Homer and Langley

Homer and Langley

by N/A

Synopsis

Brilliant brothers Langley and Homer Collyer are born into bourgeois New York comfort in settled times, their home a fin-de-siecle 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 in Europe with his lungs seared by gas, and when the death of their parents in the influenza epidemic of 1918 leaves the brothers orphaned, they seem perilously ill-equipped to deal with the new era. Around Central Park carriages give way to motor cars, Prohibition to free love, but Homer and Langley adapt: their townhouse fills and empties and fills again, with servants, lodgers, tea-dancers and gangsters. They are mocked and spied on, embraced by hippies and besieged by bailiffs, but as the world turns ever more incomprehensible Homer and Langley hold fast to their principles of self-reliance, courage, kindness and love, and they endure.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Edition: Export ed
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 07 Jan 2010

ISBN 10: 1408702150
ISBN 13: 9781408702154
Book Overview: * A new masterpiece from E. L. Doctorow - the story of two eccentric New York brothers adapting to life in a century of change, it is humane, wise, funny and moving

Media Reviews
** 'Exquisite writing, an extraordinary story and a charmingly wry take on life and all its inconvenience INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ** 'Beguiling ... Doctorow shows how each decade leaves a distinct thumbprint on the siblings, to the extent that one starts to regard them as an unwitting index of changing times in America at large GUARDIAN ** 'The interweaving of the epic and the domestic makes for a fascinating read DAILY MAIL ** 'Doctorow's work grants inner life to historical personages and revives the past in fine grained detail ... like Doctorow's best written earlier books, Homer and Langley prompts one to question the purpose of formal punctuation, familiar spelling and TLS
Author Bio
E.L. Doctorow is one of America's most accomplished and acclaimed living writers. Winner of (among others) the National Book Award, he is the author of ten novels that have explored the drama of American life from the late 19th century to the 21st.