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November 2009: E.L. Doctorow: Homer and Langley

Conversation would have started if the thread was open.:whistling:

Did anyone read it?
 
Not yet, I was going to order it last week...but some things came up. I was trying to get it through the library, but unsuccessful.

Did anyone enjoy it?
 
I read it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was right up my alley. It was in New York and started at the turn of the last century.
 
Just started today

I just began reading today. It is beginning rather nicely. I should be finished by the end of the week.
 
I have it on hold at my library but I'm 5th in queue although there are 10 copies so hopefully it shouldn't be too far away! I wonder if there are any others on here that use the Brisbane City Council Library... (elibcat)
 
eldog_oz_2008 said:
I have it on hold at my library but I'm 5th in queue although there are 10 copies so hopefully it shouldn't be too far away! I wonder if there are any others on here that use the Brisbane City Council Library... (elibcat)
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I don't use that library, but I know someone had the copy I took out of the library on hold, b/c I had to get it back in 7 days.

It's probably not a bad idea to take this into consideration when choosing books for future BOM choices. I don't mind buying a paperback, but very rarely will I shell out the $$ for a hardcover book.
 
denise said:
I don't use that library, but I know someone had the copy I took out of the library on hold, b/c I had to get it back in 7 days.
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We have "Fastback" loans which can only be loaned for 7 days but otherwise you get a book for 3 weeks with a possible 3 week renewal if the book doesn't have any holds.
 
I finished the book a couple weeks ago. I found it a pleasant but not very satisfying read. Many of the incidents did not ring true for me (maybe because I'm not from New York). I'm not sure what the author was trying to say when he wrote the book.
 
oskylad said:
I finished the book a couple weeks ago. I found it a pleasant but not very satisfying read. Many of the incidents did not ring true for me (maybe because I'm not from New York). I'm not sure what the author was trying to say when he wrote the book.
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SPOILERS AHEAD - DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE BOOK

It's interesting that you say this because I was just looking up the author's name (I forgot it) and found that this is actually based on a true story! I'm from NY :D maybe that's why I'm surprised it was based on fact.

There were numerous write-ups about the brothers in the NY Times over the years and they were even mentioned in a Honeymooners episode in 1956.

There's a very interesting entry in Wikipedia that goes further than the novel did by reporting on the finding of Homer & Langley after they died.

(I tried to post the URL but it won't let me b/c I haven't made enough posts yet. But it's easy to find, just do a google search on Homer & Langley and it will come right up.)

Knowing it was based on a true story this makes me like the book even more. I really enjoyed the book a lot until Homer went deaf. After that I found it very depressing. The ending was awful. Not awful as in "what a bad way to end a book", but awful, as in "what a horrible way to die", especially for poor Homer.
 
Part of my dissatisfaction is the book is supposedly based on a true story, but is really fantasy. Doctorow has not tried to understand the Collyers, but instead has built his book out of the skeleton of their lives. It's almost as though he borrowed their lives because he did not have the imagination to create fictional lives that would be as interesting.

Maybe I'm not cut out for historical fiction.
 
oskylad said:
I finished the book a couple weeks ago. I found it a pleasant but not very satisfying read.
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I am about three quarters through the book and overall I am feeling sort of like Oskylad.
I love Doctorow's prose. He rights in an effortless style that just seems to agree with me as a reader. He is one of those writers that can paint beautiful pictures with his words. The scenes he describes come to life vividly in my minds eye.
That said, the story itself doesn't hold my interest too well. It is not boring per se, but it is far from enthralling. I guess I don't see what the attraction is with these brothers. I know they were real people and that they had some sort of notoriety but I can't quite figure out why. I probably need to read that wikipedia entry.
 
I think it was their eccentric ways that captured people's imaginations. Also, the way they felt they could buck the system, i.e., live w/o the water company or electric company.

I found Langley to be funny when he wasn't trying. One example I remember is when they were discussing TV and Langley compares the TV watchers to the shrunken heads that some tribe in Africa (not sure if it was Africa, but some tribe) made.

And I found Homer to be quite touching. Although from the Wiki entry, he was paralyzed as well as blind, so here the author sure did take literary liberty. He would have been much different than portrayed in the book.

I think people were curious. There was this big house on 5th Ave. that was boarded up and 2 brothers were living there. They were coming and going at odd hours. Bringing God knows what into the boarded up house. Hauling buckets of water into the house. Hauling car engines up through the windows. It must have made for quite a scene. And when people aren't allowed to know what's going on, they want to know that much more. Just simple curious human nature.

At the time, especially early in the novel, people didn't have all the "things" we have to distract/interest us. People were more involved with their neighbors & neighborhoods.

Didn't every neighborhood have a "crazy" person that everyone knew & wondered about? I know mine did :)

But after saying all that, I think the fact that the book was set (at least at the beginning) in my favorite time period and set in my favorite place had a lot to do with me enjoying the book.
 
Homer and Langley

I just finished the story, and am left with mixed feelings about it. As I mentioned before, I think Doctorow's prose is a treat to read, but there is something about the story itself that just doesn't appeal to me. There seems to be a general sense of despair and apathy about the people in this book that is so constant that it is almost like another character in the story. There lives are depressing from the starting gate. Homer's narration seems to attempt a stiff upper lip and a smile in the face of tragedy but it feels tired and half hearted.
There are great scenes, and there is humor, and many of Homer's musings are thought provoking and profound in a quiet, depressing sort of way. The parade of historical events happening around them only seem to add further ruin to their lives and alienate them more.
All in all a well written novel, but I probably won't be re-reading this one later.
 
I have just finished Homer and Langley and although I liked it, it is not a book that I would recommend to others. This is not a criticism of this particular book but rather an indication of how rarely I find books that I would unreservedly recommend.

As previously mentioned, it is very well written (made me think of Paul Auster but others may disagree) and I found the subject matter to be fascinating. I like the idea of seeing the legend of a "haunted" house from the perspective of the houses' live occupants rather than from the interpretations of outsiders that have created the myth.

As mentioned by Denise, the wiki article Collyer brothers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is definitely worth a read also.
 
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