The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

Successful actor/director/producer Dunne is the oldest son of journalist and victim rights’ activist Dominick Dunne (1925–2009) and the nephew of novelist/essayist Joan Didion (1934–2021). In this searing and powerful memoir, readers learn about the author’s troubled childhood and adolescence. After dire experiences at two boarding schools, he headed for New York with dreams of becoming a successful actor. While he looked for work, his friend and roommate Carrie Fisher filmed Star Wars. His sister, Dominique, created the titular Friday Afternoon Club when she became an actor; in addition to Griffin, she would invite her friends to the club, including a young George Clooney. Griffin Dunne got a foothold in film by producing several movies and eventually starred in An American Werewolf in London and After Hours, which he also coproduced. Everything changed in 1982, when Dominique, age 22 at the time, was murdered. The court convicted her ex-boyfriend, John Sweeney, on a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. The tragedy changed the family and the course of Dominick Dunne’s career, inspiring him to become a crime reporter.