Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bridge Works (1994), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 246 pages
Description
In the Emma Lazarus retirement home in uptown Manhattan, the Jewish inmates embark on a chaotic, bitchy production of Hamlet. Comedy and tragedy combine as our hero, Otto Korner, directs his quirky, libidinous fellow residents in the play and looks back over his adventures in Germany, Zurich, (where he met Lenin and inadvertently invented Dada), Auschwitz and America. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
User reviews
LibraryThing member antao
The English Language is the star here. Isler's command of the English language implies a certain flair and panache, which is quite above-average. I detected several words which I had never heard before. For instance halcyon" (as in "halcyon time", which means roughly "time of leisure" or something
There are has so many references to German literature and way of life. It isn't necessary to be a German philologist to enjoy reading this book, but it certainly heightens the pleasure.
When the play "Hamlet" is introduced I'd already fallen for Otto Körner. What he confesses about his behaviour towards his first wife, came as an absolute shock at the end of the story.
This novel is one of the best things I've ever read in recent years. The samples for Hamlet production at a New York nursing home with a predominantly Jewish inhabitants of European origin are used by the first-person narrator as an opportunity to reminisce on his own past.
"The Prince of West End Avenue" has caused a wide range of emotions in me. The machinations and intrigues around the theatrical performance of "Hamlet" of seniors in a nursing homes is simply deliciously funny.
It begins at the point where Hamlet ends and it continues with guilt, and envy..."
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like that. Yes, I've looked it up...).There are has so many references to German literature and way of life. It isn't necessary to be a German philologist to enjoy reading this book, but it certainly heightens the pleasure.
When the play "Hamlet" is introduced I'd already fallen for Otto Körner. What he confesses about his behaviour towards his first wife, came as an absolute shock at the end of the story.
This novel is one of the best things I've ever read in recent years. The samples for Hamlet production at a New York nursing home with a predominantly Jewish inhabitants of European origin are used by the first-person narrator as an opportunity to reminisce on his own past.
"The Prince of West End Avenue" has caused a wide range of emotions in me. The machinations and intrigues around the theatrical performance of "Hamlet" of seniors in a nursing homes is simply deliciously funny.
It begins at the point where Hamlet ends and it continues with guilt, and envy..."
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LibraryThing member sblock
I would read this book again.
Subjects
Awards
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — Fiction — 1994)
National Jewish Book Award (Winner — Fiction — 1994)
Wingate Literary Prize (Winner — Fiction — 1996)
Language
Physical description
246 p.; 8.6 inches
ISBN
1882593049 / 9781882593040