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“Deft, funny, touching, and sharply observed.”
— Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
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“Pleasurably endearing for anybody with a soft spot for pop culture, Annie Hall–era Manhattan, and twenty-somethingdom at its most freewheeling.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“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…[and] he keeps us entertained even as we anticipate the inevitable climax.”
— AudioFile
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Nostalgia for a grittier New York City suffuses this father-son odyssey, set in the year leading up to John Lennon’s murder . . . Funny and keenly observed.’
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Dark and humourous . . . Thoroughly enjoyable.’
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About fathers and sons, the perniciousness of fame and the challenge of second acts . . . Barbash recreates an inviting world. And he observes clearly the human tendency to turn people into idols, only to topple them.’
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Excellent . . . At its heart, this is a story about family bonds and a pivotal time in New York.’
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You can practically hear Lennon’s signature cackle, feel the tickle of his ponytailed hair, smell the salt air.’
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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.’
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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.’
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‘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
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‘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
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‘This is a crazily charming novel . . . I wanted to begin a new life in these pages, with these characters. I wanted to trade worlds with them. This is 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
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‘A thought-provoking time capsule . . . if you were a fan of TV’s Mad Men, you might very well love this novel as much as I did.’
— Wally Lamb, author of She’s Come Undone