Sarah's book reviews can be heard
on alternate Mondays on KMUW 89.1. Read a transcript below of her most
recent review or listen at:
http://www.kmuw.org/index.php/book/homer_and_langley_by_el_doctorow/
"Homer and Langley" by E. L.
Doctorow (Random House, ISBN 9781400064946, $26.00)
Using the real-life Collyer
brothers as inspiration for his new epic new novel, E.L. Doctorow documents
life in the 20th Century in just 200 pages of immaculate prose. There is no
excess, but the story is all-encompassing.
Homer narrates the brothers’ sad
tale. In real life, the brothers were found dead in their 5th Avenue
mansion. Both were reclusive hoarders. Homer was blind, and Langley was his
slightly damaged caregiver. In the novel, the troubled brothers become the
vessels through which major events and movements are explored: The 1918
influenza epidemic; the Jazz Age; organized crime and speak-easy culture;
the invention of radio and TV; the moon landing; and finally, the hippie and
free-love movement. All have their turn.
Curiosity seekers, pranksters,
bill collectors—-arbiters all-—provoke
the brothers and Langley assiduously sets up booby traps in the labyrinth
and pathways that wind through the mounds of newspapers and a lifetime’s
accumulation of goods and chattel. In the end, alone and lonely, the
brothers die; first Langley, then the dependent Homer.
"Homer and Langley" is the
quintessential literary novel. Beautifully rendered. Outlandish and
believable. Lacking sentimentality, and yet full of emotion... to the very
last heart-wrenching sentence.
Review by
Sarah Bagby,
August 27, 2009
