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    The Dakota Winters: A Novel
    The Dakota Winters: A Novel
    The Dakota Winters: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Dakota Winters: A Novel

    Written by Tom Barbash

    Narrated by Jim Meskimen

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    An evocative and wildly absorbing novel about the Winters, a family living in New York City’s famed Dakota apartment building in the year leading up to John Lennon’s assassination.

    It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when twenty-three-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, a mission that takes him from the gritty streets of New York, to the slopes of the Lake Placid Olympics, to the Hollywood Hills, to the blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and brings him into close quarters with the likes of Johnny Carson, Ted and Joan Kennedy, and a seagoing John Lennon.

    But the more Anton finds himself enmeshed in his father’s professional and spiritual reinvention, the more he questions his own path, and fissures in the Winter family begin to threaten their close bond. By turns hilarious and poignant, The Dakota Winters is a family saga, a riveting social novel, and a tale of a critical moment in the history of New York City and the country at large.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateDec 4, 2018
    ISBN9780062866813
    Author

    Tom Barbash

    Tom Barbash is the author of the award-winning novel The Last Good Chance and the New York Times non-fiction bestseller, On Top of the World. His stories and articles have been published in Tin House, McSweeney's, VQR and other publications, and have been performed on US National Public Radio. Raised in Manhattan, he currently lives in California.

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    Reviews for The Dakota Winters

    3.5/5

    69 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This was an interesting character-driven, light-on-plot novel set mostly in NYC during the late 1970s. I found the bits about Buddy’s career and the narrator’s interactions with John Lennon to be the most appealing part of the novel, and could have done without some of the gratuitous name-dropping and navel-gazing. Overall, a quick read and an entertaining audiobook that will not linger long in my mind.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I adore Tom Barbash's short stories ("Stay Up With Me" is a must read...) and wanted to like the novel a bit more than I did. Yes, he evokes a particular time and place (1979-80 New York City) and readers who lived through that era seem to say he gets it right. I wonder whether younger readers, who don't remember all the many, many cultural references will enjoy the book as much as older readers. I very much enjoyed 'meeting' the Winters family, especially witty, damaged, Buddy and I appreciated the father/son dynamics that are seen in Anton and Buddy, as well as John Lennon's relationships with his own father and two sons. But I wearied of the name dropping and wonder whether this novel is an instance of a writer doing so much research and becoming so enamored with what he found that he tried to include it all rather than paring back.
    • 4/5
      Buddy Winter’s fall from grace as the popular and ebullient late-night talk show host has left him and his family floundering in The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash. The novel follows Buddy’s middle son and right-hand man, Anton, as he returns from a year in the Peace Corp with malaria, and tries to get Buddy--and himself--back in the game. The novel reads as a white-washed homage to New York City circa 1980--which for me was not a bad thing. I enjoyed Anton’s exploits, reading about famous people, and the sometimes trite family drama that Barbash manages to soften with humor. The pop culture references and name drops from the time are effusive--I loved it, but it may be too much for some readers. The Dakota Winters isn’t going to change your life, but it is a fun and easy read, especially for those who like New York City and the early 1980s.
    • 2/5
      Buddy Winters is a popular late-night talk show host who has recently had a nervous break-down and walked off the show. His son, Anton, has just returned from the Peace Corp with malaria. The rest of the story is Buddy's climb back into fame with his son's help. The book is almost as much focused on John Lennon who lives in the Dakota Apartment along with the Winters.The beginning of the book sounded interesting and I could see where Anton's bout with malaria might be a part of the plot; however, the plot seems to focus on events of John and Anton and Buddy's seemingly shallow struggle back to a show. In short, seemed contrived; skimmed most of the last half.
    • 3/5
      A mixture of fact and fiction set in NYC in 1980, this novel focuses on the Winter family living at the famous celebrity-ridden Dakota Apartments. Anton Winter has returned home suffering from the aftermath of malaria, which he acquired in Africa. His father, Buddy, had a very public breakdown as a television host. There are numerous entertaining anecdotes about celebrities, and, of course, John Lennon as a fellow tenant and friend. The novel does bog down from time to time with Buddy's seemingly-endless perseverations and one equally endless dangerous sail that Anton and John had undertaken. It is not a totally disappointing read, but not one that I will remember.
    • 4/5
      The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash is a 2019 Ecco publication. Melancholy, offbeat, humorous, nostalgic and quirky!! For some reason, when I added this book, I thought it was a non-fiction book about the Dakota apartments written by a real- life resident telling stories about his encounters with some of the famous residents. Well, as it turns out, this is a novel, set in New York City, in 1979 and is centered around the Winter family. Buddy Winter is a washed -up talk show host, who went into seclusion after a very public meltdown. His son, Anton, has just returned home from the Peace Corps after surviving Malaria. Now the timing feels right for Buddy to attempt a comeback, but he leans heavily on Anton to help him. Anton, however, feels trapped in Buddy’s shadow, wishing he could break free and find success on his own merit. The Dakota remains “‘The Winters’” home, despite their fragile economic state. This set up allows Anton to run into the infamous apartment’s most famous residents, one which is John Lennon. As it happens, John, at this stage in his life, is also ready to stage a comeback. Anton and John strike up a friendship, and Anton begins to plot out ways to convince John to be a guest on Buddy’s new show, which he also hopes will help both John and Buddy. If you have the chance, add the audio version to complement this book. This is a poignant and nostalgic look back at New York City in 1979. The narrator did a fairly decent impression of John Lennon and Ted Kennedy as well as few other famous figures in this era. The story itself is a little eccentric, with an undercurrent of dolefulness, which contrasts against the cautionary optimism of second chances and new beginnings. Although the book was not at all what I was expecting, I found myself caught up in it, enjoying the trip down memory lane and the poignancy of touching base with John Lennon during the last year of his life, even if it was a fictional imagining. The ending was a bit too abrupt, although the reader knows where everything is headed, and what to expect. Still, I thought the story was original, and off the beaten path, which is always a good thing for someone like me, who can become easily bored with traditional genres. Overall, this was an enjoyable read and I’m glad I stumbled across it and was able to readjust my preconceptions about it. 3.5
    • 2/5
      Too contrived.