The New York University Creative Writing Program presents the widely acclaimed writer E.L. Doctorow reading from his new novel, Homer and Langley, on Thursday, October 22 at 8:00 p.m., with a special introduction by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. The reading will be held at NYU Kimmel Center, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, 60 Washington Square South. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 212.998.8816
For Immediate Release Contact: Robert Polner October 10, 2009 212.998.2337 robert.polner@nyu.edu The New York University Creative Writing Program presents the widely acclaimed writer E.L. Doctorow reading from his new novel, Homer and Langley, on Thursday, October 22 at 8:00 p.m., with a special introduction by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.
The reading will be held at NYU Kimmel Center, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, 60 Washington Square South. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 212.998.8816 or visit www.cwp.fas.nyu.edu.
Inspired by the notorious true story of the Collyer brothers-famous for their compulsive hoarding and their obsessive fear of throwing anything away-Homer and Langley (Random House, September, 2009) has elicited an outpouring of critical praise. “Following the panoramic scope of The March, Doctorow creates a microcosmic and mythic tale of compulsion, alienation, and dark metamorphosis ” reads Booklist’s starred review. “Wizardly Doctorow presents an ingenious, haunting odyssey that unfolds within a labyrinth built out of the detritus of war and excess.”
Publishers Weekly’s starred review calls the novel “A sweeping masterpiece about the infamous New York hermits, the Collyer brothers . 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.”
About E. L. Doctorow
Named for Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Lawrence Doctorow occupies a central position in the history of American literature. On a shortlist that might also include Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow is generally considered to be among the most talented, ambitious, and admired novelists of the second half of the twentieth century. Long celebrated for his vivid evocations of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American life (particularly New York City life), Doctorow has received the National Book Award, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, the William Dean Howell Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. His other novels include The March, City of God, The Waterworks, Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Lives of the Poets, World’s Fair, and Billy Bathgate. Mr. Doctorow holds the Lewis and Loretta Glucksman Chair of English and American Letters at New York University.