains dog to the core.

His name is Mr. Bones. He is 7 years old and has spent all but a few weeks of his life as companion to William...