The trombonist looked to the bandleader for direction.

But as the Collyers isolate themselves from the world and retreat to their monstrously overcluttered house, the narrative stutters and stalls. Mr. Doctorow never succeeds in making the brothers’ transition from mild eccentricity to out-and-out madness understandable to the reader.

His low-keyed sales technique worked more often than high-pressure tactics, and won him many repeat customers.

Inveterate abuse of drinking in nonhereditarily disposed persons creates a degeneracy like the hereditary.