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)

Two Strange Brothers in a long drawn out Life

What did you like best about Homer & Langley? What did you like least?

I liked the initial description of Homer and of Langley - two brothers with different personalities who lived their lives intertwined with each other and their large family home. The idea was intriguing and at the start of interest, but it dragged on forever, and by the last few hours of the narration, I just wanted it to end. It was clear that the end was not going to be redemptive, so I felt "get it over with already".

What could E.L. Doctorow have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

End it sooner.

Which character – as performed by Arthur Morey – was your favorite?

I did not have a favorite.

Do you think Homer & Langley needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Definitely not.

Moderately fascinating ...

I listened to this book pretty much over a single weekend. The writing is well done and you care for the protagonist, but, the storyline is meandering and seems pointless. It certainly sparked my interest in finding out the "real" story behind these two recluses. As others have pointed out, the truth of their lives needs little embellishment, yet this author decided to fabricate many of the details. It wasn't a bad book, just slightly disappointing. I found E.L. Doctorow's, The March, a more satisfying listen.

Haunting and beautiful

Once again, Doctorow has shown his mastery of the language. There are so many fine phrases and sentences here I had to buy the book and underline about 40 percent of it after I finished listening. His changing and embellishing of the story gave him the opportunity to deal with popular topics of the time that he would not have been able to touch had the retold only what the papers recorded about these fascinating brothers. This is a gem and a remarkable study of family ties, responsibility, inability to conform and the changes in the American psyche in the 20th century. I highly recommend for anyone who appreciates good writing. The narrator is especially good.

Fabulous Read!

I think what made this novel perfect for me was the narrator! He did a fantastic job of differentiating between the characters and pausing at just the right places. I really enjoyed the story as well. After I finished the book, I went online to read about the real Collyer Brothers. Fascinating!

Wonderful character study of two unusual men

What did you love best about Homer & Langley?

A very real characterization of unusual brothers whose lives seem unreal to most of us.

Which character ??? as performed by Arthur Morey ??? was your favorite?

Homer, a blind musician, who managed to stay sane in an insane environment

If you could take any character from Homer & Langley out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Probably Langley, to try to figure out what made him tick.

Any additional comments?

A great read, beautifully crafted.

modern masterpiece

this is my favorite modern novel. the reading is very well done also. cannot reccomended it enough.

Interesting

I was rather fascinated by Homer and Langley and the eccentric lives they led. I thought the narrator did a great job.

SAD ENDING

I enjoyed . This story has humor , kindness, and sadness . I enjoy solitude, yet, how frightening to end up unable to get help if needed ,

Good On So Many Levels

This book was selected by Cornell University for the 2011 Reading Project. Incoming Freshman read the book and can attend 6 lectures on it during Orientation. Other students, faculty and alumni are also invited to read the book. Addicted to audio books, I was delighted to find this on Audible. It did not disappoint.

The author brings to light the logic of these two illogical brothers. His prose is compelling and beautiful. The march of history through the living of their lives is informative. I especially enjoyed the philosophical observations that come out of the telling of this tale by the youngest brother, Homer.

The narration is a bit monotone but completely fits the character of Homer and only adds to the feeling of the book.

Here is why it was chosen by Cornell:
Homer and Langley provides a fictionalized redaction of the lives of the renowned Collyer brothers, whose story became a New York urban legend. In Doctorow’s words, “I was a teenager when the Collyer brothers were found dead in their Fifth Avenue brownstone. Instantly they were folklore. I didn’t know at the time I would someday write about them, but even then I felt there was some secret to the Collyers. There was something about them still to be discovered under the piles of things in their house—the bales of newspapers and the accumulated detritus of 
their lives.”

In today’s world, the phenomenon of over-accumulation has even become fodder for television reality programs. How about taking a look at the subject from a literary angle? Sound intriguing to you? Homer and Langley generates a variety of topics for discussion and exploration including major events of 20th-century America, from Prohibition to flower children, the modern media phenomenon of “reality,” the significance of community, the psychology of hoarding and the claims of family, as well as sustainability, news, rebellion and autarky, or self-sufficiency.

If all of this is too cerebral for you - just read it for the entertainment value

E.L. Doctorow at his best!

Would you listen to Homer & Langley again? Why?

Yes yes yes....so complex and well read I would love to listen to it again like a great record album. I had already read the hard cover years ago, and this was fresh as ever!

What other book might you compare Homer & Langley to and why?

The Great Gatsby, Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button....an epic tale of interesting characters through which you see an era come and go.

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

Not sure...he was wonderful.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes....it made me recognize the genius of a great author like E.L.Doctorow who can turn the story of a pair of eccentrics (who might easily be exploited on reality TV today,) into a work of art.

Any additional comments?

Once you read Homer & Langley, if you love it, you will want to read everything EL Doctrow has ever written. Every last short story collection, his famous 'Billy Bathgate