The World's Room: A Novel [Hardcover]

Todd; Todd London London (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2001

The World’s Room explores one family’s experiences with grief. When Erich, the 17-year-old son of Willy and Lorna Hoffman, commits suicide in 1969, his younger brother asks to serve his memory by taking on his dead brother’s name. Told two decades later by the surviving Erich, the book, written in memoir style, is the true story of that renaming, and of how the love for the missing can replace the love for the living. Covering ground from New York to Venice Beach, from central Wisconsin to central Mexico, from Boston to Miami, The World’s Room is at once interior and sweeping.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"When my brother hanged himself in a shower stall at St. Elizabeth's, I took his name," writes Erich, London's teenage protagonist, by way of introduction. Composed as a memoir in three parts, this tragic family drama is told with sarcasm and poignant honesty. In the summer of 1967, Lorna, a willful, needy bohemian, takes her three children and leaves her husband, Willy, a Columbia philosophy professor, to crisscross the country in search of new careers, men, religions, collectibles and whatever else strikes her fancy. "Our journey," Erich recalls, "finally read like a monitor that charts the heart rates of patients in a stress test: up, down, across, up, up, down, across, down, down." Erich's sister, Deborah, distances herself with hippie boyfriends and immersion in various religions. Erich's brother, Erich the original, "real" Erich takes his own life. Endowed with his brother's name and dark legacy, Erich grows up with his identity in quotation marks, "on leave from the world between lives." London an award-winning theater critic has a magnificent sense of character and ear for dialogue, each family member captured succinctly and naturally via small gestures, grand rants and vivid soliloquies (considering his sister's wedding cake, Erich observes, "In the middle rose a white plastic pedestal, on which kneeled two figurines, a bride and a groom, heads bowed in prayer or thanks or, just possibly, despair"). This engaging and crafty debut establishes London as a writer to watch. (May)Forecast: Those who enjoyed Mona Simpson's Anywhere but Here or Martha McPhee's Bright Angel Time will appreciate this similarly themed tale from a male perspective.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

After his revered brother, Erich, commits suicide, Theodore Hoffmann takes his name with his family's tacit acceptance, becoming Erich to such a degree that he surrenders a substantial portion of himself. Set against a backdrop of late 1960s to late 1980s America, London's first novel is Erich/Teddy's fictional memoir, following his life from age 12 through college and beyond, moving from Venice, CA, to Madison, WI, to Boston and New York. An "impressionistic family archive," as he terms it, the book records a series of losses, first of his parents' marriage, then Erich's death, and later the deaths of his grandparents and parents. While this bittersweet tale of love, loss, and identity may be what Erich/Teddy calls "the kind of collage that memory, imagination, and twisted feeling assemble," it's one that will linger long in the reader's mind. Recommended for most public libraries. Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Steerforth Press; 1st edition (May 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586420224
• ISBN-13: 978-1586420222
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,767,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, Lyrical and Beautiful, July 25, 2001

By 

Kathy Stevens "ksbook" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World's Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

I can't find enough words to describe this beautiful book. Do not be put off from the subject matter because this is not a depressing book! The main character loses his brother to suicide and shows how he and his family deal with grief and each other. I lost my brother to suicide as well and this book is a rare one where the siblings are discussed and not only the parents or children of the deceased. The author's characters and descriptions are perfect. I am recommending this book to all my friends and family.

5.0 out of 5 stars unexpected treasure, October 18, 2001

By 

work2live (CT, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World's Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

I literally judged this book by its cover - the cover is uniquely creative, whimsical and moving. The book is all this and more. I don't want to bring it down to the level of pop psychology, but anyone who grew up with slightly (or extremely) nutty parents will recognize the conflicts children face as they struggle with their profound love for their adored parent, and their growing sense of betrayal by an irresponsible and selfish adult. London's account of a family swept up in the cultural maelstorm of the 60's while contending with madness in their family is very polished and self-assured. From time to time the book is overly structured - towards the end, in particular, he lets his gimmicks get the best of him - but overall, I was delighted to read it, and I'm shocked that it didn't get picked up by a bigger publisher. On the other hand, then it wouldn't have its charming cover.

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning, shimmering novel, May 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The World's Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book is written with such grace, empathy, and authentic intelligence that I was captivated from the very first sentence. Todd London begins with a sequence of haunting, bitingly funny memories, then lodges them into a narrative groundwork that is both surprising and satisfying. This is a family story, told by the youngest and sanest member, but every character is fully, generously realized. The writing is so deft that we see the family clearly even when the narrator cannot. There is humor at every level - a kid's word games, a hilarious look at academic pretention, the pure situational absurdity of this family on the run. I got to the end and started over. The best book I've read in a long time.