Over a celebrated 50-year career as a professional writer, E.L. Doctorow has crafted tales of early 20th-century America that used real people to explore fascinating themes: The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Billy Bathgate. But no subject of his may be as strangely compelling as the real-life people behind his latest novel, Homer & Langley.
In 1930s-’40s Manhattan, reclusive brothers Homer and Langley Collyer lived together in a brownstone that accumulated more than legends—it accumulated hoarded items and trash, the extent of which might have ultimately cost both of them their lives. Doctorow begins his interpretation of their story through the eyes of Homer as a blind, elderly man, reflecting on his life and his family. As in most of Doctorow’s celebrated works, fictionalized events and characters interact with his historical protagonists in an exploration of the era and its relationship to our present. This week, Doctorow reads from and signs his new work at two public events at Weber State University.
E.L. Doctorow @ Weber State University Union Ballroom, 3848 Harrison Blvd., Ogden, Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m. & Sept. 22, 12:30 p.m., free and open to the public. Weber.edu