美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'The Dakota Winters,' Finding A New Story To Tell About John Lennon

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

"The Dakota Winters" isn't a novel set on frozen prairies but in the rarified precincts of maybe the most famous apartment house in New York, the Dakota on the Upper West Side, the place in which luminaries¹ lived and, perhaps the most famous, John Lennon, also died, shot to death just outside the entrance.

Tom Barbash's new novel tells the story of Anton Winter, who returns to his parents' apartment in the Dakota about 1980 after a spell in the Peace Corps² in West Central Africa and a spell of malaria³. His father, a late-night talk show host named Buddy⁴ Winter, has just walked off his show and into a breakdown⁵. Father and son pal⁶ around Manhattan and hobnob with Kennedys, John and Yoko and other boldface names as Buddy Winter tries to figure a way back into the limelight.

Tom Barbash, who's written acclaimed⁷ fiction and nonfiction, joins us from KQED in San Francisco. Thanks so much for being with us.

TOM BARBASH: Thanks for having me on, Scott.

SIMON: Why this time and place for a novel?

BARBASH: 1980 in the Dakota - I grew up on the Upper West Side in the '70s and - '60s and '70s. And I grew up five blocks away from the Dakota, and it was always this great, looming⁸, haunted castle. But I wanted to write about people who were neighbors of John Lennon in the year before his assassination⁹. That was the sort of first conceit¹⁰. And then I discovered that it was really more about this father and son - this relationship between Anton and Buddy.

SIMON: When the novel opens in 1979 and 1980, John Lennon is kind of hibernating¹¹, isn't he?

BARBASH: Yeah. Well, I mean, both - actually, both Buddy and John - that's part of their friendship is they called themselves the Dakota househusbands. And, yeah, this is a period where John and Yoko - they ended up sending a letter to the public saying, we apologize that we've needed this time apart from you. So yeah, he was concentrating on being a father.

SIMON: And he had had kind of a public breakdown, too, hadn't he?

BARBASH: Yeah. And that's something that they shared. And part of the thing that John does for Buddy is he reads the press about Buddy's breakdown. He's very sympathetic to him, and that's something that Anton senses is that John really feels an alliance with Buddy.

SIMON: How do you make John Lennon a major, plausible¹² character in a novel, assuming that you and John weren't buddies¹³?

BARBASH: No, we weren't. I sort of felt like I needed to have something new to say about John. And I'd read a good deal about it last year. There was a book by John's personal assistant, Fred Seaman¹⁴, that was helpful. There was a book by his tarot card reader. There were - you know, I read memoirs¹⁵. I read his letters. But my sense, what I wanted to say is that John's last year, to me, seemed about being a father and thinking back on his own father and about going to sea.

So John learned how to sail that spring. He bought a sailboat, the Isis, and he sailed out of Cold Spring Harbor. And then he planned this trip through the Bermuda Triangle, from Rhode Island to Bermuda. And along the way, he had a harrowing storm. And the captain, a man named Captain Hank Halstead, turned the boat to John - over to John at one point because everybody else was seasick¹⁶, and John wasn't because he was on a macrobiotic diet, and Captain Hank had been sailing for 30 hours. Turned the boat over to John and then, supposedly, singing filthy¹⁷ Liverpool shanties¹⁸ at the top of his lungs, John sailed the boat through the Bermuda Triangle in a storm and saved everybody's life.

And when he gets to Bermuda - he's had a five-year drought before that - and he writes all of "Double Fantasy" in about 10 days.

SIMON: Now, to be clear, this actually happened. It's also in your novel, but this happened, so far as we know.

BARBASH: This happened. So Anton is actually John's sailing instructor¹⁹ in the book. And he goes along for the trip and is there during John's breakthrough in Bermuda.

SIMON: The certainty of John Lennon's death is something that hangs over the reader from the first couple of pages. Of course, we know about it, the characters don't. How tempting²⁰ was it for you to write in a way that seems to presage²¹ or foreshadow John Lennon's assassination?

