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The Friday Afternoon Club

A Family Memoir

Griffin Dunne

$34.99

Paperback

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English
Atlantic Books
04 June 2024
At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion's legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In his early twenties, he shared a Manhattan apartment with his best friend and soulmate Carrie Fisher while she was filming some sci-fi movie called Star Wars and he was a struggling actor selling popcorn at Radio City Music Hall. A few years later, he produced and starred in the now-iconic film After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese.

In the midst of it all, Griffin's twenty-two-year-old sister, Dominique, a rising star in Hollywood, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne's career as a bestselling author of true crime narratives.

And yet, for all its boldface cast of characters and jaw-dropping scenes, The Friday Afternoon Club is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its loveable, infuriating, funny and moving characters - its author most of all.
By:  
Imprint:   Atlantic Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   Export/Airside
Dimensions:   Height: 233mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 30mm
Weight:   525g
ISBN:   9781804710555
ISBN 10:   1804710555
Pages:   400
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Griffin Dunne is an actor, producer and director. This is his first book.

Reviews for The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

Captivating...beyond entertaining, honest in confronting heartbreaks and jealousies, often genuinely funny, and somehow understated... Dunne's storytelling is buoyant, his prose crisp; he's most definitely a writer * Booklist * Despite the glamorous backdrops in California and New York, the author portrays a family whose core human experiences make them universally relatable . . . A poignant love letter and evidence that through it all, genuine love is the backbone that keeps a family strong * Kirkus (starred review) * Dunne's writing is vivid, openhearted and full of a rich irony that inflects even the most emotional scenes. . . The result is a raucously entertaining homage to an unforgettable dynasty * Publishers Weekly * Joyful, tragic and resilient with a masterful, roving tone as varied as the actor-director-producer-author's restless career -- David Duchovny A riveting and rollicking portrait of Dunne's unconventional family as well as a deeply considered reckoning with the tragedy that exploded within it. He is honest about himself, generous with others, and insightful about every glittering and dark aspect of his richly lived years. He is also - like the best entertainers - ridiculously funny. This is just a wonderful memoir. Period. -- Alexandra Styron, author of READING MY FATHER Griffin Dunne has given us a family history that is both humorous and heartbreaking. The Friday Afternoon Club is infused with the vitality that confidence in one's perceptions can bring and the ambiguity that accompanies the expense and strain of fame. Confessions of this order are works of art -- Susanna Moore, author of IN THE CUT and MISS ALUMINIUM


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