New Powers

[rich]

the Doctorow review sound even better

Homer & Langley E.L. Doctorow. Random, $26 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6494-6

Doctorow, whose literary trophy shelf has got to be overflowing by
now, delivers a small but sweeping masterpiece about the infamous New
York hermits, the Collyer brothers. When WWI hits and the Spanish flu
pandemic kills Homer and Langley’s parents, Langley, the elder, goes
to war, with his Columbia education and his “godlike immunity to such
an ordinary fate as death in a war.” Homer, alone and going blind,
faces a world “considerably dimmed” though “more deliciously felt” by
his other senses. When Langley returns, real darkness descends on the
eccentric orphans: inside their shuttered Fifth Avenue mansion,
Langley hoards newspaper clippings and starts innumerable science
projects, each eventually abandoned, though he continues to imagine
them in increasingly bizarre ways, which he then recites to Homer.
Occasionally, outsiders wander through the house, exposing it as a
living museum of artifacts, Americana, obscurity and simmering
madness. Doctorow’s achievement is in not undermining the dignity of
two brothers who share a lush landscape built on imagination and
incapacities. It’s a feat of distillation, vision and sympathy.
(Sept.)

On 7/6/09, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 2:52 PM, Paul Di Filippo<pgdf at cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Pardon if this is old info--but I know there are some Richard Powers fans
>> among us!
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/n4t4r7
>
> Also reviewed along with IV @ that pag Tore posted:
>
> http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6668314.html?industryid=47141
>