A disturbing family saga

Courtesy photo

Beautiful Boy, Tom Barbash, Editions Albin Michel, 416 pages

If he had always been of this world, John Lennon would have celebrated his 80 last week^e anniversary. This book, which brings him back to life, could not have come at a better time.

Much like Tim Murphy did in 2017 with The Christodora building, the American writer Tom Barbash has also decided to use a famous New York building to set up his plot. Namely the Dakota Building, which can still be admired on the corner of 72^e Street and Central Park West on the Upper West Side.

It was there that at the end of the 1970s, 23-year-old Anton Winter would be forced to return. After having contracted malaria in Gabon, he will indeed have to put his humanitarian mission plans on hold, the time to rebuild his strength at daddy – mum. But very quickly, the situation will be far from easy!

Good neighborly relations

In almost as bad shape as his son, Buddy Winter is struggling to recover from the nervous breakdown that led him to give up live on the set of Buddy Winter Show, the popular talkshow he had been leading for a good ten years.

The only thing that could possibly help him recover his spirits? Another show in which he could once again welcome all the biggest stars of the hour. And in the Dakota Building, that’s not what’s missing. Just two floors above his head, there are notably John Lennon and his wife Yoko. So, if his son Anton agreed to give him a helping hand, maybe he would soon be able to relaunch his career.

A colorful family saga that allows us to rub shoulders with an impressive range of personalities … while an imbalanced by the name of Mark David Chapman is about to commit the worst.

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