SOURCE: "A Rich Meditation on Old Age, First Love and Tragic Loss," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 13, 1994, p. E5.

[In the following review, Kendall offers a positive assessment of The Prince of West End Avenue, noting that although "the subtext [of the novel] is profound, the tone is kept buoyant" by the interaction of the many colorful characters.]

The year is 1978, and the residents of the Emma Lazarus retirement home are planning an ambitious in-house production of Hamlet.

They're a spirited crew despite advancing age and encroaching infirmity, and although their theatrical backgrounds run a short gamut from nonexistent to sketchy, the drama society performs only the classics. Last year's Romeo and Juliet was a triumph, even after Romeo fell after killing Tybalt and had to be carried off-stage on a stretcher. But as our narrator Otto Korner tells us, you have to make allowances.

This...