
West Side Story is Irving Shulman's 1961 novelization of the popular Broadway musical of the same name. And if things did not change, the way it would always be. Some of the wishes came true, but it made no difference to the city because it had been built to endure beyond the lifetime of all the people that inhabited it.

They hoped that someplace, somewhere, someone heard them, that their own little dreams would come true, that very soon they would meet someone they could trust, could love and be happy with. And there were people who looked up at the sky and ached with loneliness, as they appealed in silence to the stars and the moon.

There were people who died in peace, in pain and in violence. There were people who loved, who ate, who lusted and promoted.
