DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Narrator Jim Meskimen impersonates a number of late ‘70s-early ‘80s celebrities as he recounts this story of the Winters, a family living in the Dakota, the New York apartment building where John Lennon famously lived—and died on December 8, 1980. Young Anton Winter has returned home after a near-fatal stint in the Peace Corps to help his father, Buddy Winter, relaunch his career as a talk show host after a very public meltdown. Therein lies the crux of this novel: How much should we sacrifice for the needs of others? Meskimen can’t outperform his content or be accountable for what he utters in the name of Lennon or others, but he keeps us entertained even as we anticipate the inevitable climax. K.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
10/01/2018
Barbash’s spirited latest revolves around a family that lives in the Dakota, the Upper West Side apartment building where Rosemary’s Baby was set and outside of which John Lennon was assassinated. Here, in 1980, 23-year-old Anton Winter is just back from a stint with the Peace Corps in Africa, where he contracted malaria. While recovering, he works for Teddy Kennedy’s presidential campaign (Anton’s mother is friends with Teddy’s wife); goes sailing with his neighbor, John Lennon; gets a job as a busboy at a restaurant in Central Park; romances an English journalist; and—most importantly—helps his father, Buddy Winter, a famous TV talk show host (think Dick Cavett) who had a nervous breakdown two years ago and walked off his show, attempt a comeback. Barbash (The Last Good Chance) seamlessly mixes real-life celebrities into his fictitious narrative. All the backstage show business details ring true, as do the author’s exhaustingly encyclopedic cultural references for 1980. Though the central relationship between Anton and his father barely strikes any sparks, the book is packed with diverting anecdotes and a beguiling cast, making for an immensely entertaining novel. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
Excellent…. At its heart, this is a story about family bonds and a pivotal time in New York.” — Rolling Stone
“Arresting…. Barbash has vividly captured the end times feeling of this period in America and has populated his sad and funny tale with a highly engaging mix of real people and fictional characters…. Barbash has sprinkled ‘The Dakota Winters’ with Beatle dust. Lennon is alive in its pages.” — New York Times Book Review
“Set in Manhattan in the late 1970s, this charming coming-of-age tale is sure to be catnip for pop-culture mavens.... Gossipy, nostalgic gold.” — People
“A keen and understated examination of how the vagaries of celebrity life impinge on a father-son relationship.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“In this family saga set in 1980 in New York City’s Dakota building, a young man tries to help his father revive his TV career while mingling with famous folks like John Lennon.” — USA Today
“Punctuated by clever dialogue and crisp social critiques, Barbash’s incisive, funny, and poignant portrait of talented people and a city in flux illuminates the risks of celebrity and the struggle to become one’s true self.” — Booklist (starred review)
“A beautiful, evocative novel of family devotion, celebrity, downfall, and survival, framed by the political and cultural upheavals of America on the cusp of a new decade. Irresistibly tender.” — Library Journal
“Suffused with warm memories of punk clubs, the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic hockey team, young romance, and the A-list residents at the storied Dakota apartments.... Pleasurably endearing for anybody with a soft spot for pop culture, Annie Hall-era Manhattan, and 20-somethingdom at its most freewheeling. — Kirkus Reviews
“Seamlessly mingling historical figures with invented ones, Tom Barbash conjures a gritty, populous, affectionate portrait of 1979 New York City: the site of his subtly captivating paean to filial love.” — Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach
“The Dakota Winters is deft, funny, touching, and sharply observed, a marvel of tone, and a skillful evocation of a dark passage in the history of New York City, when all the fearful ironies of the world we live in now first came stalking into view.” — Michael Chabon, author of Moonglow
“A crazily charming novel—and a reminder that charm can be a profound literary value. I wanted to begin a new life… with these characters. I wanted to trade worlds with them...A wise and seductive story that feels truer than true, as only the very finest fiction does.” — Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air
“Thoughtful and entertaining...A thought-provoking time capsule... If you were a fan of TV’s Mad Men—specific to a time and place but universal in its exploration of the themes of identity and human vulnerability—you might very well love this novel as much as I did.” — Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is True
USA Today
In this family saga set in 1980 in New York City’s Dakota building, a young man tries to help his father revive his TV career while mingling with famous folks like John Lennon.
