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Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders, An Urban Historical
A true tale of changing New York by Franz Lidz, whose Unstrung Heroes is a classic of hoarder lore. Homer and Langley Collyer moved into their handsome brownstone in white, upper-class Harlem in 1909. By 1947, however, when the fire department had to carry Homer's body out of the house he hadn't left in twenty years, the neighborhood had degentrified, and their house was a fortress of in an attempt to preserve the past, Homer and Langley held on to everything they touched. The scandal of Homer's discovery, the story of his life, and the search for Langley, who was missing at the time, rocked the city; the story was on the front page of every newspaper for weeks. A quintessential New York story of quintessential New York characters, Ghosty Men is a perfect fit for Bloomsbury's Urban Historicals series.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
48 people are currently reading
664 people want to read
About the author
Franz Lidz
8 books5 followersFranz Lidz is an American writer and journalist.
He was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio, and is a correspondent for Smithsonian,Slate,WSJ.,GQ, Sports Illustrated,The Wall Street Journal,The New York Observer,Men's Journal,AARP the Magazine,Philadelphia Magazine,Golf Digest and has written for the New York Times since 1983, on travel, TV, film and theater.
He was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio, and is a correspondent for Smithsonian,Slate,WSJ.,GQ, Sports Illustrated,The Wall Street Journal,The New York Observer,Men's Journal,AARP the Magazine,Philadelphia Magazine,Golf Digest and has written for the New York Times since 1983, on travel, TV, film and theater.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
February 19, 2015
I'm not sure I can properly convey how irritating this book is. I picked it up because I've become mildly obsessed with a show on A&E called Hoarders, and I wanted to see what the famous Collyer Brothers had to offer. I'd heard about them -- Homer and Langley Collyer had crammed a Harlem brownstone full of tons of stuff in the early part of the last century and lived as recluses. But instead of giving me the Collyer brothers, this yahoo decided to make every second chapter about his Uncle Arthur, who was also a hoarder. And despite what it says above, there is no "and My Uncle Arthur" in the book's subtitle. I was promised "The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders."
The list of this author's crimes is significant:
-He apparently didn't have enough material on the Collyers to even write a book. The book is short in the first place and half is about his own family. The Collyer material is minimal and cribbed from other writers. One Collyer chapter is really about the history of Harlem, which the Collyers were not really involved in, since they very rarely left their house. But at least his redundant writing style fills up extra space.
-His writing style is forced and strives too hard for atmosphere. Here he is on an evening in the Bronx with his uncle: "Nightfall flashed hot and jittery, full of frenetic longing that never seemed fulfilled." Ugh. His syntax and narrative twist around so that the chronology becomes unclear. He also repeats himself. Frequently.
-He doesn't confine the non-Collyer material to his Uncle Arthur, but writes extensively about his whole family—including passages of very bad poetry by his relatives—despite having written a whole other book devoted to his uncles. Apparently, he just Can't. Stop. Writing. about them. In fact, the photo on this book's cover is of his Uncle Arthur. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE COLLYERS. God.
Around chapter 11, we finally get to some interesting stuff about the Collyers and their stuff, but I'm not sure it was worth it.
The list of this author's crimes is significant:
-He apparently didn't have enough material on the Collyers to even write a book. The book is short in the first place and half is about his own family. The Collyer material is minimal and cribbed from other writers. One Collyer chapter is really about the history of Harlem, which the Collyers were not really involved in, since they very rarely left their house. But at least his redundant writing style fills up extra space.
-His writing style is forced and strives too hard for atmosphere. Here he is on an evening in the Bronx with his uncle: "Nightfall flashed hot and jittery, full of frenetic longing that never seemed fulfilled." Ugh. His syntax and narrative twist around so that the chronology becomes unclear. He also repeats himself. Frequently.
-He doesn't confine the non-Collyer material to his Uncle Arthur, but writes extensively about his whole family—including passages of very bad poetry by his relatives—despite having written a whole other book devoted to his uncles. Apparently, he just Can't. Stop. Writing. about them. In fact, the photo on this book's cover is of his Uncle Arthur. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE COLLYERS. God.
Around chapter 11, we finally get to some interesting stuff about the Collyers and their stuff, but I'm not sure it was worth it.
