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5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving and heartbreaking,
By
This review is from: by E.L. Doctorow Homer & Langley, A Novel [DECKLE EDGE] First Edition edition (Hardcover)
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 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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow,
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This review is from: by E.L. Doctorow Homer & Langley, A Novel [DECKLE EDGE] First Edition edition (Hardcover)
Fascinating book by one of my favorite authors. Once again Doctorow did not let me down. Great background history of that time and that area as well.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fictionalized Life of Collyer Brothers - Thought-Provoking!!!,
This review is from: by E.L. Doctorow Homer & Langley, A Novel [DECKLE EDGE] First Edition edition (Hardcover)
The novel titled, "Homer & Langley" (by E. L. Doctorow) is a fictionalized version of the lives of the Collyer brothers (the sons of an eccentric doctor) who (in real life) lived together in squalor in their New York City house, and were eventually found dead therein in 1947. In telling their story, Doctorow takes `poetic license' and extends the lives of the Collyer brothers into the 1980s.
The book is narrated by Homer, the younger of the two Collyer brothers. Homer relates how the brothers' personal lives started out favorably, and then gradually deteriorated over a period of decades. Homer (an accomplished classical pianist) suffers from blindness, and eventually deafness. Langley (who fights in World War I) becomes increasingly irrational (e.g., he hoards newspapers/documents, multiple pianos, and assorted junk; and he even builds and houses a Model-T in their dining room). As the brothers' lives deteriorate they become increasingly secluded, Homer becomes progressively dependent on Langley. Indicative of the extent of the brothers' seclusion/deterioration, Doctorow states, "Homer and Langley black-shuttered their windows, bolted their doors, and ran up thousands of dollars in unpaid bills even though they were worth millions." In telling this story, Doctorow relates various seminal events in the brothers' personal lives, against the backdrop of significant events happening in the outside world. Typical seminal events affecting the Collyer brothers' personal lives include the following: * Police Raid `Tea Dance' Hosted by the Collyer Brothers - In apparent revenge for being rebuffed in their attempt to shakedown the Collyer brothers, the police raided a `Tea Dance' being hosted by the Collyer brothers in their house in Harlem, New York during the Great Depression. Homer & Langley (and their black cook, Ms. Robileaus) were arrested and charged with operating a business in a residential area, serving alcoholic beverages without a license, and resisting arrest. * Homer & Langley's Japanese-American Servants Arrested by FBI for Internment in Concentration Camp - Following the bombing of Perl Harbor, FBI agents come to Homer & Langley's house (unexpectedly) and arrest their Japanese-American servants, Mr. & Mrs. Hoshiyama to be interned in a concentration camp. * Homer & Langley's Victimized by Home Invasion of Gangsters - The head of organized crime named Victor, his son Massimo, and another gangster invade Homer and Langley's house, and hold them hostage for several days at gunpoint. * Homer & Langley's Electricity, Gas, Water, and Telephone Service are shut off because they failed to pay their bills Some of the significant events occurring in the outside world (serving as a backdrop for Homer and Langley's story) include the following: * Bombing Of Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941), and the Internment of Japanese Americans (1942) * 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama resulting in the deaths of 4 little black girls (1963) * Assassinations of JFK (1963), RFK (1968), and Martin Luther King (1968) * American Astronauts land on the Moon (1969) * Kent State Massacre (1970) * Killing Four American nuns by National Guard death squad in El Salvador (1980) Homer & Langley is an extremely interesting, well-written, and important fictionalized novel about the real-life Collyer brothers. It's one of the most enlightening and thought-provoking books that I've read in recent years!
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