Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow

There is a fantastic used bookstore in Chattanooga called McKay's. Every time we pass through the city we try to stop by. Usually I'm trolling around for YA novels for my classroom library, but this time I was actually trying to find myself some literary fiction. Since deciding that I was going to read 50 non YA books this year, I've had to face the fact that my taste in literary fiction has become somewhat atrophied over the last several years. I'm on a very laid back mission to work on that.

To that end, I snagged an E.L. Doctorow novel: Homer & Langley. My reasoning on this is a little vague, but here's how it went. Fact 1: over ten years ago a person, who's taste in literature I trust, recommended that I read Ragtime. I dutifully bought the book and never managed to read it. I later found out that this is not an entirely uncommon experience of the book. Fact 2: I became a fan of Cory Doctorow. Fun tidbit - Cory Doctorow is not at all related to E.L. Doctorow, but speaks of him highly. I figured therefore that I would give good ole E.L. another chance.

So then, Homer & Langley.  Well the good news is that I was riveted. I read most of it in the car on the way back from Chattanooga. I finished it the next day on the couch which resulted in me wallowing in a profound funk. Reading Homer & Langley is like watching a train wreck happen. I mean it's just awful. Both Homer and Langley are easy to sympathize with and the entire book is watching them slowly descend into secluded insanity.

Homer and Langley are the children  of privilege living in New York City. The lived in an elegant home during and elegant time. Homer is blind. He goes blind as a teenager. Langley, the older brother, survives the first world war but is ravaged by a mustard gas attack. By the time Langley gets home, the sibling's parents succumb to the influenza epidemic.

Langley isn't right in the head and slowly descends into madness. Homer, due a somewhat passive nature, becomes more and more reliant on his mad brother who compulsively collects junk and feels a deep distrust of most.

It doesn't end well.

In fact, the end was so awful that I ended up feeling just deeply icky and depressed. The only thing that made me feel better was to find out that the book is based on two real brothers who lived in New York. I'm not sure why that should make me feel better, but somehow it does. I spent the rest of the evening reading up on Homer and Langley Collyer who are one of the most notorious and publicized cases of compulsive hoarding. Interesting stuff.

Ok, next... something happy.