May 26, 2016
Between the two of them, the eccentric, old-money, Victorian-styled, New York City brothers Homer and Langley Collyer collected well over 100 tons of mostly sheer garbage with which they filled their massive Harlem brownstone mansion until their deaths in 1947. They are often called the greatest of all hoarders. Like many hoarders they were unable to distinguish between the truly valuable and the worthless.
Author Franz Lidz, who, as it happens, has the hoarding gene in his family, appears to have given it a new outlet in the form of this book; unable himself, it seems, to cull the gems from the lead sinkers. Call it perhaps an unintentional homage; his book on New York's famous hoarders is a poorly organized assemblage of junk: bits and pieces about the Collyers, odds-and-ends about his own family -- including his hoarder uncle Albert -- and various and sundry bits of padding about Harlem and so forth. Lidz can't seem to make up his mind as to whether this is a book about the Collyer Brothers or a sequel/replay of his previous family memoir, Unstrung Heroes, which, frankly, I don't give a shit about. In fact, a good deal of the author's homespun irrelevancies have nothing to do with hoarding at all.
The Collyer Brothers' house was a disaster area, but this book is simply a disaster. I mean, how do you take a story this interesting and tell it this badly? This is how.
Since someone here on Goodreads, Mary Connor, has perfectly nailed what is wrong with this book, I shall not reinvent the wheel and will rather refer you to her:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
After all, isn't writing a redundant review kind of like adding to a junk pile?
(KevinR@Ky, amended slightly, 2016)
Author Franz Lidz, who, as it happens, has the hoarding gene in his family, appears to have given it a new outlet in the form of this book; unable himself, it seems, to cull the gems from the lead sinkers. Call it perhaps an unintentional homage; his book on New York's famous hoarders is a poorly organized assemblage of junk: bits and pieces about the Collyers, odds-and-ends about his own family -- including his hoarder uncle Albert -- and various and sundry bits of padding about Harlem and so forth. Lidz can't seem to make up his mind as to whether this is a book about the Collyer Brothers or a sequel/replay of his previous family memoir, Unstrung Heroes, which, frankly, I don't give a shit about. In fact, a good deal of the author's homespun irrelevancies have nothing to do with hoarding at all.
The Collyer Brothers' house was a disaster area, but this book is simply a disaster. I mean, how do you take a story this interesting and tell it this badly? This is how.
Since someone here on Goodreads, Mary Connor, has perfectly nailed what is wrong with this book, I shall not reinvent the wheel and will rather refer you to her:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
After all, isn't writing a redundant review kind of like adding to a junk pile?
(KevinR@Ky, amended slightly, 2016)
October 4, 2009
In this age of bloated books, how nice it is to have a book that comes in at a fighting weight, with nary an ounce of fat on its spare frame. It's books like this that diehard book addicts truly live for -- they can literally be consumed in one large bite. In this case though, therein lies a tragedy. Ever since I first discovered the legend of the Collyer Brothers, I hunted for every meager scrap about them that I could find. What minor league hoarder wouldn't be curious about the hall of fame Collyers who hold every record in the rather neglected sport of accumulation. There is of course a bit of information about the Collyers on the internet, but hardly enough to whet your appetite. As interested as I was, it's hard to believe that it took me this long to get to Franz Lidz' Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders. This pint-sized book packs a real wallop but sadly the 161 pages go by all too fast. If time travel were possible and I had a lot of trips, I'd love to have been outside their Harlem brownstone when they began hauling out the 180 tons of "junk" that made them a legend. There were a lot of things in the book that I hadn't known -- that Homer and Langley's dad, Dr. Herman Collyer, a gynecologist at Bellevue, left his family in 1919 when his wife refused his request to make their townhouse into a sanitarium! The good doctor was reputed to be something of a booklover himself, with a medical library of some fifteen thousand books in the house. From little acorns, mighty oaks certainly grow.
Franz Lidz masterfully contrasts the story of the collecting Collyers with the equally heartbreaking story of his Uncle Arthur, first immortalized in Lidz' earlier classic Unstrung Heroes: My Improbable Life With Four Impossible Uncles (surely you remember the film based upon this book).
Franz Lidz masterfully contrasts the story of the collecting Collyers with the equally heartbreaking story of his Uncle Arthur, first immortalized in Lidz' earlier classic Unstrung Heroes: My Improbable Life With Four Impossible Uncles (surely you remember the film based upon this book).
