Homer & Langley

The real-life Homer and Langley Collyer were two wildly eccentric aristocratic brothers who lived together in a three-story Harlem mansion surrounded by 103 tons of avidly collected trash (including, among other oddities, the full chassis of a Model T Ford). National Book Award-winning author E.L. Doctorow has taken this outlandish tale as the inspiration for his novel, narrated by the blind Homer, who comes to rely on his brilliant but war-damaged brother Langley for survival. Despite the Collyer's constant attempts to hide from the world, Doctorow uses the brothers as a means to describe the shifting forces of American history outside their junk-shuttered windows. Indeed, Langley has become convinced that history repeats itself, and by relentlessly hoarding newspapers, he will eventually be able to predict the future. A grand, mad, and deeply touching tale, HOMER & LANGLEY creates an unforgettable portrait of two men lost on the fringes of society.