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FIC DOC
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Random House (2009), Edition: First Edition, 224 pages
Description
A free imaginative rendering of the lives of New York's fabled Collyer brothers depicts Homer and Langley as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, facing odyssean perils as they struggle to survive the wars, political movements, and technological advances of the last century.
Media reviews
This is Forrest Gump by way of Ecclesiastes, a sustained lament over the futility of human endeavor.
The achievement of Doctorow’s masterly, compassionate double portrait is that it succeeds for 200 pages in suspending the snigger, elevating the Collyers beyond caricature and turning them into creatures of their times instead of figures of fun.
I’m not sure “Homer & Langley” will stand as one of Doctorow’s best, but the story of two brothers united by their imaginations and disabilities ends up being a poignant one – rats, cockroaches, and all – and the ending has striking power.
Doctorow’s biggest weakness as a storyteller is his urge to act as a docent at the New York Historical Society. The inner life he gives to Homer is desultory – apart from a few brief love affairs, Homer’s days are marked by boredom and decline. To be additionally saddled with a grandfatherly
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tendency to long-windedness is a trait the novel can’t recover from. Show Less
A slight, unsatisfying, Poe-like story that turns out to be a study in morbid psychology.
User reviews
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
“I’m Homer, the blind brother.” So begins Homer Collyer’s narration of the story of his life and that of his “lung-shot and half insane” brother, Langley.
You may already know something of Homer and Langley Collyer, the title characters of E. L. Doctorow’s latest novel. They were real
Doctorow has revised the lifespans of the Collyer brothers, who actually lived from the 1880’s to 1947, and moved their home down Fifth Avenue south of its true location in Harlem, allowing them to experience the sweep of American History from World War I to the 1970’s. Homer may be as sightless as his namesake, but his powers of observation are keen. Through his memoir, we see the iconic events of the 20th century become personal to the brothers even as they gradually sever normal connections with the outside world.
At first, the brothers are quite social, spending many evenings in clubs and speak-easies, where they meet women, and gangsters. Homer has a job at a silent movie theater; he gives music lessons in their home. Langley has a few dates and talks of finding a wife. They hold tea dances in the dining room on Tuesday afternoons. The household continues to be run by servants, much as it was before their parents succumbed to the flu epidemic of 1918.
But as time passes, both brothers turn inward and Langley’s war wounds, mental and physical, take a greater toll on his sanity. They find fewer reasons to interact socially or even to acquiesce to society’s rules. Langley goes out twice a day for the morning and evening editions of all the New York newspapers, and to scout around for still-useful items being discarded or auctioned off. Homer leaves the house less and less often. What comes in the front door rarely goes out again. Only people leave. Langley’s brief half-hearted efforts to find a wife dwindle and are forgotten. Servants are let go, or die, or are taken away by the authorities. Some very interesting visitors pass through, including Vincent the Gangster, and a clutch of hippies. The dining room is occupied by a Model T Ford, Langley’s failed experiment to generate his own electricity. First the phone, then the electricity, and finally the water service are shut off for lack of payment. Something can be heard scuttling around in the ceiling. We know no good can come of it all. Yet reading the saga from Homer’s perspective, none of this feels quite as bizarre as we know it to be. And for the participants, it isn’t tragic, it’s just life. As Homer tells a friend at one point, “You have looked in on this house. You know there is just no other way for us to be. You know it is who we are.” Now we know too.
You may already know something of Homer and Langley Collyer, the title characters of E. L. Doctorow’s latest novel. They were real
Show More
people. They made the papers in the 1940’s for their eccentric, reclusive habits, and ultimately for dying in a houseful of hoarded rubble so deep that one of their bodies could not be found for over two weeks, despite the stench of decomposition that declared it must be in there somewhere. Their names continue to be associated with hoarding and obsessive “collecting” of useless junk, with living in squalor despite having money in the bank, with abandoning society for a hermit’s isolation. Doctorow may have changed that now, having used his art to bring Homer and Langley back to life, to make them real people once more, perhaps more real to us in their fictional forms than they were to the post-war world that, having discovered them buried in their own home under piles of trash, declared their lives and deaths a tragedy. Their story has been fictionalized before, but I dare say never better than it is here.Doctorow has revised the lifespans of the Collyer brothers, who actually lived from the 1880’s to 1947, and moved their home down Fifth Avenue south of its true location in Harlem, allowing them to experience the sweep of American History from World War I to the 1970’s. Homer may be as sightless as his namesake, but his powers of observation are keen. Through his memoir, we see the iconic events of the 20th century become personal to the brothers even as they gradually sever normal connections with the outside world.
At first, the brothers are quite social, spending many evenings in clubs and speak-easies, where they meet women, and gangsters. Homer has a job at a silent movie theater; he gives music lessons in their home. Langley has a few dates and talks of finding a wife. They hold tea dances in the dining room on Tuesday afternoons. The household continues to be run by servants, much as it was before their parents succumbed to the flu epidemic of 1918.
But as time passes, both brothers turn inward and Langley’s war wounds, mental and physical, take a greater toll on his sanity. They find fewer reasons to interact socially or even to acquiesce to society’s rules. Langley goes out twice a day for the morning and evening editions of all the New York newspapers, and to scout around for still-useful items being discarded or auctioned off. Homer leaves the house less and less often. What comes in the front door rarely goes out again. Only people leave. Langley’s brief half-hearted efforts to find a wife dwindle and are forgotten. Servants are let go, or die, or are taken away by the authorities. Some very interesting visitors pass through, including Vincent the Gangster, and a clutch of hippies. The dining room is occupied by a Model T Ford, Langley’s failed experiment to generate his own electricity. First the phone, then the electricity, and finally the water service are shut off for lack of payment. Something can be heard scuttling around in the ceiling. We know no good can come of it all. Yet reading the saga from Homer’s perspective, none of this feels quite as bizarre as we know it to be. And for the participants, it isn’t tragic, it’s just life. As Homer tells a friend at one point, “You have looked in on this house. You know there is just no other way for us to be. You know it is who we are.” Now we know too.
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LibraryThing member fredbacon
E. L. Doctorow's new novel, Homer and Langley, is based loosely on the lives of New York's infamous Collyer brothers, two reclusive men who lived apart from the world locked in their own neurotic, time capsule of a life, collecting trash and bills the way some people collect baseball cards. The
The narrator of the story is the ageing, blind Homer Collyer, a pianist who labors in the darkness to recount the story of his and Langley's lives to his absent muse, Jacqueline. His tale is a modern American Odyssey, who's voyage extends not through space but time. In the New York mansion which they inherited from their parents, the brothers navigate the currents of 20th century America from the first World War to the terrorist attacks of 2001, briefly washing ashore and encountering the natives of different eras. Along the way we encounter the gangsters and speak-easies of the Jazz age, the dolorous existence of the Great Depression, a brief visit to the land of the lotus eaters when a group of hippies establish a brief communal existence in the Collyer household.
