Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
A fictionalized account of the true story of New York City's infamous recluses, the Collyer brothers. If this book doesn't motivate you to clean your house than nothing will!
-Lindsey D.-
-Lindsey D.-
Coming into this book with only a recommendation, and not bothering to read the blurb, I found that it started out as quite an interesting tale about Homer's blindness. The weight of the story only really hit me when I finished it.
I found the descriptions of Homer losing his hearing to be deeply disturbing. He describes the possibility as to "lose the last sense that connected me to the world". The only way of knowing that he was not alone was his brother occasionally tapping him on the shoulder. Just thinking about this, a feeling of anxiety builds within me, I can imagine the panic when there was no tap on the shoulder for too long a time.
Having read it with no background, Langley's eccentricity only slowly seemed to turn into madness though his collecting did change quite rapidly into hoarding, especially the storing of every daily newspaper toward the ultimate goal of the creation of a dateless newspaper. The full magnitude of their constricted, paranoid, and almost imprisoned life only hit me in the last couple of chapters.
Though not very interested in American history, the book gave an interesting insight into life over time in Manhattan, America and the world from WW1 to who knows when. I was also amazed to discover just after finishing, that the book was based on real people who came to the same disturbing end (though after leading slightly different lives).
I found the book to be very powerful and engaging. E.L. Doctorow set the scene so well throughout, and I felt genuinely connected to these two crazy old men.
I found the descriptions of Homer losing his hearing to be deeply disturbing. He describes the possibility as to "lose the last sense that connected me to the world". The only way of knowing that he was not alone was his brother occasionally tapping him on the shoulder. Just thinking about this, a feeling of anxiety builds within me, I can imagine the panic when there was no tap on the shoulder for too long a time.
Having read it with no background, Langley's eccentricity only slowly seemed to turn into madness though his collecting did change quite rapidly into hoarding, especially the storing of every daily newspaper toward the ultimate goal of the creation of a dateless newspaper. The full magnitude of their constricted, paranoid, and almost imprisoned life only hit me in the last couple of chapters.
Though not very interested in American history, the book gave an interesting insight into life over time in Manhattan, America and the world from WW1 to who knows when. I was also amazed to discover just after finishing, that the book was based on real people who came to the same disturbing end (though after leading slightly different lives).
I found the book to be very powerful and engaging. E.L. Doctorow set the scene so well throughout, and I felt genuinely connected to these two crazy old men.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though it does make you feel sad and uncomfortable at times. Superbly written, the characters are very well developed.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the best books I’ve ever read! This is a 200 page novella, which you can read it in a day or two. Didn't know until after I read it that it's based on a true story, which made it even more amazing. Doctorow is an amazingly talented writer and can carry you through an entire decade in a paragraph, while meeting and getting to know an entire cast of characters in a sentence. It's amazing how much depth of character, time, plot, sense and emotion is packed into this little book. You'll change along with the characters all the way to the very last sentence, which put my jaw on the floor.
Read this for my NY Times book group. So haunting. An entire life in a short story. I felt claustrophobic by the end. What a story. I just couldn't put it down. You hear about people like these all the time.
Based on the true story of two NYC brothers who inherit the family home near Central Park - both have some quirks which get worse with time - they end up hoarding so much stuff that the house is falling down around them. One brother is blind and the other is obsessive compulsive. Doctorow fiddles with the timeline - they were born in the late 1800s, and died in the late 1940s, but he has them living through into the 1980s. Some commentary on the outside world as it passes by but mostly about two quirky brothers.
This is based on a true story, but is fictionalized. I would have preferred the true story. I found out more interesting information on Wikipedia. While reading the book I felt like I was reading a version of Forest Gump going through the ages, which made it lose its originality and believability. This was a book I really wanted to read, because I find the idea of hoarding fascinating, but I was somewhat disappointed.
So, after finally getting this book from the first reads, I dove in and couldn't put it down! What a great story! I really enjoyed it. Funny to read a book about two brothers that are compulsive hoarders, when I just finished Grey Gardens books. Great read!
Two men blind to their life (one literally) accumulate stuff barely useful or actually totally useless to their actual purposes in New York City, where this takes place . Metaphor to our American way of life? A warning to change our frenzied collecting and mall-rat culture? A literary look at how a lifetime of collecting memories might weigh us down spiritually when there is nothing to give meaning? Or is the message of the book that going insane in the middle of Manhattan surrounded by thousands of witnesses is possible because of the lack of violent behavior while bank accounts are filled with money?
The presence of wealth certainly brings about a complete breakdown of official means to properly take care of these two men who are falling apart.
I liked the book, but not because of the obvious conclusion that these two brothers were given the freedom of our culture to be smotheredunder the literal accumulated weight of their lifetime stuff (literally the junk of physical things and living through 70 years and four wars in our American 20th century). I liked it because I found the story appealing and the writing bittersweet. There is a heavy hand of metaphor and symbolism pressing down on every page, but I wonder if some Americans can see it. Or are you uncomfortably squirming as you look around your six-room place with closets full and loaded with furniture never used and your certified mountain-trail SUV which you use to go to your city job from your city home? Maybe you should play catch with your kids instead of buying another babysitting DVD?
Spoiler
and in the end their life is strangled by the weight of their acquired but deadly pile of lifetime pillageThe presence of wealth certainly brings about a complete breakdown of official means to properly take care of these two men who are falling apart.
I liked the book, but not because of the obvious conclusion that these two brothers were given the freedom of our culture to be smothered