The Friday Afternoon Club

A Family Memoir

De: Griffin Dunne

Narrado por: Griffin Dunne

Duración: 12 h y 19 m

Resumen del Editor

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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

Griffiths phrasing made it easy to listen and absorb.

I loved everything about the book. It was spellbinding. the Dunn family is an incredible story.

Honest storytelling, after the Major Players got it wrong

If you have read everything about the Dunnes,’ This is a must read. It fills in so many misconceptions and changed my understanding of Nic Dunne and John.
It’s beautifully written and a lovely narration. It could have been longer, that’s how much I soaked in it.

Like catching up w/ my best friend

I *loved* this book. It felt like one of those wonderful late-night conversations with one's closest friend, like we were just catching up since last we'd spoken. An unvarnished tale, told with tremendous warmth & humor. Thank you, Griffin, for writing this.

Written with love

beautiful. Heartbreaking. wonderfully written. Humble and down to earth. This book will stay with me.

Great story

Griffin Dunne is a great storyteller and has told an great story here! So many interesting anecdotes!

Not funny but still worthy

Especially liked the treatment of the trial’s effect on the family. Otherwise a peek into the lives of immense privilege. One story made me burst out laughing but otherwise no laughter … and there was a bit too much bragging.

Too Many Sexual Details of Author’s Life.

The author has had an exciting life. He drops a ton of names and comes across as a highly unreliable narrator.

Poignant, darkly funny, heartbreaking and triumphant.

Griffin Dunne’s gift for storytelling and unflinching, yet somehow also compassionate, honesty is a joy to behold. He comes from a fascinating family, I greatly enjoyed the opening chapters that go into the lore of his ancestors, and by the time he got to his immediate family, I was hooked. He takes circuitous, at turns charming and mortifying side roads that ultimately lead to what I imagine is the hardest story a person can ever tell, the murder of a loved one. Rightfully so, he does not exploit his sister’s murder, I’ve grown weary of this age of true crime obsession- we are left with a holistic view of who The Dunnes are as individuals and a family. Even the characterizations of the family cats, the strays his sister Dominique took in, are amongst the most touching I’ve come across in all of literature. Dunne writes with tremendous sensitivity, self awareness, humor, and skill and performs his reading of his work much the same. I just finished this audiobook, a smile on my face and tears in my eyes, and am
tempted to listen all over again. He has reawoken in me my own latent love of writing and reading, laid to rest because it’s a terrible thing to try to make one’s living as a writer in this era if one doesn’t have a family
trust to live on— but he is reminding me there are reasons other than fame, success, or finances to apply oneself to their craft— there is the holy communion with the page, there is the sense of catharsis and resurrection of the dead that comes with honoring them through memory. In the off chance you are reading this Griffin Dunne (and who knows, you strike me as the sort to read their own reviews ;-) ) - THANK YOU. This book took tremendous courage, a trait you’ve come to cultivate even if it wasn’t always front and center when you were a younger, peace loving, deeply understanding of all peoples’ positions kind of man. You have managed to retain your compassion and kindness, while coming out of this with greater character— and having shared great characters— like your late sister, your brother Alex, Panda, Nick, and Lenny— who feel as vibrantly and holistically portrayed to me as if they had been my own family. You have done their memories proud- not through flattery, but by showing how perfectly imperfect we humans (and certain cats) are, and how that is reason in and of itself to love our kind. I cannot wait to read more of Griffin Dunne’s work.

Great storytelling and acting and writing!

Loved it! A great listen in every way, shape or form. A wonderful memoir about a very complex and gifted family.

Narrated by the Author

Loved the stories of back in the day and the early relationships before anyone was famous.