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A review by silvej01
The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash
3.0
Having moved into New York City in the spring of 1978 for grad school, I experienced many aspects of the city depicted in this book. I was also just about the same age as Anton Winter, the narrator, who has grown up with his family in the Dakota—that great, storied, and exclusive 19th century residential building on the Upper West Side—but I didn’t exactly move in the same circles. Anton’s father has been a popular sophisticated late night network talk show host who lost his show owing to a psychiatric crisis from which he’s still recovering. Despite his famous on-screen breakdown, he is still much loved by the public and the glitterati in whose circles he has long moved. John Lennon is Anton’s neighbor in the the Dakota and their friendship grows over the course of the novel.
I was a struggling student without much money and without connections to the actors, personalities, and celebrities of the day. Nor did I frequent their restaurants, bars and clubs. And rather than the Upper West Side Dakota, I lived in a teensy West Village studio—one of those where you had to leave the apartment to change your mind. Just the same, I experienced the city during the terrible calamities of 1980—the hostage crisis, the election of Reagan, the murder of Lennon—the year this book takes place. Barbash gets it right. He does a great job of capturing the feel of the New York I knew when I finally made it my home. This made the book a fun memory trip to my early days in a city I loved then and still love now.
Given this, I suppose it’s unfair for me to say that some of what I enjoyed in the book is also a something of a weakness. Barbash goes all out dropping names and anecdotes from the time. His research (his memory?) is too much on display. On the one hand, it was great to fondly be reminded, say, of Judy Carne from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in. On the other, she and countless others mentioned in the book felt at times like they were piled on top of one another. Too often, I had the sense that Barbash had created a giant stack of 1970s and 1980 index cards and he was determined to bring each one into the book.
Nevertheless, a huge delight for me was the character of John Lennon. I was wholly convinced and was thrilled to be able to feel like I was spending time with the guy. Barbash offers an astonishing gift and I am grateful to him—the chance to just hang with John Lennon for a while. Of course, it’s 1980 and we know where this book is heading, and Barbash handles this well. The narrator of the audiobook I listened to, John Miskeman, was outstanding. Each character had his or her own distinctive voice. But listening to John talking was especially transporting. In the midst of my “reading” the book, I just happened to catch some clips on tv of John talking and was even more impressed with Miskeman’s John. Barbash not only succeeds in evoking that time and place, albeit sometimes with a heavy hand, but for this reader, brings back to life one of the great cultural heroes of the 20th century.
I was a struggling student without much money and without connections to the actors, personalities, and celebrities of the day. Nor did I frequent their restaurants, bars and clubs. And rather than the Upper West Side Dakota, I lived in a teensy West Village studio—one of those where you had to leave the apartment to change your mind. Just the same, I experienced the city during the terrible calamities of 1980—the hostage crisis, the election of Reagan, the murder of Lennon—the year this book takes place. Barbash gets it right. He does a great job of capturing the feel of the New York I knew when I finally made it my home. This made the book a fun memory trip to my early days in a city I loved then and still love now.
Given this, I suppose it’s unfair for me to say that some of what I enjoyed in the book is also a something of a weakness. Barbash goes all out dropping names and anecdotes from the time. His research (his memory?) is too much on display. On the one hand, it was great to fondly be reminded, say, of Judy Carne from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in. On the other, she and countless others mentioned in the book felt at times like they were piled on top of one another. Too often, I had the sense that Barbash had created a giant stack of 1970s and 1980 index cards and he was determined to bring each one into the book.
Nevertheless, a huge delight for me was the character of John Lennon. I was wholly convinced and was thrilled to be able to feel like I was spending time with the guy. Barbash offers an astonishing gift and I am grateful to him—the chance to just hang with John Lennon for a while. Of course, it’s 1980 and we know where this book is heading, and Barbash handles this well. The narrator of the audiobook I listened to, John Miskeman, was outstanding. Each character had his or her own distinctive voice. But listening to John talking was especially transporting. In the midst of my “reading” the book, I just happened to catch some clips on tv of John talking and was even more impressed with Miskeman’s John. Barbash not only succeeds in evoking that time and place, albeit sometimes with a heavy hand, but for this reader, brings back to life one of the great cultural heroes of the 20th century.