March 5, 2012
This popped up as a 99c Kindle Daily Deal and I picked it up because I love stories of obsession, I find hoarding fascinating, and I'd never heard of the Collyer brothers. How could I resist? Unfortunately, the book just ended up being frustrating.
First of all, the title I bought at Amazon was Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders, An Urban Historical -- note the lack of Uncle Arthur, who appears in the GoodReads title. There is a lot of Uncle Arthur in this book. I suppose I can't begrudge the author threading in anecdotes about his junk-collecting uncle, but the Collyer story was what I wanted to read. It's not a very long book, so both stories ended up feeling thin. The historical stuff about Harlem is also superficial at best.
Second, the writing left something to be desired. Some of it was just unevenness of tone. Sure, there's some humor inherent in the things these people collected, but other times, the jokes left me rolling my eyes. "Susie's boys were Oedipal wrecks who could hardly peek out from beneath her Freudian slip." *groan* There were also some sloppy grammatical problems. For example, the author is fond of beginning sentences with conjunctions even if he could naturally connect them with the sentence before with a comma. It's just a peeve of mine, perhaps, but it bugged me every time.
Third, formatting problems galore. I don't mind if e-books aren't perfect when they're free and prepared by volunteers. When I buy an e-book from a publisher, however, I expect it to have at least been proofread. There were lots of miscellaneous spaces, sometimes splitting words and making sentences confusing to parse at first. In one spot, I reread a sentence 3-4 times before realizing it meant hermits and not "her mits," as printed.
Then, there was this exchange:
"I'm not going to a flea circus, not me," Sandy said.
"7 am," I said.
Huh? I guess that was supposed to be "I", maybe italicized?
One chapter opens with the NY Times headline announcing one of the brothers' deaths: "HOMER COLLYER, HARLEM RECLUSE, FOUND DEAD AT JO."
"At Jo?" Where is "Jo?" The next paragraph explains that he was actually 65 and that one of the other newspapers had gotten that right. Oh, I guess it is "At 70?"
There are also paragraph breaks in the middles of sentences, random hyphenations where there must have been line breaks in the print version, and ....arrrgh.... it just made me more and more annoyed. And then I had to read his Uncle Leo's poetry? *sigh*
Two stars feels like a generous rating, but I did only pay 99 cents for it, so I will cut it some slack. Plus, it seems to be one of the few books out there about the Collyers. I'm surprised to see wikipedia call this book "the definitive history of the Collyers," but maybe there really isn't much more?
First of all, the title I bought at Amazon was Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders, An Urban Historical -- note the lack of Uncle Arthur, who appears in the GoodReads title. There is a lot of Uncle Arthur in this book. I suppose I can't begrudge the author threading in anecdotes about his junk-collecting uncle, but the Collyer story was what I wanted to read. It's not a very long book, so both stories ended up feeling thin. The historical stuff about Harlem is also superficial at best.
Second, the writing left something to be desired. Some of it was just unevenness of tone. Sure, there's some humor inherent in the things these people collected, but other times, the jokes left me rolling my eyes. "Susie's boys were Oedipal wrecks who could hardly peek out from beneath her Freudian slip." *groan* There were also some sloppy grammatical problems. For example, the author is fond of beginning sentences with conjunctions even if he could naturally connect them with the sentence before with a comma. It's just a peeve of mine, perhaps, but it bugged me every time.
Third, formatting problems galore. I don't mind if e-books aren't perfect when they're free and prepared by volunteers. When I buy an e-book from a publisher, however, I expect it to have at least been proofread. There were lots of miscellaneous spaces, sometimes splitting words and making sentences confusing to parse at first. In one spot, I reread a sentence 3-4 times before realizing it meant hermits and not "her mits," as printed.
Then, there was this exchange:
"I'm not going to a flea circus, not me," Sandy said.
"7 am," I said.
Huh? I guess that was supposed to be "I", maybe italicized?
One chapter opens with the NY Times headline announcing one of the brothers' deaths: "HOMER COLLYER, HARLEM RECLUSE, FOUND DEAD AT JO."
"At Jo?" Where is "Jo?" The next paragraph explains that he was actually 65 and that one of the other newspapers had gotten that right. Oh, I guess it is "At 70?"