It is all familiar territory to Doctorow, and that may be the novel's greatest problem. Because it is all familiar territory to his readers as well. There is little new to be seen throughout much of the first half of the book. We take a leisurely stroll through America's history (as seen through the prism of New York) while the author points out the landmarks which he finds of particular interest. It's a walking tour of Doctorow's works and interests, an exploration of his search for America's character. The book seems almost like a field guide to his New York, his America, a retrospective summation of his vision of what we have lost and what he has found among the detritus of the American Century.
While the first half of this slim novel seems to be taken up with a sequence of vignettes, like museum dioramas illustrating life among the Americans, circa early 1900s, in the last third of the book, the Collyers finally emerge as fully developed characters. In their battles with the utility companies and the city, Homer and Langley seem to come alive and emerge from the earlier set pieces of the story which they seemed to inhabit only as mannequins. In the end, they flesh and blood men at war with a new world which has overtaken them. Having journeyed through nearly a century, they are strangers to the shores of this bureaucratic metropolis, helpless but defiant.
In the end, what does it mean? Is the Collyer mansion, cluttered with its bales of newspapers, radios, televisions and even an early automobile tucked away in a dining room, a symbol of the accumulated history of America or the life's work of a novelist seeking to find America? Or perhaps it is Doctorow's symbol of the growing chaos and decay of what he had perceived to be a once great nation. A country buried under the debris of its own history.
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story Doctorow chooses to tell has little to do with the real Collyer brothers, who died in 1947. Instead, he builds his own story from their lives (one which owes more than a passing nod to the Maysles' brothers "Grey Gardens") with which he hopes to illuminate the story of the American Century.The narrator of the story is the ageing, blind Homer Collyer, a pianist who labors in the darkness to recount the story of his and Langley's lives to his absent muse, Jacqueline. His tale is a modern American Odyssey, who's voyage extends not through space but time. In the New York mansion which they inherited from their parents, the brothers navigate the currents of 20th century America from the first World War to the terrorist attacks of 2001, briefly washing ashore and encountering the natives of different eras. Along the way we encounter the gangsters and speak-easies of the Jazz age, the dolorous existence of the Great Depression, a brief visit to the land of the lotus eaters when a group of hippies establish a brief communal existence in the Collyer household.
It is all familiar territory to Doctorow, and that may be the novel's greatest problem. Because it is all familiar territory to his readers as well. There is little new to be seen throughout much of the first half of the book. We take a leisurely stroll through America's history (as seen through the prism of New York) while the author points out the landmarks which he finds of particular interest. It's a walking tour of Doctorow's works and interests, an exploration of his search for America's character. The book seems almost like a field guide to his New York, his America, a retrospective summation of his vision of what we have lost and what he has found among the detritus of the American Century.
While the first half of this slim novel seems to be taken up with a sequence of vignettes, like museum dioramas illustrating life among the Americans, circa early 1900s, in the last third of the book, the Collyers finally emerge as fully developed characters. In their battles with the utility companies and the city, Homer and Langley seem to come alive and emerge from the earlier set pieces of the story which they seemed to inhabit only as mannequins. In the end, they flesh and blood men at war with a new world which has overtaken them. Having journeyed through nearly a century, they are strangers to the shores of this bureaucratic metropolis, helpless but defiant.
In the end, what does it mean? Is the Collyer mansion, cluttered with its bales of newspapers, radios, televisions and even an early automobile tucked away in a dining room, a symbol of the accumulated history of America or the life's work of a novelist seeking to find America? Or perhaps it is Doctorow's symbol of the growing chaos and decay of what he had perceived to be a once great nation. A country buried under the debris of its own history.
Show Less
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
“I’m Homer, the blind brother.” So begins Homer Collyer’s narration of the story of his life and that of his “lung-shot and half insane” brother, Langley.
You may already know something of Homer and Langley Collyer, the title characters of E. L. Doctorow’s latest novel. They were real
Doctorow has revised the lifespans of the Collyer brothers, who actually lived from the 1880’s to 1947, and moved their home down Fifth Avenue south of its true location in Harlem, allowing them to experience the sweep of American History from World War I to the 1970’s. Homer may be as sightless as his namesake, but his powers of observation are keen. Through his memoir, we see the iconic events of the 20th century become personal to the brothers even as they gradually sever normal connections with the outside world.
At first, the brothers are quite social, spending many evenings in clubs and speak-easies, where they meet women, and gangsters. Homer has a job at a silent movie theater; he gives music lessons in their home. Langley has a few dates and talks of finding a wife. They hold tea dances in the dining room on Tuesday afternoons. The household continues to be run by servants, much as it was before their parents succumbed to the flu epidemic of 1918.
But as time passes, both brothers turn inward and Langley’s war wounds, mental and physical, take a greater toll on his sanity. They find fewer reasons to interact socially or even to acquiesce to society’s rules. Langley goes out twice a day for the morning and evening editions of all the New York newspapers, and to scout around for still-useful items being discarded or auctioned off. Homer leaves the house less and less often. What comes in the front door rarely goes out again. Only people leave. Langley’s brief half-hearted efforts to find a wife dwindle and are forgotten. Servants are let go, or die, or are taken away by the authorities. Some very interesting visitors pass through, including Vincent the Gangster, and a clutch of hippies. The dining room is occupied by a Model T Ford, Langley’s failed experiment to generate his own electricity. First the phone, then the electricity, and finally the water service are shut off for lack of payment. Something can be heard scuttling around in the ceiling. We know no good can come of it all. Yet reading the saga from Homer’s perspective, none of this feels quite as bizarre as we know it to be. And for the participants, it isn’t tragic, it’s just life. As Homer tells a friend at one point, “You have looked in on this house. You know there is just no other way for us to be. You know it is who we are.” Now we know too.
