Homer & Langley

A Novel

By: E. L. Doctorow

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

“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 Globe)

Shortlisted 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, and 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)

©2009 E.L. Doctorow (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Following the panoramic scope of The March, Doctorow creates a microcosmic and mythic tale of compulsion, alienation, and dark metamorphosis inspired by the famously eccentric Collyer brothers of New York City.... Doctorow has Homer, who is blind, narrate with deadpan humor and spellbinding precision.... Over the decades, people come and go - lovers, a gangster, a jazz musician, a flock of hippies, but finally Homer and Langley are irrevocably alone, prisoners in their fortress of rubbish, trapped in their warped form of brotherly love. Wizardly Doctorow presents an ingenious, haunting odyssey that unfolds within a labyrinth built out of the detritus of war and excess.” (Booklist)

“A sweeping masterpiece about the infamous New York hermits, the Collyer brothers.... Occasionally, outsiders wander through the house, exposing it as a living museum of artifacts, Americana, obscurity and simmering madness. Doctorow’s achievement is in not undermining the dignity of two brothers who share a lush landscape built on imagination and incapacities. It’s a feat of distillation, vision and sympathy.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Doctorow works his usual magic in bringing history to life and larding it with disturbing implications.... As with much of Doctorow’s masterful fiction, Homer & Langley turns the American dream on its ear, offering us a glimpse of the dark side of our national - and personal - eccentricities.” (BookPage)

Sad but endearing tale of two brothers

What made the experience of listening to Homer & Langley the most enjoyable?

I like the way the you see the entire novel from the viewpoint of the brother who is blind. But in his words you see everything happening through his observations.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

At times I felt like it was just passing the reader through generation to generation, in a trite way, hippies, etc. I could have done without that.

Have you listened to any of Arthur Morey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't believe I've ever heard him before this, but he is very good in this.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The end of course was the most moving to me.

Fictionalized

I'm not sure I can bring myself to fully approve how EL Doctorow made a departure from the facts of the Collyer brothers biographies. Its been a while so I dont' recall the specifics.
But as I gradually coaxed myself into just enjoying the story, I found myself enjoying it more and more. Narrator/Lector has a wonderful voice, just right for the material.

Loved the book and the performance.

If you are looking for a lot of action, this is not the book for you. However, if you enjoy insightful character analyes and touching stories, this is your book. Doctorow and Morey humanize these quirky Collyer fellows in a great way.

What a Dump.....

Major disappointment.
Given the famously freakish source material; and the fact that the author MADE MUCH OF IT UP! This simply should have been so much better.

I am perhaps being unduly harsh because I mistakenly thought this a work of real historical biography. I had first heard about these famous reclusive brothers in my childhood and was excited to learn the "real story" about them. But from early on, this book hit so many inauthentic notes; both philosophical and "chronological" That I was prompted to STOP LISTENING and check it against the source material. It is here that I discovered the intended formula was anything but accurate or even meaningful, in my humble, snarky opinion.

Therefore, I confess my extreme disappointment comes from "flawed" expectations. I guess I'm writing mainly to forewarn any other potential listeners who may come to this book equally unprepared.

To be clear, I was aware of Doctorow's significant reputation - but only very indirectly through film adaptations of his earlier books. However, I would still argue that such a literally talent, under no pretentions of telling the "real story" could and should have made this a far more provocative or at least moderately entertaining story.

Loved it

I finished this a few months ago and I still think about it. Fascinating story, well written. I highly recommend it.

Rather boring

Nice writing but a disappointing read. A chronicle of events (mostly not true, apparently) without much of a story line. The two brothers grow more and more indiosynchratic and reclusive, people and major world events come and go, and then it's over. The ending is fairly disturbing - I had nightmares about being left in the same situation as Homer at the end.

Tedious

I barely made it through this book. Generally I'm a fan of small details when they lend authenticity & add a visual element to the story. This book did neither.

Boring...

I couldn't make it through this book. I didn't like the narrator's voice. The details are tedious. I could sympathize with Langley's radical opposition to society, but Homer's aloof regard of the situation was disengaging. This was my first time listening to or reading Doctorow, and I think it will also be my last.

not what I thought

i did not like the story...slow moving...not very interesting. dont bother getting this book. thanks

No plot

The narrator’s voice is distracting in its distinction, and he is not a great reader, the speech stilted, at times missing the meaning of the prose. The writing is bland, with characters described rather than demonstrated, making it difficult to take interest in any of them (especially as the vast majority are a constant parade that appear/disappear regularly). The subject matter (there’s no real story arc) is a depressing downward spiral of a largely wasted life ending in destruction, squalor, hoarding, and a horrifying mode of demise.