The Prince of West End Avenue

The narrator, Otto Korner, is writing a journal of the events surrounding a production of Hamlet at the Emma Lazarus Home, a production beset by catastrophe as various cast members jockey for power within the theatrical group. Yet this affectionate look at the foibles of old age becomes a moving meditation on the guilt of survivors and the means by which those who have experienced the unspeakable continue to exist despite the emotional baggage they carry. Korner, who lost his entire family in the Holocaust, spends his days plotting to gain the role of Hamlet and directorship of the drama, but this activity is only an attempt to keep the doors of memory firmly closed.