Review written in 2009
You may already know something of Homer and Langley Collyer, the title characters of E. L. Doctorow’s latest novel. They were real
Show More
people. They made the papers in the 1940’s for their eccentric, reclusive habits, and ultimately for dying in a houseful of hoarded rubble so deep that one of their bodies could not be found for over two weeks, despite the stench of decomposition that declared it must be in there somewhere. Their names continue to be associated with hoarding and obsessive “collecting” of useless junk, with living in squalor despite having money in the bank, with abandoning society for a hermit’s isolation. Doctorow may have changed that now, having used his art to bring Homer and Langley back to life, to make them real people once more, perhaps more real to us in their fictional forms than they were to the post-war world that, having discovered them buried in their own home under piles of trash, declared their lives and deaths a tragedy. Their story has been fictionalized before, but I dare say never better than it is here.Doctorow has revised the lifespans of the Collyer brothers, who actually lived from the 1880’s to 1947, and moved their home down Fifth Avenue south of its true location in Harlem, allowing them to experience the sweep of American History from World War I to the 1970’s. Homer may be as sightless as his namesake, but his powers of observation are keen. Through his memoir, we see the iconic events of the 20th century become personal to the brothers even as they gradually sever normal connections with the outside world.
At first, the brothers are quite social, spending many evenings in clubs and speak-easies, where they meet women, and gangsters. Homer has a job at a silent movie theater; he gives music lessons in their home. Langley has a few dates and talks of finding a wife. They hold tea dances in the dining room on Tuesday afternoons. The household continues to be run by servants, much as it was before their parents succumbed to the flu epidemic of 1918.
But as time passes, both brothers turn inward and Langley’s war wounds, mental and physical, take a greater toll on his sanity. They find fewer reasons to interact socially or even to acquiesce to society’s rules. Langley goes out twice a day for the morning and evening editions of all the New York newspapers, and to scout around for still-useful items being discarded or auctioned off. Homer leaves the house less and less often. What comes in the front door rarely goes out again. Only people leave. Langley’s brief half-hearted efforts to find a wife dwindle and are forgotten. Servants are let go, or die, or are taken away by the authorities. Some very interesting visitors pass through, including Vincent the Gangster, and a clutch of hippies. The dining room is occupied by a Model T Ford, Langley’s failed experiment to generate his own electricity. First the phone, then the electricity, and finally the water service are shut off for lack of payment. Something can be heard scuttling around in the ceiling. We know no good can come of it all. Yet reading the saga from Homer’s perspective, none of this feels quite as bizarre as we know it to be. And for the participants, it isn’t tragic, it’s just life. As Homer tells a friend at one point, “You have looked in on this house. You know there is just no other way for us to be. You know it is who we are.” Now we know too.
Review written in 2009
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LibraryThing member fig2
Based on the true-life story of two NY brothers, "Homer and Langley" depicts the more interesting inner life of two compulsive hoarders. Doctorow has done his research, and while his account is fiction, he paints a tender and sweet portrait of two souls struggling to hang on to their dignity and
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privacy. Show Less
LibraryThing member bertcloud
This is a remarkable meditation on perspective through the voice of the blind brother Homer. What a great character name. Doctorow describes this a reverse travel narrative as history, cultural movements , and philosophies are embodied and move through the home of two eccentrics. I am struck by the
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psychology of self-discovery and self-delusion by Homer as the time and experiences flow. He is both active and passive to all of this, owing part of this to his blindness but also his dispositions. This is really a very fine book. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheTwoDs
Epic in epoch, yet firmly rooted in scale, E.L. Doctorow's new novel is a unique take on American cultural history and the role of New York City in that history. Narrated by the blind Homer Collyer and also featuring his mentally shattered brother Langley, these two real-life infamous recluses are
Unlike Doctorow's previous works, his characters, while immense in stature in the course of the plot, never become larger than life. In this manner, Homer & Langley is closer to The Waterworks than to Billy Bathgate in the Doctorow bibliography.
While the story seemed all too brief, and just when I wanted more depth we moved on to another scene, another time, the portrait of the Collyers Doctorow paints makes me want to find out more about the real-life brothers, who, incidentally, died in the 1940's, not in the 1980's. In this regard, I would call the novel a success, but it is by no means a touchstone in Doctorow's esteemed career.
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our tour guides through their dilapidated mansion on Fifth Avenue as we witness a parade of cultual styles from the 1910's to Prohibition, from World War II to Korea, Vietnam and the 1960's, to end with a brief denouement in the 1980's.Unlike Doctorow's previous works, his characters, while immense in stature in the course of the plot, never become larger than life. In this manner, Homer & Langley is closer to The Waterworks than to Billy Bathgate in the Doctorow bibliography.
While the story seemed all too brief, and just when I wanted more depth we moved on to another scene, another time, the portrait of the Collyers Doctorow paints makes me want to find out more about the real-life brothers, who, incidentally, died in the 1940's, not in the 1980's. In this regard, I would call the novel a success, but it is by no means a touchstone in Doctorow's esteemed career.
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LibraryThing member pdebolt
I am a long-time Doctorow fan, but this novel with its intriguing premise based on the real life of the Collyer brothers didn't capture me as Doctorow's other novels have. I'm still not quite sure why; perhaps because it encompassed too much of the American experience during the mid twentieth
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century and then jettisoned on to the next event. It is, of course, extremely well written, but somehow - for me - Homer and Langley as people got lost somewhere along the way. I expected to be grief-stricken at the end of their sad saga, but it simply didn't happen. Show Less
LibraryThing member Larxol
Homer & Langley is a journey through the first half of the 20th Century, as seen from the somewhat skewed perspective of a Fifth Avenue townhouse belonging to two brothers. Homer, the narrator, progressively loses his senses, first sight, then hearing, as time passes, until his only means of
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communication is tapping at the keyboard that is producing the pages we are reading. (Grim comment from Doctorow about the creative process there.) His brother Langley has been tempered by his experience in the trenches of the Great War, and has become a questioner of authority and “accepted norms” of social behavior. Together (and they are always together) they become recluses in the sanctuary of their crumbling mansion, while the world “progresses” on the outside. The characters are wonderfully drawn, but the frisson of the novel comes from the friction of normal society intruding into their lives. Show Less
LibraryThing member presto
The real Collyer brothers lived as recluses and compulsive hoarders at 2078 5th Avenue until their deaths in 1947. E L Doctorow very loosely bases this fiction on the two men, moving their home south along 5th Avenue to face Central Park, adapting a few facts, changing much and adding a great deal
Homer and Langley are well educated, and Homer who narrates is an accomplished classical pianist, but while in his teens he starts to lose his sight and very soon is totally blind. When Langley returns from The Great War, his health damaged by exposure to mustard gas, he learns that both parents have been claimed by Spanish Flu. The brothers, yet barely men and ill equipped for independent life, continue to live in the family mansion which gradually fills with Langley's eclectic finds from his nightly rummages and the accumulated daily newspapers he reads.
