Name: Melody Izard's review of Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow
Item: Homer & Langley
Rating: 4
Author: Melody Izard

E. L. Doctorow

A tale inspired by a true story finds the blind Homer Collyer closeted within a once-grand Fifth Avenue mansion with his damaged brother and remembering a life marked by colorful characters, political events and technological achievements. By the National Book Award-winning author of Billy Bathgate. Reprint. A best-selling novel.

A Novel

Homer & Langley

Melody Izard

A tale inspired by a true story finds the blind Homer Collyer closeted within a once-grand Fifth Avenue mansion with his damaged brother and remembering a life marked by colorful characters, political events, and technological achievements. By the National Book Award-winning author of Billy Bathgate.

Homer and Langley

heleen de boever

A marvel, a feat of scope and humour and empathy.

This is more than a fiction-based account of the lives of the Collyer Brothers – even though that would have been enough to keep me fascinated. Homer and Langley Collyer were the eccentric sons of a wealthy couple who died when the boys were young. Their parents (never too terribly involved with the upbringing of their sons) left them their mansion in the transitioning Harlem and the crumbling, dwindling remains of their fortune. Langley is a hoarder. Homer is going blind. And this is where the story actually gets more depth. This eccentric existence is not only described to us in detail – but with an angle that we just would not get if we relied on a sighted narrator. Loved it.

Michael Cowell

Lara Engle

Brilliant brothers Langley and Homer Collyer are born into bourgeois New York comfort, their home a mansion on upper Fifth Avenue, their future rosy. But before he is out of his teens Homer begins to lose his sight, Langley returns from the war with his lungs seared by gas, and when both of their parents die, they seem perilously ill-equipped to deal with the new era. As romantic Homer and eccentric Langley construct a life on the fringes of society, they hold fast to their principle of self-reliance. But they are mocked and spied on, and despite wanting nothing more than to shut out the world, the epic events of the century flow through their housebound lives as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves.

Melody Izard &
Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow

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