Homer and Langely... A book review

Well the Book Homer and Langley made it off the Plan to read list..A friend of mine lent me the book.. saying I would finish it in no time.. I took the book and said I would give it a try.

Hold up... I think I need to back track here a bit and give you a little background on my feeling towards books.

1. Books are Special

2. Some books are more special the others

3. Books should be treated with respect

4. I don't lend out my "Special Books" very often

5. People who don't return books ( Special or not) Irritate the living %$#@* out of me !

I remember a line in the movie Out of Africa where Robert Redford's character is asked by some other guy..why he didn't like a certain fellow.. and Redford's Character "Finch-Hatton" says.

" I lent the man a book...(pause ) and he never returned it"

His friend says.

" Surly ...You wouldn't lose a friendship over a book now would you?"

the reply..

"No.. but he did now didn't he"

*paraphrasing as best I can

I think you get the picture..

My friend had taken the book out of our library and being I have a weirdness about books in general especially borrowed books.... I knew that I wouldn't have TOO much time to read it.

I started it at 7:00 p.m. last night and finished it at 12:20 a.m. !

Yes that's how good it was...

The book is a work of historical fiction. about the Collyer Brothers and as much as I liked the book..

I found their true story even more fascinating.

Two upper middle class brothers born in one of New York's then toner area's Homer (the eldest Brother) and Langley are children of Herman Livingston Collyer a Gynecologist and Susie Gage Frost a former Opera Singer.

Their parents were first cousins and the families could trace their linage back to the days of the Mayflower.

Both men were educated at Columbia University and by all accounts were very intelligent.

After both parents died.. The brothers set up residence in the family's Harlem Brownstone. Slowly the eccentric behaviors were becoming more and more evident.

In the evening hours a paranoid Langely would rummage the city .. collecting all manor of of paraphernalia...newspapers, magazines. Baby carriages, books, musical instruments, flash lights, records, clothes, clocks, typewriters, A horse's Jaw bone, an x ray machine even a Model T car... ill rigged in an effort to somehow generate power.( Since they refused to pay utilities eventually all power and water would be turned off)

Constantly stockpiling these seemingly inconsequential and peculiar items.. so much so that at the end of their lives New York officials would have to chart away 130 tons ( yes that's right 130 TONS of garbage from their home) both brothers would be found dead in and amongst there strange collections.

Langley in the home so filled with garbage would be found days after his brother.

His bodycovered in debris and partially eaten by rats was discovered only ten feet away from his brother Homer,who died of Malnutrition, dehydration and Cardiac arrest.

Langly had been tunneling through the debris to reach his paralyzed brother with food .. It would become their tomb

These parts of their story are true in the book. As well as Homer's Blindness and Langley's devotion to his brother's care .

If their true story wasn't interesting enough.. Doctorow inter weaves an interesting network of Characters in his book humanizing the two brothers.

Yet he is never fully able to explain how or why this illness takes over first the physical space the brothers share.. and eventually their minds.

In light of my recent obsession with the show Hoarders. I have come to realize NO ONE can explain this disease /or way of life.

I found the book intriguing.. and a decent read.

Now if you will excuse me..I have to go and clean my house. PRONTO !!