Homer takes us through their lives together from boyhood and up to his final words on one of the several Braille typewriters Langley bought him. It becomes a social record of the twentieth century, Homer supplies no dates yet we know where we are by reference to other events. But the story is essentially that of the fictionalised brothers, their diminishing staff of servants, their failed relationships with women, the few friendships they make over the years, their battle with the neighbours, authorities and utility providers, and about their obvious but unmentioned devotion to each other; two men made thoroughly human and endearing, and increasingly eccentric.
What it all amounts to is a remarkable piece of fiction, superbly and intelligently written, touched with humour, often moving and ultimately heartbreaking, I read the final pages with tears in my eyes - rarely does a book so affect me.
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of invention including extending their lives into the latter part of the twentieth century.Homer and Langley are well educated, and Homer who narrates is an accomplished classical pianist, but while in his teens he starts to lose his sight and very soon is totally blind. When Langley returns from The Great War, his health damaged by exposure to mustard gas, he learns that both parents have been claimed by Spanish Flu. The brothers, yet barely men and ill equipped for independent life, continue to live in the family mansion which gradually fills with Langley's eclectic finds from his nightly rummages and the accumulated daily newspapers he reads.
Homer takes us through their lives together from boyhood and up to his final words on one of the several Braille typewriters Langley bought him. It becomes a social record of the twentieth century, Homer supplies no dates yet we know where we are by reference to other events. But the story is essentially that of the fictionalised brothers, their diminishing staff of servants, their failed relationships with women, the few friendships they make over the years, their battle with the neighbours, authorities and utility providers, and about their obvious but unmentioned devotion to each other; two men made thoroughly human and endearing, and increasingly eccentric.
What it all amounts to is a remarkable piece of fiction, superbly and intelligently written, touched with humour, often moving and ultimately heartbreaking, I read the final pages with tears in my eyes - rarely does a book so affect me.
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LibraryThing member cabegley
Homer & Langley, E.L. Doctorow's fictional take on New York's famously reclusive hoarders the Collyer brothers, is beautifully written and wonderfully evocative of time and place. The brothers are fully realized, three-dimensional characters. And yet . . . I have a hard time putting in to words
The real Collyer brothers lived from the 1880s to 1947, while the lives of Doctorow's characters are shifted to encompass most of the 20th century. While I believe Doctorow did this in order to give an overview of the century, the time shift really bothered me and I had trouble accepting it. Doctorow's lovely writing elevates the book above these flaws for me, but in the end I don't find it on a par with his best work.
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what I thought was lacking in this book. We see the world entirely through the perspective of Homer, the blind brother, in such a way that their increasing eccentricity, and in particular Langley's mental disintegration, seems completely normal. Too normal, I think--I never really grasped Langley's madness. The real Collyer brothers lived from the 1880s to 1947, while the lives of Doctorow's characters are shifted to encompass most of the 20th century. While I believe Doctorow did this in order to give an overview of the century, the time shift really bothered me and I had trouble accepting it. Doctorow's lovely writing elevates the book above these flaws for me, but in the end I don't find it on a par with his best work.
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LibraryThing member SamSattler
The Collyer brothers of E.L. Doctorow's "Homer & Langley" are loosely based on a pair of real life brothers whose eccentric lifestyle created a sensation when they were found dead in their New York City Fifth Avenue home in 1947. Like their real life counterparts, by the time of their deaths,
Homer introduces himself in the book's first sentence by saying, "I'm Homer, the blind brother," and from that moment, everything is "seen" and recounted from his point-of-view. Homer is the younger brother, the one left behind with his wealthy parents when older brother Langley leaves for the battlefields of World War I France. Langley would return to the family, his health ruined by the poisonous gas he inhaled during his last fight, only to find both parents dead from the flu epidemic that had so devastated the country.
The brothers, one unable to work because of his sightlessness and the other because of the war damage to his lungs, will live together for more than 50 years as recluses in the only home they have ever known. As the years pass and the last of their domestic help leaves them, Homer and Langley venture from home less and less, Homer usually only to sit in the park across the street from the brownstone and Langley to scavenge more of the things he convinces himself might prove useful one day.
Langley, seemingly on the edge of serious mental illness, has three goals in life: pay as little to New York's public utility companies as possible; create the ultimate newspaper, one that will tell everything its readers ever need to know in a single, one-time edition; and collect duplicates of every item that catches his fancy. Homer has his music and his brother, and he would find it difficult to survive without either.
Homer and Langley may not have gotten out much but life had a way of coming to them over the years in the form of visits from gangsters, prostitutes, bill collectors, dance party customers, sixties hippies, the FBI, and even a few single women, one of whom would, for a time, become Langley's wife.
Upon their deaths, many would see the real Homer and Langley Collyer as nothing more than obsessed junk collectors because they left little behind that would prove otherwise. Doctorow's sympathetic characterization of the two men reminds there has to have been much more to them than that. "Homer & Langley," at times, has the unfortunate feel of a Forest Gump satire but readers will find it to be an excellent character study.
Rated at: 4.0
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Doctorow's Homer and Langley Collyer had filled their once extravagant home with so many newspapers, books, magazines, and whatever else Langley decided to drag home (including the Model T that filled one room) that they could barely move around inside the home. Doctorow's fictional brothers, however, do not meet their deaths until well into the 1970s, allowing them to witness the Korean War, the Viet Nam War and the flower children of the sixties.Homer introduces himself in the book's first sentence by saying, "I'm Homer, the blind brother," and from that moment, everything is "seen" and recounted from his point-of-view. Homer is the younger brother, the one left behind with his wealthy parents when older brother Langley leaves for the battlefields of World War I France. Langley would return to the family, his health ruined by the poisonous gas he inhaled during his last fight, only to find both parents dead from the flu epidemic that had so devastated the country.
The brothers, one unable to work because of his sightlessness and the other because of the war damage to his lungs, will live together for more than 50 years as recluses in the only home they have ever known. As the years pass and the last of their domestic help leaves them, Homer and Langley venture from home less and less, Homer usually only to sit in the park across the street from the brownstone and Langley to scavenge more of the things he convinces himself might prove useful one day.
Langley, seemingly on the edge of serious mental illness, has three goals in life: pay as little to New York's public utility companies as possible; create the ultimate newspaper, one that will tell everything its readers ever need to know in a single, one-time edition; and collect duplicates of every item that catches his fancy. Homer has his music and his brother, and he would find it difficult to survive without either.
Homer and Langley may not have gotten out much but life had a way of coming to them over the years in the form of visits from gangsters, prostitutes, bill collectors, dance party customers, sixties hippies, the FBI, and even a few single women, one of whom would, for a time, become Langley's wife.