There are also paragraph breaks in the middles of sentences, random hyphenations where there must have been line breaks in the print version, and ....arrrgh.... it just made me more and more annoyed. And then I had to read his Uncle Leo's poetry? *sigh*
Two stars feels like a generous rating, but I did only pay 99 cents for it, so I will cut it some slack. Plus, it seems to be one of the few books out there about the Collyers. I'm surprised to see wikipedia call this book "the definitive history of the Collyers," but maybe there really isn't much more?
October 2, 2009
I found out about this book from a review of E.L. Doctorow's new fictionalized account of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley. While I like Doctorow, when I found out about this non-fiction account of these hoarders and eccentrics, I wanted to read it first. Also, I've been obsessively watching A&E's Hoarders, and I've been fascinated by these people who cannot stop themselves from acquiring stuff.
Lidz interweaves his account of the Collyer brothers and their trash-filled Harlem mansion with stories of his own eccentric uncles, especially the compulsive hoarder Uncle Arthur. At first I was annoyed at bouncing back and forth between the two, but then I grew to appreciate that the author came to the story of the Collyers through his own family experience. And I liked how the two stories developed side-by-side -- descriptions of the Collyer's early years followed by the exploits of his uncles as younger men, the account of the Collyer's notoriety in the New York press followed by his uncles' quasi-fame in the aftermath of a movie loosely based on their lives.
I suppose it's hard to write a history about two men who effectively lived shut off from the rest of the world for the better part of four decades, which is probably why so much of the story relies on press stories from the time. I did enjoy this book, but I'd like to read a more thorough accounting of the lives of these two strange men. Maybe there's nothing left to write -- most of their lives having been tied up and hauled out with the mounds of junk that filled their house.
Lidz interweaves his account of the Collyer brothers and their trash-filled Harlem mansion with stories of his own eccentric uncles, especially the compulsive hoarder Uncle Arthur. At first I was annoyed at bouncing back and forth between the two, but then I grew to appreciate that the author came to the story of the Collyers through his own family experience. And I liked how the two stories developed side-by-side -- descriptions of the Collyer's early years followed by the exploits of his uncles as younger men, the account of the Collyer's notoriety in the New York press followed by his uncles' quasi-fame in the aftermath of a movie loosely based on their lives.
I suppose it's hard to write a history about two men who effectively lived shut off from the rest of the world for the better part of four decades, which is probably why so much of the story relies on press stories from the time. I did enjoy this book, but I'd like to read a more thorough accounting of the lives of these two strange men. Maybe there's nothing left to write -- most of their lives having been tied up and hauled out with the mounds of junk that filled their house.
December 23, 2014
Note to self: do not read books about the Collyer brothers right before bed, because you will have nightmares about finding shrivelled corpses crushed under piles of junk, and then you will wake up and say 'phew, it was just a nightmare, I am safe in my bed. Which is under a loft that is covered with bags of clothes and craft projects. And is surrounded on three sides by ceiling-high, over-full bookcases that would block the way out if they fell. ...oh, man, I am never sleeping again."
Want to read
June 7, 2015Awesome story, terrible writing. Quick read. The guy who wrote Devil in the White City needs to research these guys and write a book worthy of their crazy lives.
August 26, 2013
An interesting story, but I think I would have liked it better had it focused more on the Collyer brothers rather than Lidz's own family.
June 24, 2018
Not a long book, but one that focuses a on the Collyer brothers that became hermits and hoarders in their Harlem home until their death. Their story, was woven together with Lidz’ story of his uncles who had similar hoarding issues among others. Which gives you a close up story of living amongst people like the Collyers. One thing I found interesting was there was no interviews with the relatives of the Collyer brothers- though they may not have wanted to give one.
An interesting look at this situation, and also a bit sad one where you watch a person swallowed up by stuff.
An interesting look at this situation, and also a bit sad one where you watch a person swallowed up by stuff.
December 3, 2019
Interwoven tales of two families or brothers whose hoarding ways impact not only themselves, bit those around them. If this book doesn't inspire you to do a little house cleaning, I don't know what will.
January 5, 2020
Ultimately, this book was disappointing.
I've been fascinated by hoarding long before the A&E series, and I thought that this book would be about New York's Collyer Brothers -- history's perhaps most legendary hoarders.
While it is about the Collyers, there are entire chapters devoted to the uncle of the book's author who was a hoarder in his own right. I was not interested in him nor his story, nor how his hoarding personally impacted the author. Per the title of the book, I was interested specifically in the Collyers. Eventually, when I realized that a chapter was going to be devoted entirely to "Uncle Arthur," I would just skip it.
