The Friday Afternoon Club

A Family Memoir

De: Griffin Dunne

Narrado por: Griffin Dunne

The instant New York Times bestseller • Named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, NPR, People, Town & Country, and Air Mail

“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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Rueful and diverting . . . Irish touchstones, such as wit, guilt and silence, are all here, spangled with late-20th-century Hollywood stardust . . . Heartbreaking and wry.”—Wall Street Journal

“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

Tribute to an interesting family

This book was sad and funny. It was interesting to get a glimpse into lives of people whom I’d known in other contexts from tv, movies, and features in Vanity Fair. Griffin Dunne’s narration was excellent.

Honest Hollywood

Loved this book, I enjoyed every page spoken. Honestly written with no apologies. This family is a true example how to accept each other as is.

Thank You Griffin

Excellent read, fascinating, frank and endearing stories of the Dunne family. Wonderfully read by the author.

He tells it all, until he doesn’t…

Sometimes it was too graphic for me in all its detail, but he certainly kept it real. I enjoyed learning all the connections in his family which surely increased my knowledge, not just of the Dunne family but of Hollywood history. However, I want the second half!

Unputdownable. All the Dunne family talent and drama in Grifgins wonderful reading.

Very interesting dysfunctional hollywood family no-holds-barred book as told by the survivor. His literary voice carries the Dunne and Didion legacy. Very personal and very emotional but never self serving. Thoroughly worth a listen.

Great story telling

I didn’t know who the Dunne family was when I started and thoroughly enjoyed the memoir anyway.

Simply wonderful

Did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Bravo. Seriously an incredible book at every angle. Well done.

Maiseyz Mom

Such a beautiful and touching memoir. Thank you Griffin for sharing your story. I am moved by your openess and the deep love you have for your family and friends.

Genuine Raw Real Humility

Amazing! Loved Griffins voice telling us the story his family and life up to Hannah’s birth! Please Please Please Griffin, we need the next chapters of you and your families journey. Please Uncle Nicky! For your fans!

Just happened onto this book.

I remember reading about Dominic Dunne and his family when I was young. I thought I’d give it a listen. Griffin is an excellent writer and his story telling truly drew you in. Sad, wild, difficult and disturbing life but he seems to grasp the big picture in the end.