Preview
  • The Friday Afternoon Club

  • A Family Memoir
  • By: Griffin Dunne
  • Narrated by: Griffin Dunne
  • Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (715 ratings)

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The Friday Afternoon Club

By: Griffin Dunne
Narrated by: Griffin Dunne
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Publisher's summary

The instant New York Times bestseller!

“Warm and perceptive.”—New York Times

“Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story."—Washington Post

"Dunne is a prospector for the incandescent detail.”—Los Angeles Times

“What a remarkable and moving story filled with twists and turns, the most famous of faces, and a complex family revealed with loving candor. I was blown away by Griffin Dunne’s life and his ability to capture so much of it in these beautifully written pages.”—Anderson Cooper

Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances

At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion and uncle John Gregory Dunne’s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. At sixteen, he got kicked out of boarding school, ending his institutional education for good. In his early twenties, he shared an apartment in Manhattan’s Hotel Des Artistes 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 working as a popcorn concessionaire 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 crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist.

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.

©2024 Griffin Dunne (P)2024 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

“Warm and perceptive . . . This book [has] many well-wrapped little gifts . . . [and] pockets of real depth."The New York Times

“What makes these unimaginable events so readable, and allows Dunne to find a kind of grace even amid tragedy, are his unshakable black humor and unfailing nose for a good story . . . One might also detect the influence of Aunt Joan . . . Dunne, too, is a prospector for the incandescent detail.”Los Angeles Times

“Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story . . . Here he uses his authorial gifts—a filmmaker’s eye, photographic memory and way with a quip—to great effect, exploring how the seemingly charmed lives of the Dunnes unraveled.”Washington Post

What listeners say about The Friday Afternoon Club

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The love in this family, and the humor shines through this memoir.

It was very entertaining and I was swept up in compassion and outrage at the injustice of watching a killer not suffer the consequences of his hideous act. The narrator was a very sympathetic character with an ability to laugh at his own foibles. The old Hollywood gossip was fun and I loved his lifelong friendship with Carrie Fisher. We got to know her wicked sense of humor too.

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A super look at Hollywood’s past

This is an incredible memoir that everyone should read who remembers Hollywood’s past and present. I couldn’t put it down… A wonderful book… Read it now.

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Funny, sad, heartfelt

At first, I thought 12 hours of the Dunne family story might be too much. But Griffin Dunne is a terrific storyteller and narrator, balancing humor and pathos perfectly. His sister would, no doubt, be incredibly proud of this family portrait.

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Great Read

Griffin Dunne has inherited his father's gift of story telling. For those of us old enough to remember the murder of his sister, this book fills in many of the gaps that his father either didn't know, or was unprepared to deal with.... Griffin's own journey is a wild and hilarious tale... Can't wait for his next book.

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Laughing through the tears at times, but mostly laughing

This is an excellent and insightful memoir. Some will accuse the author of name-dropping but all those names come to the author honestly by blood or through his “Tom Jones”-like adventures. Dunne has led an eventful life that he’s able to recall in humorous detail when necessary and in sadness as well. He writes movingly of his murdered sister and others in his extended literary and Hollywood families….both their considerable talents and their messy foibles. Dunne writes (and narrates) his story very well.
Don’t miss his best movie (portraying a character he compares to himself), the Scorsese-directed “After Hours.” Strongly recommend this book.

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loved this book!

Solid 10! I loved the way it was told, written, the honesty. I was so sad when it was over. Hoping Mr. Dunne will write another

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Great stories

I enjoyed the this book very much and would recommend it. A colorful story beautifully told with humor and heart.

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Griffin Dunne’s humanity, humility and honesty.

A beautiful, but at times difficult, listen. What a life. This family has been through it all. Loved it.

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Loved it

The book is a thoughtful memoir that manages to be poignant and hilarious. Griffin Dunne’s narration was perfect. Thanks for sharing your family!

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Felt like I lived among the family by authors style

Very much liked. I’ve always enjoyed Griffin’s father from his television days. And I have been intrigued with the family. The book reveals so much about a family that I presumed had it all.

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