“Beautiful and haunting . . . one of literature’s most unlikely picaresques, a road novel in which the rogue heroes can’t seem to leave home.”—The Boston GlobeSHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Kansas City Star • BooklistHomer and Langley Collyer are brothers—the … • Booklist
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 things they think they can use, hoarding the daily newspapers as research for Langley’s proposed dateless newspaper whose reportage will be as prophecy. Yet the epic events of the century play out in the lives of the two brothers—wars, political movements, technological advances—and even though they want nothing more than to shut out the world, history seems to pass through their cluttered house in the persons of immigrants, prostitutes, society women, government agents, gangsters, jazz musicians . . . and their housebound lives are fraught with odyssean peril as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves.
Praise for Homer & Langley
“Masterly.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Doctorow paints on a sweeping historical canvas, imagining the Collyer brothers as witness to the aspirations and transgressions of 20th century America; yet this book’s most powerfully moving moments are the quiet ones, when the brothers relish a breath of cool morning air, and each other’s tragically exclusive company.”— O: The Oprah Magazine
“A stately, beautiful performance with great resonance . . . What makes this novel so striking is that it joins both blindness and insight, the sensual world and the world of the mind, to tell a story about the unfolding of modern American life that we have never heard in exactly this (austere and lovely) way before.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Wondrous . . . inspired . . . darkly visionary and surprisingly funny.” —The New York Review of Books
“Cunningly panoramic . . . Doctorow has packed this tale with episodes of existential wonder that cpature the brothers in all their fascinating wackiness.”—Elle
more
The story of the collyer brothers has interested me since I read my brothers keeper in high school. This book offers another theory of how these worldly wealthy young men evolved into eccentric elderly recluses.
On the surface this would seem like a depressing book. Homer and Langley Collyer were actual people – brothers, scions of an old-money family – living in a Fifth Avenue manse, two men on their own, consumed by blindness (Homer) and madness (Langley), eventually cut off from the world and unable to move about in cold, dark pile that would literally …
Grew up in NYC and this was one of the quintessential city stories.
Interesting how he blends historical facts into fiction and creates a strange tale of brothers throughout the 20th century.
What fun to read about these two strange but likable characters, and I do mean characters!
I really didn’t like this book and cannot therefore recommend it. The ending was abrupt, the middle was long and it was unnecessarily wordy from beginning to end. Not a fan.
This quirky book was fun and different. When I read it I made my yeah yeah yeah sound! (read the book to get that inside joke)
I have never read a book about eccentrics, one of which was a hoarder. I always
wondered about the hoarding of newspapers. Why do people act the way they do
to extreme? This book certainly explains it.
E.L. Doctrow makes his characters come to life! This wonderful book is about
2 brothers who live in a four-storey house on 5th Avenue, who go from riches to
the other extreme. The older brother is a bit of an eccentric; the younger one is
slowly loosing his eye sight. The description of their day to day life kept me amused and smiling. I …
I was always curious about the Collyerbrothers and Doctorow gave me the story and the mindset of these terribly sad men.
The book moved through time but it was teasing with interesting information about the 2 main characters that never really ‘did’ anything. The ending was abrupt and the reader is left to imagine the outcome.
Although many people know of E.L. Doctorow, I’m always surprised to hear this novel is one of his lesser known. I first listened to it as an Audiobook, and then later purchased the paperback. The writing is smooth, following E.L. Doctorow’s masterful style of using little punctuation, and marvelous dialogue. Homer & Langley follows the story of …
I didn’t think I would like this one, but I found myself entertained. It was an easy read.
So delightful, but also tragic. These brothers faced their trying circumstances bravely while being still true to themselves. I loved their humanity, their quirkiness, and their principled views. Rather Don Quixotesque. Characters were worthy of the reader’s sympathies.
What can you say about E.L. Doctorow? This was an exceptional read.
My first by this author and I love it …..it was sweet
Amazing chronicle of how one can be lost and alone within a city of millions-isolationism at its best.
On balance, didn’t like it. It was a depressing tale like slowly walking to a cliff edge and falling over with a sigh. Started another book as fast as I could.
Quick read. Light hearted and amusing at times.
Tragic and not so tragic: a love story between two eccentric brothers.