The Prince of West End Avenue

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The Prince of West End Avenue is a novel by Alan Isler . It was first published in English in 1994 by Bridge Works Publishing (New York) and Jonathan Cape (London).

The main character and first-person narrator of the book is Otto Korner, who spends his old age in the Jewish nursing home Emma Lazarus on Manhattan's Upper West Side . The book consists of fragmentary retrospectives from Korner's youth and a continuous storyline in Emma Lazarus.

The book begins with a quote from Hamlet :

The best actors in the world
be it for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral
Tragic history,
Tragiko-Komiko-Historiko-Pastorale,
Unity of place or unlimited.

Hamlet II / 2

action

Otto Korner is a Jewish emigrant of German origin. Towards the end of his life he ended up in Emma Lazarus. There he rehearses for a Hamlet performance with his vigorous and argumentative roommates . At first he should appear in the role of the spirit, then as a gravedigger. Finally, through a series of events, he finds himself both in the role of Hamlet and takes over the direction. At the same time, the reader takes the first-person narrator Korner's past trips to Germany and Switzerland from 1914–1939. There he learns a lot about the troubled youth of the talented writer Otto Korner. A central theme is the unhappy love for the beautiful Magda Damrosch, with whom Korner falls head over heels on a train ride to Zurich . Korner also gets to know some Dadaists from the very beginning (including Emmy Hennings , Hugo Ball , Tristan Tzara , Hans Arp ) and experiences the origin of the word Dada. Korner also vividly describes the ordeal that the emergence of National Socialism caused in his family, who were loyal to Germany.

Form of narrative

In The Prince of West End Avenue is ultimately about the manuscript of the fictional narrator Otto Korner. Korner also expresses doubts about the entire undertaking and to whom the manuscript should go after his death. This surreal element makes it easy for the author to digress repeatedly into Korner's past. Often this is done in a tone that takes the reader into confidence.

output

(Selection)

  • Alan Isler: The Prince of West End Avenue. (from the American by Karin Kersten), Berlin Verlag 1996
  • Alan Isler: The Prince of West End Avenue. Munich German paperback publishing house 2000