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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Originally I awarded 2.5 stars with the note, "I just can't quite convince myself to tip it into 3...[it] isn't bad, just OK." However, I have to concede that this book improves upon a second visit. Not only do I not mind giving it 3 stars, I considered going higher. Deceptively simple, even rambling, it is actually a textured narrative that begs to be turned over in one's mind or, better yet, discussed with others.
audiobook note: Adequate, but not great, narration by Arthur Morey.
re-read (e-book): September 2013
audiobook note: Adequate, but not great, narration by Arthur Morey.
re-read (e-book): September 2013
I can't say I loved this or will recommend it to anyone, but the voice and characterization were compelling. Sad and pathetic and lovely in its own way.
Pretty good read about the Collyer brothers. As with other similar books, though, I'm left wondering how much of the details are conformed for the sake of narrative and how many hew true to life.
Regardless, Doctorow's book is extremely well written and enjoyable. Fine detail is sprinkled throughout, with the end of the story particularly well crafted.
Regardless, Doctorow's book is extremely well written and enjoyable. Fine detail is sprinkled throughout, with the end of the story particularly well crafted.
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Σκέφτηκα πως θα έχει εξαιρετική αυτοπεποίθηση για να αναλάβει να καθοδηγήσει έναν τυφλό και μετά από αυτή την καλή πράξη να καθίσει επιπλέον να μιλήσει μαζί του. Συνήθως οι άνθρωποι που βοηθάνε σπεύδουν να εξαφανιστούν."
This is a novelization of the life of the Collyer brothers, two New Yorkers from a wealthy family who, step by step, withdrew from the world. Also, they are probably the most famous hoarders, as you can see from the pictures of their house after their death.
As far as I understand we don't know what prompted them to retreat into their house in Harlem. Doctorow's plot is as good as any other supposition, although he extended their lives into the '70s (they died in the '40s). The narrator's ability lies in what he left unsaid: I felt the book was not about Homer & Langley, but about the american history through the decades of the XX century.
As far as I understand we don't know what prompted them to retreat into their house in Harlem. Doctorow's plot is as good as any other supposition, although he extended their lives into the '70s (they died in the '40s). The narrator's ability lies in what he left unsaid: I felt the book was not about Homer & Langley, but about the american history through the decades of the XX century.
While quirky, unusual books aren't always my cup of tea, there are some that I've enjoyed from time to time. The key (for me) to enjoying that type of book is knowing ahead of time that it is a quirky, unusual book. After enduring half a book of run-on sentences, terrible grammar, randomly dropped characters, and confusing musings, I says to myself, I says "Ah, it's one of THOSE books."
So, in case you *want* to read this book (and I don't recommend it), know going into it that it is the rambling remembrances of a blind, deaf man who is slowly starving to death in a dilapidated 5th Avenue house because his crazy, hoarder, caretaker brother has been crushed to death somewhere in the house by a booby-trap he setup to catch imaginary burglars. Maybe knowing that will make this book more 'enjoyable.' --wink,wink--
So, in case you *want* to read this book (and I don't recommend it), know going into it that it is the rambling remembrances of a blind, deaf man who is slowly starving to death in a dilapidated 5th Avenue house because his crazy, hoarder, caretaker brother has been crushed to death somewhere in the house by a booby-trap he setup to catch imaginary burglars. Maybe knowing that will make this book more 'enjoyable.' --wink,wink--
This fictionalized story of the eccentric Homer and Langley Collyer is a thoughtful exploration of minds that cease to move in step with the rest of society. As we watch them gradually descend from hopeful, virile young men to lonely and mentally imbalanced old hoarders, it is easy (though no less disconcerting) to see how the brothers, under the circumstances, could retreat so far from the known world.
This novel is based on the true story of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley whose dead bodies were discovered in their 5th Avenue mansion in New York City in 1947. Homer was found in his chair after starving to death and his elder brother, Langley, was found under a pile of newspapers and trash that he had built as a booby trap. It, apparently, worked really well. Homer was blind, Langley had been gassed in World War I and came home a changed man, and both of their parents died in the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic. Over the years, the reclusive brothers retreated more and more into their home which they slowly filled with an overflowing variety of things, such as 14 pianos, a Model T car, hundreds of thousands of newspapers, and trash. To say nothing of the roaches and rats that freely roamed. This book is about the relationship between the brothers and how they helped and complemented one another even in the depths of their mental and emotional disorders. I have always considered myself a "collector", but after reading this novel, I now realize that one could easily fall over the line into hoarding. Scary damn thought. I think that I will get up and start weeding through some of the stuff in this house. Goodwill, prepare yourself, you are in for a treat.
Damn, this book sticks with you. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd never read any of Doctorow's work before, but after checking this one out I might have to go back and dig in to the rest of his oeuvre. I didn't even know that the Collyer brothers were real people when I started the novel, and so that added a whole extra dimension to things as well. Honestly, I recommend this to everybody. It's really short. It took me two days to read. And it has been on my mind ever since.