New York Times Book Review
Arresting…. Barbash has vividly captured the end times feeling of this period in America and has populated his sad and funny tale with a highly engaging mix of real people and fictional characters…. Barbash has sprinkled ‘The Dakota Winters’ with Beatle dust. Lennon is alive in its pages.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A keen and understated examination of how the vagaries of celebrity life impinge on a father-son relationship.
Rolling Stone
Excellent…. At its heart, this is a story about family bonds and a pivotal time in New York.
People
Set in Manhattan in the late 1970s, this charming coming-of-age tale is sure to be catnip for pop-culture mavens.... Gossipy, nostalgic gold.
Booklist (starred review)
Punctuated by clever dialogue and crisp social critiques, Barbash’s incisive, funny, and poignant portrait of talented people and a city in flux illuminates the risks of celebrity and the struggle to become one’s true self.
Michael Chabon
The Dakota Winters is deft, funny, touching, and sharply observed, a marvel of tone, and a skillful evocation of a dark passage in the history of New York City, when all the fearful ironies of the world we live in now first came stalking into view.
Jennifer Egan
Seamlessly mingling historical figures with invented ones, Tom Barbash conjures a gritty, populous, affectionate portrait of 1979 New York City: the site of his subtly captivating paean to filial love.
Walter Kirn
A crazily charming novel—and a reminder that charm can be a profound literary value. I wanted to begin a new life… with these characters. I wanted to trade worlds with them...A wise and seductive story that feels truer than true, as only the very finest fiction does.
Wally Lamb
Thoughtful and entertaining...A thought-provoking time capsule... If you were a fan of TV’s Mad Men—specific to a time and place but universal in its exploration of the themes of identity and human vulnerability—you might very well love this novel as much as I did.
USA Today
In this family saga set in 1980 in New York City’s Dakota building, a young man tries to help his father revive his TV career while mingling with famous folks like John Lennon.
DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Narrator Jim Meskimen impersonates a number of late ‘70s-early ‘80s celebrities as he recounts this story of the Winters, a family living in the Dakota, the New York apartment building where John Lennon famously lived—and died on December 8, 1980. Young Anton Winter has returned home after a near-fatal stint in the Peace Corps to help his father, Buddy Winter, relaunch his career as a talk show host after a very public meltdown. Therein lies the crux of this novel: How much should we sacrifice for the needs of others? Meskimen can’t outperform his content or be accountable for what he utters in the name of Lennon or others, but he keeps us entertained even as we anticipate the inevitable climax. K.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-09-17
It's 1980, and a young man is reckoning with his famous father's breakdown with a little help from his New York City neighbor John Lennon.
If you know anything about Lennon and 1980, you already know the ending of Barbash's second novel (Stay Up With Me, 2013, etc.). But that knowledge only heightens the bittersweet, nostalgic mood that Barbash ably conjures here; the book is suffused with warm memories of punk clubs, the "Miracle on Ice" U.S. Olympic hockey team, young romance, and the A-list residents at the storied Dakota apartments. The narrator, Anton, is the son of Buddy Winter, a talk show host in the Tom Snyder/Dick Cavett vein who scorched his reputation by having an on-air meltdown and storming off the set. Buddy is considering his options for a comeback (PBS? A big-three network? A newfangled cable channel?), and Anton is eager to assist, though ultimately the novel is concerned with how much we need to escape our parents' shadows. Anton's guide for managing that is Lennon, the fellow Dakota resident and former Beatle with whom he forms an unlikely friendship. Their scenes together provide the novel's most charming moments, as Anton gives Lennon sailing lessons off Cold Spring Harbor and serves as a sounding board as he writes songs in Bermuda. Barbash convincingly imagines Lennon's easy, sardonic humor while he helps the young man learn how to be confident without being star-struck. The downside is that those scenes throw the rest of the narrative a bit off-balance. Anton's siblings and love interests rarely feel like more than casual walk-on roles; Anton's mother, stumping for Ted Kennedy's failed presidential bid, plays only a slightly more substantial one.
Pleasurably endearing for anybody with a soft spot for pop culture, Annie Hall-era Manhattan, and 20-somethingdom at its most freewheeling.
