The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash is thoroughly enjoyable. It reads like a Brat Pack novel. I was reminded of Less Than Zero, only without the horrific subject matter. The novel charts the early-twenties malaise of its narrator, Anton Winter, as he drifts through New York City in 1980. Winter's father is a former talk show host, and they are friends with many celebrities, so many that I thought the novel was a little too name-droppy in its first half, but I think Barbash settled in and pulled it off in the end.
A key figure in the novel is Anton's building neighbor, John Lennon. While Lennon's death is foreshadowed by a handful of recurring details--the fans outside the building, the general violence of 1980's New York--the novel does not wallow in it. It's sad in places but mostly a celebration of a great life in a great city. Page by page, The Dakota Winters retains its coolly jaded tone and inviting pace, and I read it hungrily, longing to turn up some synthesizer music and go for a drive under neon lights.
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