There was another chapter devoted to the history of Harlem (where the Collyers lived). It was unnecessary -- if I had wanted to read about that, I would have sought a different book.
What's left is indeed about the Collyers -- their life and their hoard. That was interesting, but for such a short book, too much of it was devoted to subjects that I did not care about.
I finished this book very quickly, in part because I began skipping the "Uncle Arthur" chapters. If you have interest in the Collyers or in hoarding in general, I guess I can recommend it, but either get it from the library or just don't spend much money on it.
I've been fascinated by hoarding long before the A&E series, and I thought that this book would be about New York's Collyer Brothers -- history's perhaps most legendary hoarders.
While it is about the Collyers, there are entire chapters devoted to the uncle of the book's author who was a hoarder in his own right. I was not interested in him nor his story, nor how his hoarding personally impacted the author. Per the title of the book, I was interested specifically in the Collyers. Eventually, when I realized that a chapter was going to be devoted entirely to "Uncle Arthur," I would just skip it.
There was another chapter devoted to the history of Harlem (where the Collyers lived). It was unnecessary -- if I had wanted to read about that, I would have sought a different book.
What's left is indeed about the Collyers -- their life and their hoard. That was interesting, but for such a short book, too much of it was devoted to subjects that I did not care about.
I finished this book very quickly, in part because I began skipping the "Uncle Arthur" chapters. If you have interest in the Collyers or in hoarding in general, I guess I can recommend it, but either get it from the library or just don't spend much money on it.
August 4, 2011
This book turned out to be a lot shorter than I thought it would be--that's the downside of Kindle. I wish there were more of it.
Lidz weaves the story of the infamous Collyer Brothers with that of his Uncle Arthur, who was also a compulsive hoarder. I ended up finding the Lidz family saga as weird and fascinating as that of the Collyers. Like all of us, Lidz wants to find out why Langley Collyer and his Uncle Arthur had to have so much stuff that was essentially worthless and dangerous. The issues of health, sanitation, and the whole idea of "Well, we'll just clean the place up!" keep popping up in both stories, but neither Langley nor Arthur agree to part with a single scrap of paper.
I especially liked the newspaper accounts of the 1947 search for Langley after his brother Homer's body was found--blind and paralyzed he'd starved to death. There were hundreds of false Langley sightings, as he'd been killed by one of his own booby traps, only ten feet from his brother, lost in the maze of stuff. It took a month and the removal of a hundred tons of trash before Langley was found.
I figure books like "Ghosty Men" and Homer & Langley by EL Doctorow, and the television show "Hoarders" are cautionary tales. When you're cleaning out the home office and you come upon those old notebooks from college, throw them out. Because you might end up like Uncle Arthur or Langley Collyer, surrounded by piles of newspapers and shoelaces and old socks.
Lidz weaves the story of the infamous Collyer Brothers with that of his Uncle Arthur, who was also a compulsive hoarder. I ended up finding the Lidz family saga as weird and fascinating as that of the Collyers. Like all of us, Lidz wants to find out why Langley Collyer and his Uncle Arthur had to have so much stuff that was essentially worthless and dangerous. The issues of health, sanitation, and the whole idea of "Well, we'll just clean the place up!" keep popping up in both stories, but neither Langley nor Arthur agree to part with a single scrap of paper.
I especially liked the newspaper accounts of the 1947 search for Langley after his brother Homer's body was found--blind and paralyzed he'd starved to death. There were hundreds of false Langley sightings, as he'd been killed by one of his own booby traps, only ten feet from his brother, lost in the maze of stuff. It took a month and the removal of a hundred tons of trash before Langley was found.
I figure books like "Ghosty Men" and Homer & Langley by EL Doctorow, and the television show "Hoarders" are cautionary tales. When you're cleaning out the home office and you come upon those old notebooks from college, throw them out. Because you might end up like Uncle Arthur or Langley Collyer, surrounded by piles of newspapers and shoelaces and old socks.
June 20, 2011
I found this book a very simple read, yet of great interest. I reread Homer and Langley for my bookclub this month, but decided that I wanted more perspective regarding the real Homer and Langley without research beyond that I had already done on the internet. I found Franz Lidz's memoir and decided to read it, although I had never read his more definitive memoir, Unstrung Heroes. Perhaps someday I will read this memoir as well.