Upon their deaths, many would see the real Homer and Langley Collyer as nothing more than obsessed junk collectors because they left little behind that would prove otherwise. Doctorow's sympathetic characterization of the two men reminds there has to have been much more to them than that. "Homer & Langley," at times, has the unfortunate feel of a Forest Gump satire but readers will find it to be an excellent character study.
Rated at: 4.0
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LibraryThing member RoseCityReader
Homer & Langley Collyer were two reclusive brothers who lived in their family mansion on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. One was blind, the other was pretty crazy. Doctorow manages to tell their story without it being unbearably heartbreaking.
He uses the same "parade of history" approach that served
He uses the same "parade of history" approach that served
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him so well with Ragtime, with the brothers participating in a tangential way with the major events of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, this requires a relentlessly marching pace and creates a broad but shallow plot for this short novel. The story of how the brothers view their lives and their relationship is fascinating enough, without distractions such as their Japanese housekeepers being sent to an internment camp in 1942. Show Less
LibraryThing member lynnytisc
Very enjoyable memoire of the blind protagonist Homer. Homer and his brother, Langley, go about life as history surrounds them. Homer seems a perrenial child, albiet a precocious one, to the hapless adult, Langley.
From the first World War to the space age, these brothers live in the same house age
Homer is a stoic, and Langley an iconoclast. This book would seem dreary but it lights up the twentieth century through the blind eyes of it's central character.
From the first World War to the space age, these brothers live in the same house age
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after age. Homer is a stoic, and Langley an iconoclast. This book would seem dreary but it lights up the twentieth century through the blind eyes of it's central character.
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LibraryThing member beccabgood1
I would never have read this book by choice, but it was the assignment for my monthly book group, so I struggled through it. It turned out that most of the other members felt the same way. The most common reaction to it was, quite simply, horror, as we watched the narrator decline from a young man
Doctorow is a skilled writer, so the language is lovely, and there are some fun moments along the way. And a philosopher could be intrigued by the narrowing of a life until it consists solely of one's own consciousness.
***NOTE: Spoilers ahead ******
However, I am left questioning the legitimacy of the whole project. The story is very loosely based on the real-life Collyer brothers, who gained fame in New York as eccentric recluses. But the facts of their lives are so different from what happens to the characters here, that I wondered why Doctorow didn't just use different names. Fiction about real people always makes me a little squeamish, but normally I can see some reason for it. Most often it appears to be the author's attempt to understand more about a historical figure. The label of fiction is an important qualifier, reminding us that this is just one possible interpretation. (Fiction based on real people can also be used to give a deeper appreciation and understanding of their time and place, but these characters are too isolated to help the reader get to know 20th century New York City.)
In Homer & Langley, the first justification is also clearly not what's happening. Doctorow has changed too many important facts. First of all, the real Collyer brothers died in 1947; in the book they're alive until the 1970's. In real life, Langley was a concert-level pianist; Doctorow gives this ability to Homer. Fictional Langley serves in World War I and is severely injured with mustard gas, while I saw no reference to this in real life. Real Homer was crippled with rheumatism, and later with blindness. Doctorow omits the rheumatism altogether, has the blindness happen during his teen years, and later has him lose his hearing as well. The fictional parents both died during the 1918 flu epidimic; in real life, the brothers' father left the family in 1919. He died in 1923 and the mother in 1929.
This novel is basically an exploration of Doctorow's character Homer Collyer, the narrator. But since that character is so different from the real-life human being of the same name, I find this use of him offensive. This would have been a much better novel if it had been presented as straight fiction. In fact, since writing this review, I have decided to change my rating from two stars to one. Read at your own risk.
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with talent, money, and the whole world open to him, to someone trapped in an unimaginably small life. Doctorow is a skilled writer, so the language is lovely, and there are some fun moments along the way. And a philosopher could be intrigued by the narrowing of a life until it consists solely of one's own consciousness.
***NOTE: Spoilers ahead ******
However, I am left questioning the legitimacy of the whole project. The story is very loosely based on the real-life Collyer brothers, who gained fame in New York as eccentric recluses. But the facts of their lives are so different from what happens to the characters here, that I wondered why Doctorow didn't just use different names. Fiction about real people always makes me a little squeamish, but normally I can see some reason for it. Most often it appears to be the author's attempt to understand more about a historical figure. The label of fiction is an important qualifier, reminding us that this is just one possible interpretation. (Fiction based on real people can also be used to give a deeper appreciation and understanding of their time and place, but these characters are too isolated to help the reader get to know 20th century New York City.)
In Homer & Langley, the first justification is also clearly not what's happening. Doctorow has changed too many important facts. First of all, the real Collyer brothers died in 1947; in the book they're alive until the 1970's. In real life, Langley was a concert-level pianist; Doctorow gives this ability to Homer. Fictional Langley serves in World War I and is severely injured with mustard gas, while I saw no reference to this in real life. Real Homer was crippled with rheumatism, and later with blindness. Doctorow omits the rheumatism altogether, has the blindness happen during his teen years, and later has him lose his hearing as well. The fictional parents both died during the 1918 flu epidimic; in real life, the brothers' father left the family in 1919. He died in 1923 and the mother in 1929.
This novel is basically an exploration of Doctorow's character Homer Collyer, the narrator. But since that character is so different from the real-life human being of the same name, I find this use of him offensive. This would have been a much better novel if it had been presented as straight fiction. In fact, since writing this review, I have decided to change my rating from two stars to one. Read at your own risk.
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LibraryThing member alpin
Homer and Langley Collyer were real people – notorious recluses who died in their shuttered, crumbling New York City brownstone in 1947, buried, literally, under 100 tons of newspapers and every conceivable kind of junk, including a Model T Ford. Their story has been told or borrowed from before,
Doctorow has often used historical figures in his fiction, including General William Tecumseh Sherman (The March); Henry Ford, Emma Goldman and Harry Houdini (Ragtime); depression-era mobster Dutch Schultz (Billy Bathgate); and the executed spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (The Book of Daniel). In an essay (on Amazon.com) on the new book, Doctorow says he felt that the Collyer brothers' secrets were still to be discovered not by research but by interpretation, a rationale that I imagine underlies most serious historical fiction but that Doctorow has proven exceptionally adept at executing.
In Doctorow's interpretation, Homer and Langley's lives are moved forward about twenty years, allowing them to experience the watershed events and social currents of the United States in the 20th century, from the Great War to the '70s. Born into a well-to-do doctor's family in the early 1900's, their lives begin to deviate from the expected when their parents die in the flu epidemic of 1918, Langley returns from the War physically and psychically damaged and Homer loses his sight in his late teens. From that point, their involvement in the outer world spirals downward. In the twenties, they frequent speakeasies and consort with women and gangsters; during the Great Depression, they give tea dances in the dining room; by the forties, they go no further than the doorstep to write a check to help save the Jews of Europe.
