West Side Story (ISBN 0671725661)

It will blow your mind!:
West Side Story by Irving Shulman is an excellent book about two rival street gangs in New York City. The Jets are the white gang; the Sharks are the Puerto Ricans. Barnardo, the leader of the Sharks, has a younger sister named Maria. Problems arise when Maria falls in love with Tony, a member of the Jets. I've seen the movie and read the book. I love them both.

I give it 5 stars:
Personally I think that this is proboly the best book I have ever read. This Story tells a tale based on a modern day Romeo and Juliet. Although the story is based on the dramatic story Romeo and Juliet, I find A West Side Story well writen and very touching. The book is set in New York City, and tells how two rival gangs (the Jets, and Sharks). The 2 gangs are fighting over a section of the city. When one member of the Sharks finds love in one of the Jets' sister, the Jet gets very angry. In a street fight the Shark kills his lovers' brother, the shark retreats to a local hide out. later that night the Shark is gunned down by a rival gang member. In the end the 2 gans realize that there is no reason to fight. I love the book.

This novel disregards the play in every way.:
When I first saw that they had made a novelization of West Side Story, I was thrilled. West Side Story is my all-time favorite musical, and possibly my favorite movie. Ever since I did the play I have been completely in love with it. I just finished this book this afternoon, and I must say I was EXTREMELY dissapointed. The first act of the story was not horrible, but the second act, the MOST IMPORTANT part of the story, was completed in only 30 pages. The death of Riff and Bernardo was one paragraph total. Tony's character was comppletely off, and Anita wasn't much better (Which saddens me, because Anita is my favorite character in the play). There were key elements of the play and movie that were much different in the book, and even though it is a novelization, they could have EASILY been written. The final scene was terrible as well. Tony's death was lifeless and boring in every possible way, and Maria's monologue was pretty sad as well. Every time I watch this movie it makes me cry. Many books make me cry. This book left me bored and strongly annoyed at how terrible it was. I strongly considered giving this book 2 stars instead of 1, for the fact that it was still West Side Story in general. But I strongly look at details, and that's what makes the play great; the small things that make it a true tragedy. The good points of the play lacked in this book. To be blunt, it sucked. Obviously you can't novelize the dancing and singing, but you can do a better interpretation than this book. If you are interested in reading this novel, then by all means, do. But if you are a die-hard West Side Story fan like I am, I suggest not wasting your time. It's a sad excuse for the play, and disregards it in every way.

I ain't believin' this is still in print!!!:
One big difference between a novel that is made into a movie and a novelization of an existing movie is that you can take the thing to work enjoy during lunch. I mean, the actual story you saw onscreen. Also, it's still there in the bookcase years later. The problem is that novelizations normally go out of print almost as soon as the second-run theaters stop running the flick. Maybe there's a new edition if the networks run the film, usually not. If not for the title, it would be too easy to write this book off based on its shortness, but you have to remember that the story itself only covers a few days. Also, in this book, our cast gets last names that aren't in the stage production or the film: Riff Lorton, Tony Wyzek, Bernardo and Maria Nunez, Chino Martin. One adult gets a real name--youth center operator Murray Benowitz--we used to only know him as "Glad Hand". Drugstore owner Doc doesn't get one, though. The cops--Schrank and Krupke--don't get first names either. One other thing this book proves--Jerome Preisler and Jack Gregory didn't invent the reverse process of the bringing of a story from the screen to the page. Like the play and the movie, this one is simple, but it's great.

Jason's Review:
I really liked West Side Story because I love books about gangs. Also most books you can tell what's going to happen in the end but this book was a huge surprise for me. Actually when I was in the middle of this book I went out and bought a copy of the movie. West Side Story is about a gang called the Jets who really hates a gang called the Sharks because they are Puerto Rican. The Jets feel that the PRs invaded America and they don't like it so they try and give the PR's a good kicking whenever they get the chance. But what happens when the ex-leader of the Jets falls in love with a PR? Then they have an all-out rumble to see who's the toughest one and too see whom gets to own the street. Will any one be able to stop the rumble before it goes to far? I think readers who would like this book is someone who likes books about gangs like The Outsiders.