NYC set – The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash

Submitted: 20th January 2019

The famous Dakota Building, John Lennon and NYC

This is a novel of many layers. It’s a coming of age story about father and son, but it’s also the story of a building and its famous residents. Set in late 1979 and the 1980s, the events of the story lead up to the day we all sadly remember. The day John Lennon was shot is a day no one will ever forget, even if you have only heard about it on the news. The building is still very famous for its residents and many films have been shot here too. Rosemary’s baby for one. NYC set – The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash is a novel of many layers..

BookTrail it to locations in The Dakota Winters

Setting: The famous Dakota Building in New York City

Bookreview

BookTrail Travel to NYC via The Dakota Winters

The Dakota Winters is a story of the residents of the famous Dakota building in New York. This of course was the very spot where John Lennon and Yoko lived and where he ultimately died in a tragic shooting.

Anton Winter is the narrator of the story and it’s through his eyes we see events leading up to the day of the shooting. He is the son of Buddy Winter who was a famous talk show host and who is now attempting a come back. For a man now surrounded by fame and fortune, he and his family feel the loss of not being part of the scene. Anton is back from a tour in the Peace Corps where he contracted malaria and so is resting. He however soon gets involved in his father’s comeback.

The Winters love the fact that their building is famous – Rosemary’s Baby was filmed there – and there are many references to films and famous inhabitants of the building. There’s a real sense of the music in the films, music and many cafes and clubs referenced throughout. The characters live and breathe the city so much that it comes to life from the page. The reader, living in the present day, knows all too well what is about to happen.

BookTrail Travel to NYC via The Dakota Winters

“Being famous seemed like a curse, something you couldn’t escape. It followed you everywhere and you could never decide to suddenly be anonymous.”

The Dakota Winters US cover

This is not just a story about John Lennon or the Dakota however. This is also a story about how fame and fortune can corrupt. Anton is constantly moaning about his status and his family’s position despite living in the most luxurious building in the city and having wealth and privilege others can only dream of. It does show that fame and fortune are not everything and that a gilded cage is still a cage.

The story of Anton and his father was supposed to be the central plot to the book I think, but it was more the Dakota’s story and John Lennon which appealed to me. The father- son relationship goes through many twists and turns and roles are reversed when Anton has to be the one to help his father through his dark times. Anton is behind the comeback and Buddy comes to rely on him more and more. It’s as Anton raises his father up and then leaves him to get on with his own life that the tragedy of the John Lennon shooting occurs.

Timing, wrong place wrong time, our place in the world and in our family. How one moment can change everything. The rumbles of the shooting and of that realisation can be felt as you turn the last page.