In one of their last demonstrations of interest in the world, the brothers go to Central Park to have a look at an antiwar rally, where they are welcomed into a group of flower children who follow them home and take up residence for several weeks, unperturbed by the squalor and enthusiastically supportive when Langley kicks the water-meter reader out of the house.
Langley ventures out at night to forage for collectibles – anything that might someday be useful – and several times a day to buy every newspaper published so he can one day create “Collyer's eternally dateless newspaper, the only newspaper anyone would ever need.” (I read somewhere that the real-life Langley Collyer said he collected all those newspapers so Homer could get caught up when his sight was restored, a cure he hoped to effect by feeding Homer a diet heavy on oranges.)
The piles of junk grow, phone, electricity and eventually water service are cut off, and Homer begins to lose his keenly developed hearing, making him even more dependent on his increasingly deranged brother. We know how the story is going to end. Doctorow's accomplishment in this beautifully written gem of a novel is in developing these characters fully and helping us see beyond the mythology of their story.
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in novels, on the stage and on film. We should be grateful that E. L. Doctorow, an acclaimed novelist since the 1960's, has decided to tell it again. Doctorow has often used historical figures in his fiction, including General William Tecumseh Sherman (The March); Henry Ford, Emma Goldman and Harry Houdini (Ragtime); depression-era mobster Dutch Schultz (Billy Bathgate); and the executed spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (The Book of Daniel). In an essay (on Amazon.com) on the new book, Doctorow says he felt that the Collyer brothers' secrets were still to be discovered not by research but by interpretation, a rationale that I imagine underlies most serious historical fiction but that Doctorow has proven exceptionally adept at executing.
In Doctorow's interpretation, Homer and Langley's lives are moved forward about twenty years, allowing them to experience the watershed events and social currents of the United States in the 20th century, from the Great War to the '70s. Born into a well-to-do doctor's family in the early 1900's, their lives begin to deviate from the expected when their parents die in the flu epidemic of 1918, Langley returns from the War physically and psychically damaged and Homer loses his sight in his late teens. From that point, their involvement in the outer world spirals downward. In the twenties, they frequent speakeasies and consort with women and gangsters; during the Great Depression, they give tea dances in the dining room; by the forties, they go no further than the doorstep to write a check to help save the Jews of Europe.
In one of their last demonstrations of interest in the world, the brothers go to Central Park to have a look at an antiwar rally, where they are welcomed into a group of flower children who follow them home and take up residence for several weeks, unperturbed by the squalor and enthusiastically supportive when Langley kicks the water-meter reader out of the house.
Langley ventures out at night to forage for collectibles – anything that might someday be useful – and several times a day to buy every newspaper published so he can one day create “Collyer's eternally dateless newspaper, the only newspaper anyone would ever need.” (I read somewhere that the real-life Langley Collyer said he collected all those newspapers so Homer could get caught up when his sight was restored, a cure he hoped to effect by feeding Homer a diet heavy on oranges.)
The piles of junk grow, phone, electricity and eventually water service are cut off, and Homer begins to lose his keenly developed hearing, making him even more dependent on his increasingly deranged brother. We know how the story is going to end. Doctorow's accomplishment in this beautifully written gem of a novel is in developing these characters fully and helping us see beyond the mythology of their story.
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LibraryThing member sarah-e
There's a self-awareness in the attitudes of some older people I have known that I truly admire. For all of us, I would imagine, age does not make life simpler. It adds layers of memory, junk, garbage, abandoned projects, abandoned hobbies and potential, forgotten friends, physical impairments, and
We might read this book and say how horrible it would be, to live as a hoarder, amid piles of filth, to lose our minds, to die alone; or we might accept the fates of the characters and the fact that they lived and died epically, entirely of their own design. It makes sense that the characters lived longer than a lifetime, and went through major world events and personal traumas and some lovely experiences all in stride, as if they had never expected any less for themselves. We should never expect less for ourselves.
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mental instability. And I think that sometimes we treat older people like they're supposed to act like old people, and that's wrong. There's a beautiful decline of purity from birth to death - we can never go back and make ourselves more innocent or less knowledgeable or less alive. That's what I got out of this book.We might read this book and say how horrible it would be, to live as a hoarder, amid piles of filth, to lose our minds, to die alone; or we might accept the fates of the characters and the fact that they lived and died epically, entirely of their own design. It makes sense that the characters lived longer than a lifetime, and went through major world events and personal traumas and some lovely experiences all in stride, as if they had never expected any less for themselves. We should never expect less for ourselves.
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LibraryThing member libsue
I've been told how great Doctorow is but have never read anything by him. After reading Homer & Langley I'm going to have to pick up another by the author. What a great story about two misfit, shut in's. One blind, the other addicted to collecting-EVERYTHING. There have been some negative reviews
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of the book because Docotorow plays with time. The brothers died in the 1940's but Doctorow allows them to live nearly to current day. Why? In my humble opinion it's to show the reader that no matter how hard you try to shelter yourself from the events of the day they will barge in. We are all affected directly or indirectly by the goings on of our neighbors next door of across the globe. Show Less
LibraryThing member blakefraina
I was very intrigued to discover that successful author E.L. Doctorow had written a novel about the infamous Collyer brothers. If you’re not familiar with their story, they were New York City socialites who became obsessive hoarders and recluses, eventually dying in the squalid remains of their
The author plays fast and loose with the details of the Collyer’s lives – chiefly by letting them survive through almost the entire Twentieth Century - as opposed to chronicling their real life spans, which ended in the late 1940s. He is less interested in the facts of their story than he is in using it as a jumping off point to examine the evolution of the United States in the last hundred years through the perspective of people who choose to live on the society’s fringes.
In Doctorow’s version, the brothers become semi-reclusive after Langley’s return from WWI. Damaged both physically and psychologically from a mustard gas attack, he formulates a theory that everything in the world is eventually replaced by something equivalent, meaning that nothing goes away entirely, nor is anything really new. This belief drives an obsession to create a single, definitive edition of the newspaper containing general, yet prophetic, information that will never go out of date. His research necessitates that he study both morning and evening editions of all the daily newspapers and is the genesis of his hoarding behavior.
The Collyer Mansion itself becomes a metaphor for America - chockfull of material things which quickly fall into disrepair or instantly become hopelessly outdated only to be superseded by newer models, perfectly illustrating Langley’s “Theory of Replacements” Despite the brothers’ relative isolation, their increasingly crammed and decrepit home acts as a refuge of sorts to a series of misfits, oddballs and outlaws– a pious Irish Catholic piano student, two sympathetic prostitutes, a socially ambitious Hungarian immigrant, a black jazz musician, a mafia don, an elderly Japanese couple and a band of itinerant hippies. And out of the tragedies and triumphs of these various and varied people, a portrait of Twentieth Century America emerges.