I was quite intrigued despite the simplicity of the memoir. Lidz shared historically accurate information juxtaposed with his own experiences with an Uncle who was a hoarder. The Uncle had added a special quality to Lidz' life and added wonder to Lidz' childhood with his at times, audacious uninhibited behavior. In addition, the added historical pieces I was looking for were all in this book including appropriate dates, recollections, speculation of neighbors, discovery of the journalist who made Homer and Langley well known throughout New York City. The author did not try to interpret for us or to develop characters for Homer and Langley. I admit that I appreciated the simplicity.
I was quite intrigued despite the simplicity of the memoir. Lidz shared historically accurate information juxtaposed with his own experiences with an Uncle who was a hoarder. The Uncle had added a special quality to Lidz' life and added wonder to Lidz' childhood with his at times, audacious uninhibited behavior. In addition, the added historical pieces I was looking for were all in this book including appropriate dates, recollections, speculation of neighbors, discovery of the journalist who made Homer and Langley well known throughout New York City. The author did not try to interpret for us or to develop characters for Homer and Langley. I admit that I appreciated the simplicity.
March 22, 2012
This book never quite clicked. It was short and felt slight. It was never bad but very matter of fact and in the end felt more like reading an extended Wikipedia article. The Collyer Brothers were the most famous hoarders in New York history and you can easily find out about them in a Google search. Sadly, this book doesn't tell you much more than a Google search would. I suppose that isn't surprising, two reclusive city hermits who were fascinating because no one knew anything about them... well, we don't know a lot about them still. The book is split between stories about the Collyer's and the writer's Uncle Arthur, also a hoarder. The problem is Uncle Arthur isn't that interesting if he's not your uncle and it makes the story of the Collyers even more slender. It seems like it's to add charm and we're supposed to like Uncle Arthur but it ends up being spectacle, a man with a serious mental illness seen as a scamp and isn't it cute. I ended up feeling like I was watching a sideshow. The book has it's bright points and is a quick read but overall it was pretty mediocre.
February 20, 2008
I'm so disappointed. Lidz's subject matter is a potential goldmine: two real-life Brooklyn recluses who lived (and died) in a Harlem brownstone packed from floor to ceiling with over 100 TONS of junk that they both systematically hoarded for several decades.
The book itself, though, like the Collyer brothers' mansion, is a jumbled heap studded with fascinating little nuggets that you kind of happen upon while stumbling around in the fug.
It's a shame how poorly-written this is, and how completely disorganized. The rambling, recursive timeline was distracting, and Lidz's tangents about his own compulsive collector uncle didn't help matters (although I guess I appreciate his experimental blending of memoir and historical account. I guess).
The information's out there. Please, someone write a better book about these guys.
The book itself, though, like the Collyer brothers' mansion, is a jumbled heap studded with fascinating little nuggets that you kind of happen upon while stumbling around in the fug.
It's a shame how poorly-written this is, and how completely disorganized. The rambling, recursive timeline was distracting, and Lidz's tangents about his own compulsive collector uncle didn't help matters (although I guess I appreciate his experimental blending of memoir and historical account. I guess).
The information's out there. Please, someone write a better book about these guys.
March 26, 2012
This is a factual account of the Collyer brothers, as opposed to E.L. Doctrow's Homer and Langley. Not as lyrical and evocative but more factual. Throughout the story he intertwines the story of the Collyer brothers with tales of his Uncle Arthur who was also a hoarder. His is a very intimate and personal story of why a person is driven to this behavior. The author also mentions going to the Hubert's Freaks show in New York which was the subject of Gregory Gibson's fascinating Hubert's Freaks. A book I highly recommend.
October 2, 2015
The only reason I cold stretch to give this book 3 stars is because I like the premise of the content - and only the premise. As another reviewer pointed out, the title of the book speaks of the Collyer Brothers. The author chose to tell more about his uncles than the Collyer Brothers. I did not start to read this book to have to read the author's memoir of times with his uncles - the title should really be changed to reflect that this is really what the book is all about.
Additionally, the book was poorly written - it was difficulty to stay with the author since the paragraphs were dysjunctive and at times, nearly incoherent.
Now that I'm writing this review, I think I'll have to reduce my rating to 2 stars.
