The Dakota Winters

by Tom Barbash
March 31-April 14, 2019

I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. The premise was really interesting and I love any chance to learn more about the Dakota. But the Dakota as a character fell flat and was unresolved. And while the beginning chapters were compelling, the book took a nose dive for me around the halfway point. I started to ask myself, what's the point? I adore historical fiction, but I really had a hard time believing the relationship with Anton and John Lennon. Someone who is so incredibly famous shouldn't be written in a fictional sense. I couldn't accept this relationship, no matter how much research the author did.

However, the name-dropping and events of the late 70s into 1980 were a fun trip down memory lane. It was when Barbash attempted to blend these people and events into a fictional family's experiences that I began to find the story gratuitous and shallow. I can usually accept historical fiction for what it is and allow myself to suspend belief, but the more I read, the more vapid it became. The fictional characters were all underdeveloped and the real characters left me doubting the historical accuracy. The entire plot was simply asking too much of the reader. Total miss for me.

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