Fairy Tale Spotlight: West Side Story [Book Review]

[Some spoilers included.]

"West Side Story" is a book written by Irving Shulman. It was published in 1961, same year the movie came out. Yes, it's one of those books. This was very likely written during the production of the movie in order to promote it upon release. The weird thing here is that it is a book based on a musical/ballet film which focuses more on choreography to explain itself. Also I bet you didn't even know there was a book for West Side Story! Well, neither did I. I randomly found it in a book store. Who knew?

If you've seen the movie, this book is pretty much the same story, but the author gives it all to you in a very hard-hitting narrative that never pulls it punches. Let's face it: this story is rough and depressing at the best of times. It's a hard pill to swallow.

The name of the game is big city gangs and mutual hate. It's the Whites vs the Puerto Ricans, and despite them both being Americans, they just can't live together without violence, rape, and murder. It... is... awful.

What makes matters even more difficult to deal with is that there is a "Romeo and Juliet" situation happening as well. The former leader of the White gang falls in love with the sister of the PR gang leader--respectively Tony and Maria. And no... this is not a story about love conquers all. It is a story about how bad decisions ultimately lead to bad outcomes. Even though Tony is trying to get out of the gang life, he just cannot shake his past. And even though Maria knows her brother is doing bad things, she still loves him and doesn't want him to get hurt or die. It is the makings of a very slow train wreck that goes on for ten long chapters.

But I gotta hand it to the author: he did extremely well at telling this story. I don't even know this guy. He put so much heart into trying to get all the characters' perspectives into this book. And the final page was one of the most impactful narratives I have ever read in any book beforehand. It was brilliant and really put the problems of the world into a healthy perspective. I mean... you can almost just read that last page and still come away with something.

The author's not perfect, mind you. He also kind of said something about Batman and Robin having X-Ray vision. (This was in reference to a character who read a lot of comic books.) We'll not worry about that though.

All said, I do recommend this strangely obscure book. If someone was to make a novelization of "West Side Story," this is how it should be done. Great job. I'm depressed as hell, but I don't regret reading it!

This blog was written on June 6, 2025.

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