Additionally, the book was poorly written - it was difficulty to stay with the author since the paragraphs were dysjunctive and at times, nearly incoherent.
Now that I'm writing this review, I think I'll have to reduce my rating to 2 stars.
March 7, 2012
2.5
When, oh when are people going to realize that although their families are infinitely fascinating to them, they're likely going to bore the crap out of strangers? I skimmed almost all of the parts about the author's eccentric relatives and the rather paltry excuse for a history of Harlem.
Suzanne (below) said exactly what I would have. This book was something of a disappointment on a number of levels, but the Collyer material was nonetheless fascinating. Given the current popularity of hoarding reality shows, I wouldn't be surprised if a more definitive study -- complete with period photos -- shows up.
When, oh when are people going to realize that although their families are infinitely fascinating to them, they're likely going to bore the crap out of strangers? I skimmed almost all of the parts about the author's eccentric relatives and the rather paltry excuse for a history of Harlem.
Suzanne (below) said exactly what I would have. This book was something of a disappointment on a number of levels, but the Collyer material was nonetheless fascinating. Given the current popularity of hoarding reality shows, I wouldn't be surprised if a more definitive study -- complete with period photos -- shows up.
January 31, 2015
Franz Lidz is, of course, the author of "Unstrung Heroes," about his weird uncles, made into a movie of the same name with Andie MacDowell.
I'm sure some publisher or editor cajoled him into writing this, based on that book's success. I was disappointed however. He alternates chapters about the Collyers, taken from newspaper accounts of the period when the Collyers became a media sensation with chapters about his uncles. But I'm not interested in his uncles, only in the Collyers, so i will go elsewhere for that.
I'm sure some publisher or editor cajoled him into writing this, based on that book's success. I was disappointed however. He alternates chapters about the Collyers, taken from newspaper accounts of the period when the Collyers became a media sensation with chapters about his uncles. But I'm not interested in his uncles, only in the Collyers, so i will go elsewhere for that.
April 18, 2012
There must have not have been enough material for an entire book about the strange Collyer Brothers. What was there was shorter and less detailed than expected. The remainder of the book was about the author's Uncle Arthur who just happened to also be a hoarder. It also contained a history of Harlem. I'm thinking I should start avoiding the 99 cent daily deal since I picked up this book to read after my last 99 cent daily deal was so scary it was giving me nightmares. :)
April 4, 2018
I really enjoyed reading this book - not because it set out to do what the title told us it would do - you can read other readers’ reviews on that - but on how comfortably Lidz would slide to telling yet another story about his crazy uncles. I felt like I was sitting in his living room, a glass of iced tea sweating in my hand, dust motes more animated than me, listening to Lidz tell me about his upbringing.
September 3, 2019
I have mixed emotions about this book. On the one hand, I wished it was solely about the Collyer brothers; that was what I was expecting when I got it. On the other hand, I understand the parallels that the author saw between the Collyers and his own uncles and his need to write about it.
The author lays out the history of the time in which the Collyer's lived so that the reader gets a full picture of the world in which they grew up and eventually established their own home, such as it was.
I found the picture of race relations in New York City, which reflected what was going on in much of the United States during the time that the Collyer brothers lived in Harlem, unfortunately reflects what we currently are witnessing in our country--fear of the other. Although the players have changed, the ideology has not despite the naysayers and those ignorant of history. Take this letter written to the New York Times around the 1920s that the author shared:
That aside, I rated the book a two primarily because I was expecting a much more comprehensive book about the Collyers, not a story interspersed with similar stories from the author's personal life. But given the main characters were recluses from the early 20th century, a limited retelling of their lives is to be expected, I suppose. The author likely had to rely on accounts of those long gone. The only other two other books I could find about the Collyers are works of fiction based on their lives.
The author lays out the history of the time in which the Collyer's lived so that the reader gets a full picture of the world in which they grew up and eventually established their own home, such as it was.
I found the picture of race relations in New York City, which reflected what was going on in much of the United States during the time that the Collyer brothers lived in Harlem, unfortunately reflects what we currently are witnessing in our country--fear of the other. Although the players have changed, the ideology has not despite the naysayers and those ignorant of history. Take this letter written to the New York Times around the 1920s that the author shared:
"Can they do nothing to put a restriction on the invasion of the Negro into Harlem..." They're coming closer all the time." (p. 51)
That aside, I rated the book a two primarily because I was expecting a much more comprehensive book about the Collyers, not a story interspersed with similar stories from the author's personal life. But given the main characters were recluses from the early 20th century, a limited retelling of their lives is to be expected, I suppose. The author likely had to rely on accounts of those long gone. The only other two other books I could find about the Collyers are works of fiction based on their lives.