I’ve never been much of a fan of Doctorow’s writing, since Ragtime was required reading in a College Lit class. I find it a bit too plain for my tastes. However, this story was extremely engrossing and expertly told. Fascinating and moving.
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once fabulous uptown townhouse.The author plays fast and loose with the details of the Collyer’s lives – chiefly by letting them survive through almost the entire Twentieth Century - as opposed to chronicling their real life spans, which ended in the late 1940s. He is less interested in the facts of their story than he is in using it as a jumping off point to examine the evolution of the United States in the last hundred years through the perspective of people who choose to live on the society’s fringes.
In Doctorow’s version, the brothers become semi-reclusive after Langley’s return from WWI. Damaged both physically and psychologically from a mustard gas attack, he formulates a theory that everything in the world is eventually replaced by something equivalent, meaning that nothing goes away entirely, nor is anything really new. This belief drives an obsession to create a single, definitive edition of the newspaper containing general, yet prophetic, information that will never go out of date. His research necessitates that he study both morning and evening editions of all the daily newspapers and is the genesis of his hoarding behavior.
The Collyer Mansion itself becomes a metaphor for America - chockfull of material things which quickly fall into disrepair or instantly become hopelessly outdated only to be superseded by newer models, perfectly illustrating Langley’s “Theory of Replacements” Despite the brothers’ relative isolation, their increasingly crammed and decrepit home acts as a refuge of sorts to a series of misfits, oddballs and outlaws– a pious Irish Catholic piano student, two sympathetic prostitutes, a socially ambitious Hungarian immigrant, a black jazz musician, a mafia don, an elderly Japanese couple and a band of itinerant hippies. And out of the tragedies and triumphs of these various and varied people, a portrait of Twentieth Century America emerges.
I’ve never been much of a fan of Doctorow’s writing, since Ragtime was required reading in a College Lit class. I find it a bit too plain for my tastes. However, this story was extremely engrossing and expertly told. Fascinating and moving.
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LibraryThing member iwriteinbooks
In the dawn of the 20th century, the sun rises on Manhattan’s fifth avenue with hope and youth as Homer and Langley Collyer come of age. The young brothers, born to wealthy and social Mr. and Mrs. Collyer have their futures spread out in front of them with nothing to lose. That is, until Homer,
In near Forrest Gump-like fashion, the brothers glide through the decades of the next century with ease and slight strangeness, putting on a benign but maligned post-prohibition speak-easy, an impromptu immigrant safe haven, a reluctant gangster hide-out, a less reluctant hippie den, and a general collection of oddities both in object and in person.
Homer is the straight man to the inherent dreamer, Langley, watching history march along. Both are endearing but I found myself highlighting and dogearing Langley at every step. He is eloquent, philosophical and prophetic, albeit completely nuts. This is the first time I’ve read Doctorow and, so help me, I fell in love.The writing is superb and the characters endearing, especially given their historical inspiration.
The story is brilliant and while it takes a great departure from the original urban legend and unbelievable but true stories of The Collyer Brothers of Manhattan’s upper east side, it follows certain aspects with creepy detail. The pair did live on Fifth Avenue and began collecting bizarre items once their parents passed. Eventually found dead and rat-eaten in their own hoarded mess, the real brothers “passed” in the forties. Doctorow imagines their lives up through the 80’s giving their fates a completely false but not all-together different ending.
I think, while there is some truth to the way the brothers lived (and died) many reviews have focused too much on the inevitable micro-historical comparisons. I, however, knowing nothing of the factual story when I opened the book, enjoyed the view of the rolling decades passing through New York, America and Europe with social commentary and poetic elegance.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off to do some hoarding, myself, namely everything else Doctorow has produced due to my aforementioned falling head over heels in love.
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the younger, begins to lose his sight. As his eye power wanes, his story begins, seeing (so to speak) his brother off to the battle fields of The Great War and their lives changed forever.In near Forrest Gump-like fashion, the brothers glide through the decades of the next century with ease and slight strangeness, putting on a benign but maligned post-prohibition speak-easy, an impromptu immigrant safe haven, a reluctant gangster hide-out, a less reluctant hippie den, and a general collection of oddities both in object and in person.
Homer is the straight man to the inherent dreamer, Langley, watching history march along. Both are endearing but I found myself highlighting and dogearing Langley at every step. He is eloquent, philosophical and prophetic, albeit completely nuts. This is the first time I’ve read Doctorow and, so help me, I fell in love.The writing is superb and the characters endearing, especially given their historical inspiration.
The story is brilliant and while it takes a great departure from the original urban legend and unbelievable but true stories of The Collyer Brothers of Manhattan’s upper east side, it follows certain aspects with creepy detail. The pair did live on Fifth Avenue and began collecting bizarre items once their parents passed. Eventually found dead and rat-eaten in their own hoarded mess, the real brothers “passed” in the forties. Doctorow imagines their lives up through the 80’s giving their fates a completely false but not all-together different ending.
I think, while there is some truth to the way the brothers lived (and died) many reviews have focused too much on the inevitable micro-historical comparisons. I, however, knowing nothing of the factual story when I opened the book, enjoyed the view of the rolling decades passing through New York, America and Europe with social commentary and poetic elegance.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off to do some hoarding, myself, namely everything else Doctorow has produced due to my aforementioned falling head over heels in love.
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LibraryThing member jfurshong
The Collyer brothers were an infamous pair of New York City siblings, known for their eccentricity and the fact that they lived a secluded life in their Harlem brownstone while obsessively hoarding anything and everything they came in contact with. Born in 1881 and 1885 Homer and Langley Collyer
The brothers have been fictionalized over the intervening years, but the most recent, and predictably the most likely to be remembered, is a new novel by E. L. Doctorow called Homer and Langley. Doctorow’s version of the Collyer brothers lives, with Homer as the narrator, differs in some respects from the admittedly shallow research that I conducted. But, in portraying the inner as well as the outer life of the brothers, Doctorow provides a rationality and credibility to this story that, if not actually making sense, certainly makes events understandable.
E. L. Doctorow is nothing if not fearless in this endeavor. The man’s oeuvre is astounding, from Grant’s march through Georgia, to growing up in the world of racketeering, and he succeeds here as well. It is a fascinating odyssey that we undertake when we begin the novel. We see many of the world’s events as they intersect with these parallel lives and like fascinated, helpless bystanders we watch what we know will be a tragedy unfold. Homer and Langely is ultimately what we love most about fiction, a compelling story that serves to inform and engage. Well done!
