Homer & Langley

Doctorow has imagined the lives, thoughts and motivations behind the real figures of Homer and Langley Collyer, elderly brothers whose compulsive hoarding made national news when the brothers were found dead, one crushed by the horrendous accumulation of newspapers and debris in their New York City home, the other starved to death. Told completely from Homer's point of view, who has been blind since childhood, we learn about the brothers' lives and how they coped with their emotional and physical burdens, while also experiencing the historical progress of New York City through the early 1900s to the present.

I found Doctorow's mastery of the rhythm and flow of Homer's thoughts and observations astonishing. With a subtly comic thread running through all of Homer's narration of his life and events, Doctorow's reveals his “love” of the character of Homer, a voice that a reader can care about.

While the story left me feeling sad about the awful result of the brothers' isolation, I also think I've developed my sense of empathy a little through Homer's insights, an awareness that everyone, even strangers, have an inner life that I can never know.

I gave the book 3 stars because I didn't feel Doctorow paid as much attention to developing the other characters in the book as he did to Homer. As the story progressed into the 1960s and 70s, I also felt my interest lagging and I was less inclined to believe the storyline.

This was my first introduction to Doctorow, although his name was very familiar to me. I think I will continue to read his books and see if his sense of language and style is even more apparent and enjoyable.