June 2, 2019
Found this book in a "little free library" - left by someone fighting the hoarding demon? -- my mom told me about them as a kid, perhaps as a way to motivate me to keep my room clean.* As a side note, I enjoy what is called trivia (though I've never won anything in one of those contests) - but there a good one here - the brothers are buried in the same cemetery as - are you ready for this -- Mae West, Jackie Robinson, Piet Mondrian, P T Barnum & Gentleman Jim Corbett - wow, what a star studded burial ground! - An entertaining video game might be Marie Kondo vs the Collyer brothers.
Book also has observations on the de-gentrification of Harlem at the turn of the last century. One reviser complained that the books had to much a extraneous stuff about Harlem, which I found quite interesting - reminded of a comment on "Moby Dick" that it was a great book except for the whale parts - hey, those were the best parts!
In summery, this is a sad tale, with, alas, no happy ending
*it worked - I'm not a hoarder, although I do same more stuff than I ought - hay, I might need it some day, right!
Book also has observations on the de-gentrification of Harlem at the turn of the last century. One reviser complained that the books had to much a extraneous stuff about Harlem, which I found quite interesting - reminded of a comment on "Moby Dick" that it was a great book except for the whale parts - hey, those were the best parts!
In summery, this is a sad tale, with, alas, no happy ending
*it worked - I'm not a hoarder, although I do same more stuff than I ought - hay, I might need it some day, right!
November 9, 2025
There isn't much more here than on the Wikipedia page about the Collyers. (And yes, I imagine Wikipedia editors got a lot of that information from this book. The point is, you really only need to read one of them, and Wikipedia is probably easier to get your hands on than this book, which I had to ILL from a university library.) Apparently the author had written a previous memoir about his uncles, which was then adapted into a movie, so if you'd like a brief follow-up on either of those two things, that is indeed here.
December 30, 2024
I can't even finish this. Why is Lidz discussing his hoarder uncles for half of the book when the cover says this is a book about the Collyer brothers? I understand both are hoarders, but then structure it better if you insist on injecting your own experience in what I thought was supposed to be a biography.
I hope Lidz ties everything together, but I'm afraid I won't find out. Shame on his publisher for not slapping Lidz's hand for the cardinal sin of injecting yourself in the main story.
I hope Lidz ties everything together, but I'm afraid I won't find out. Shame on his publisher for not slapping Lidz's hand for the cardinal sin of injecting yourself in the main story.
October 12, 2017
The title of this book is a bit misleading. This (already rather short) book was about half Collyer brothers and half "Uncle Arthur" (the author's uncle with a similar junk fetish). The photo on the cover isn't even a Collyer brother, it's Uncle Arthur. While the story was somewhat interesting, it wasn't what I thought I was getting.
January 8, 2019
Only about half of the book was about the Collyer brothers, with alternating chapters about the author's uncles and family. Fair, one of his uncles also had compulsive hoarding tendencies, but the discussion didn't move from the uncle to a psychiatric description of the disorder, just another biography of a hoarder unrelated to the alleged topic of the work.
November 11, 2019
This was a very interesting story. The author tells the tale of the Collyer brothers, who are big hoarders. But then Lidz also goes into some detail on his own uncles, who also have hoarding tendencies.
It's a good book. The only this I wished was different is that I wish it had gone into more detail about the Collyer brothers.
It's a good book. The only this I wished was different is that I wish it had gone into more detail about the Collyer brothers.
May 13, 2021
I loved reading about the history of the Collyer brothers and the history of Brooklyn; however, the story was a bit confusing at times. The author's uncle had the same hoarding illness as the Collyer brothers. During the story he would flip back and forth between his family and the Collyer brothers. I was difficult at times to keep up with which family he was writing about.
November 25, 2022
Apparently nobody knows enough about the Collyer brothers to write a whole book just about them. A well-known author wrote his story and just invented a whole bunch of things he thinks might’ve happened . In this version the author compares their uncle Arthur to the Collyer brothers for at least half the book.
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