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began life with money, opportunity and careers. By 1947 their obsessive compulsive behavior led to their home being crammed with everything from an automobile to burgeoning piles of newspapers and magazines. Acting on a tip from neighbors, police broke into their fortress and found the bodies of both brothers, along with the rubbish they had collected over the decades, a grant total of 130 tons.The brothers have been fictionalized over the intervening years, but the most recent, and predictably the most likely to be remembered, is a new novel by E. L. Doctorow called Homer and Langley. Doctorow’s version of the Collyer brothers lives, with Homer as the narrator, differs in some respects from the admittedly shallow research that I conducted. But, in portraying the inner as well as the outer life of the brothers, Doctorow provides a rationality and credibility to this story that, if not actually making sense, certainly makes events understandable.
E. L. Doctorow is nothing if not fearless in this endeavor. The man’s oeuvre is astounding, from Grant’s march through Georgia, to growing up in the world of racketeering, and he succeeds here as well. It is a fascinating odyssey that we undertake when we begin the novel. We see many of the world’s events as they intersect with these parallel lives and like fascinated, helpless bystanders we watch what we know will be a tragedy unfold. Homer and Langely is ultimately what we love most about fiction, a compelling story that serves to inform and engage. Well done!
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Doctorow is one of my all time favorite writers. He is able to tell a story in a manner which brings it to life in the mind of the reader. These two brothers will live on in my mind for a long time. Their efforts to survive despite the crippling effects of physical and psychological blindness is
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fantastic. I hope someone will bring this story to the Broadway stage. Fantastic read! Show Less
LibraryThing member rmckeown
Twenty some years ago, my admiration for Doctorow rose to quite a high level, then, for some unknown reason, I lost touch with his work. I really enjoyed Ragtime, Welcome to Hard Times, and Lives of the Poets. While at an American Library Association Convention, I grabbed an advance reader’s
Doctorow has a wonderful talent for telling interesting stories really well. Homer and Langley Collyer, real-life brothers, live alone in their childhood home on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Homer narrates the story, which takes place over the course of most of the 20th century. In this fictionalized account, Doctorow weaves numerous historical events into the lives of these fascinating characters.
Langley, a World War I veteran, suffers from the effects of a mustard gas attack in the trenches. His younger brother, Homer, suffers from blindness, which began when he was a child. Together, these two manage to survive the vagaries of big city life, including the inevitable problems with neighbors, the city, the press, and the police.
Homer, the much more perceptive of the two, provides lots of details about their life, loves, and philosophy. One particularly poignant revelation came from a discussion during World War II. Doctorow wrote, “So for a day or two I did feel as Langley felt about warmaking: your enemy brought out your dormant primal instincts, he lit up the primitive circuits of your brain” (90).
The two brothers also interact with a large cast of odd and disparate characters. One, a writer from France, who travels about America “trying to get” America so she can “understand it” (184-85) inspires the blind Homer (yes, I noticed that little detail) by urging him to write their story. She tells him, “You think a word and you can hear its sound. I am telling you what I know – words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them” (202).
This lyrical, interesting, engrossing novel never fails to delight. Rush out and get a copy – you won’t be disappointed! I liked this book so much, I went out and bought a hardcover copy this morning. Five stars
--Jim, 10/23/09
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edition of his latest work. Why I lost track of him is now an even a greater mystery.Doctorow has a wonderful talent for telling interesting stories really well. Homer and Langley Collyer, real-life brothers, live alone in their childhood home on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Homer narrates the story, which takes place over the course of most of the 20th century. In this fictionalized account, Doctorow weaves numerous historical events into the lives of these fascinating characters.
Langley, a World War I veteran, suffers from the effects of a mustard gas attack in the trenches. His younger brother, Homer, suffers from blindness, which began when he was a child. Together, these two manage to survive the vagaries of big city life, including the inevitable problems with neighbors, the city, the press, and the police.
Homer, the much more perceptive of the two, provides lots of details about their life, loves, and philosophy. One particularly poignant revelation came from a discussion during World War II. Doctorow wrote, “So for a day or two I did feel as Langley felt about warmaking: your enemy brought out your dormant primal instincts, he lit up the primitive circuits of your brain” (90).
The two brothers also interact with a large cast of odd and disparate characters. One, a writer from France, who travels about America “trying to get” America so she can “understand it” (184-85) inspires the blind Homer (yes, I noticed that little detail) by urging him to write their story. She tells him, “You think a word and you can hear its sound. I am telling you what I know – words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them” (202).
This lyrical, interesting, engrossing novel never fails to delight. Rush out and get a copy – you won’t be disappointed! I liked this book so much, I went out and bought a hardcover copy this morning. Five stars
--Jim, 10/23/09
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LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
Having known nothing about the Collyer Brothers until reading this book, I was intrigued. Doctorow's romp across the historic landscape had a Forrest Gump-like feel. A few of the encounters in the middle of the work dragged a bit. Overall, however, Homer & Langley was an enjoyable book that
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profiled some fascinating characters. It shed light on what it might be like to live as reclusive hoarders, perhaps spurring some of us to cringe at how we once viewed certain people as neighborhood "oddballs." Show Less
LibraryThing member GailMultop
I knew little about the Collyer brothers when I began reading this book except to know that they died in their home, buried in trash. What E.L.Doctorow has done is humanized these two so that for a long time you feel that everything that happens is understandable in some way, and a logical result
There's no way I'd recommend this book for anyone who gets depressed easily! But the writing is gorgeous, as is all Doctorow's, and to be reminded of the commonality of us all, even "eccentrics", is a gift.
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of what happens before. Homer's lyrical voice draws you in, as he is the narrator of the story. Langley is (as the real Langley was not) a casualty of the first world war, physically and emotionally harmed, but still brilliant, and caring of his brother. Various interesting people come into the brothers' lives that open their world for a time, but they disappear, and the brothers are more alone than before. As the novel progresses, I was seduced into thinking that somehow Homer, at least, would survive and find solace and comfort at the end of his life. But instead Doctorow inexorably leads you to the appallingly tragic conclusion. There's no way I'd recommend this book for anyone who gets depressed easily! But the writing is gorgeous, as is all Doctorow's, and to be reminded of the commonality of us all, even "eccentrics", is a gift.
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LibraryThing member marient
Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers-the one blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged into madness, or perhaps greatness, by mustard gas in the Great War. They live as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, scavenging the city streets for thing they think they can use
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2011)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2009)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2009)
Pages
224
ISBN
1400064945 / 9781400064946
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