BARBASH: That's a really good question. For me, what I wanted to do is - I needed another focus, and I needed the book, really, to be about the Winters. And so all of the focus is really on, will Buddy get a new show? And I won't tell you. But - well, I guess I'm not giving away too much to say that he actually does, eventually. And then John is in that - John's storyline is invested in that, without saying anything more.

SIMON: Yeah.

BARBASH: But I wanted the reader to be focusing on that and almost forget to be focused on all the possibilities ahead when this happened.

And I think that's more true - I think John's death was much less sort of inevitable²². And I don't think it was a winding²³ down of his life. If I said anything new about John, it's that I think this was the beginning of a prolonged second act in John's life that would've been really fruitful, would've been extraordinary, and it was cut short. I mean, by the time I finished the book, I was even sadder than I've ever been about John's death.

SIMON: So what's the John Lennon anniversary season been like for you?

BARBASH: You know, I mean, to a certain extent - I was talking to some friends about it. I hate marking the death because I find - I was thinking a little bit of what the novel is about is those who seek fame, you know, and those who seek fame for a long time, achieve it, and then it becomes a sort of prison for them. And I feel like Chapman just sort of wanted to become famous.

SIMON: This is Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon.

BARBASH: Correct. Correct. And I - part of what the book explores, too, is this sense that people have - these sort of outsized emotions people have for people they don't know, these celebrities²⁴. You know, they feel a sort of intimacy²⁵ with them, and they're allowed to resent them for choices they've made, which is sort of absurd. But one of the things that a good talk show host does is he makes those celebrities that come on seem so human and seem like your friends. And that seems sort of part of what happened there.

And in terms of the - when I was thinking about the anniversary, I'd rather celebrate the anniversary of his birthday. I'd rather celebrate, you know, the release of "Revolver" or, well, "Rubber Soul" or "Sgt. Pepper's." But that day - it's hard for me to want to mark it in any way. It's just a miserable²⁶ day.

SIMON: Tom Barbash - his novel, "The Dakota Winters." Thanks so much for being with us.

BARBASH: Thanks so much, Scott.

1 luminaries   

n.杰出人物，名人（luminary的复数形式）

参考例句：

• In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 亚14:6那日、必没有光．三光必退缩。 来自互联网
• Includes household filament light bulbs & luminaries. 包括家用的白炙灯泡和光源。 来自互联网

2 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

3 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

4 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

5 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

6 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

7 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

8 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

9 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

10 conceit   

n.自负，自高自大

参考例句：

• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。
• She seems to be eaten up with her own conceit.她仿佛已经被骄傲冲昏了头脑。

11 hibernating   

（某些动物）冬眠，蛰伏( hibernate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The hibernating animals reduce movement to far below the ordinary level. 冬眠的动物把活动量大大减少到低于一般的水平。
• People find hibernating animals asleep. 人们发现冬眠动物处于休眠状态。

12 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

13 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句

14 seaman   

n.海员，水手，水兵

参考例句：

• That young man is a experienced seaman.那个年轻人是一个经验丰富的水手。
• The Greek seaman went to the hospital five times.这位希腊海员到该医院去过五次。

15 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 seasick   

adj.晕船的

参考例句：

• When I get seasick,I throw up my food.我一晕船就呕吐。
• He got seasick during the voyage.在航行中他晕船。

17 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

18 shanties   

n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌

参考例句：

• A few shanties sprawl in the weeds. 杂草丛中零零落落地歪着几所棚屋。 来自辞典例句
• The workers live in shanties outside the factory. 工人们住在工厂外面的小棚屋内。 来自互联网

19 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

20 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

21 presage   

n.预感，不祥感；v.预示

参考例句：

• The change could presage serious problems.这变化可能预示着有严重问题将要发生。
• The lowering clouds presage a storm.暗云低沉是暴风雨的前兆。

22 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

23 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

24 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

25 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

26 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。