I love it when I find a book that upon finishing makes me want to sit down and do some rigorous, solid research. In Ragtime, my obsession with Harry Houdini was borne, and after reading Billy Bathgate, I did nothing for the next two weeks but study prohibition-era mafia bosses. E.L. Doctorow is a master of weaving modern history into fiction, of making connections between real-life characters and his own creations. And in his newest work, Homer & Langley, he’s given voice to the fabled Collyer brothers of twentieth century New York City—which I promptly researched.

The novel serves as a memoir of sorts for Homer, the younger brother, whose blindness enhances his other senses and provides Doctorow a unique voice for storytelling—the images conjured by Homer are always tentative and fuzzy, like dream images. Langley, the older brother, is damaged from a mustard gas attack while overseas during World War I, and the resulting eccentricities of his return to New York life help make the Collyers’ story so compelling.
Staying mostly true to the actual events, Doctorow has Langley leaving their Harlem brownstone only during the earliest parts of the morning and late at night, when he collects every edition of the day’s newspaper for research—Langley believed their combined content would create a forever up-to-date newspaper, a prophesy—and gathering other items to stash; two gutted pianos, a Model-T (which Langley disassembled outside and reassembled in the living room, thinking it could power the house), antique chairs, gas masks, typewriters, a Chinese amphora.

Eventually, word spreads of the two strange brothers and they are soon met by the curiosities of neighbors, tourists, reporters.

Doctorow sacrifices accuracy at certain moments, enabling the story to serve as more than a simple exploration of two famous recluses and their historically cluttered house. He has the brothers living past the late 1940’s and weaves in passing strangers, jazz musicians, illegal immigrants, mafiosos, and government agents. By doing so he sets up the book to serve as an exploration of the epic events of modern history. And he does it through an interesting pair of eyes.
~Jared