The Friday Afternoon Club

A Family Memoir

By: Griffin Dunne

Narrated by: Griffin Dunne

Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins

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

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

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.

Love Griffin Dunne

As a kid, Poltergeist was one of my favorite summer blockbuster movies I saw in the theater and I was horrified to hear what happened to Dominique Dunne. I stumbled upon After Hours several years later on cable during one of many insomniac episodes. It became and remains one of my all time favorite movies. Every time I reach for a paper towel I think “Dead Body➡️” and wish I had a plaster of Paris cream cheese bagel paperweight. listened to this nonstop until I fell asleep and restarted it where I left off the next day on a road trip in Nebraska. Laugh out loud moments and very touching. Everyone should have a brother like Griffin. ❤️

Family

What I liked was how honest and heartfelt. Having lost a daughter myself, it’s heart wrenching to listen to the sibling side of the tragedy but comforting in an odd way. Also funny and crazy times growing up in that time and the elite family, with recognizable names.

Ugh - exquisite storytelling

He lets us into the intimate details around the trial in a way that doesn’t sensationalize or even shed his family in a meek victim style. He doesn’t seem to cut corners or jump over details, but recounts in a way that you’re at the table - at The Ivy or at home - with the family. Probably my favorite memoir to date.

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!

Interesting and heartbreaking

I do not like real crime but was drawn to the books by good reviews. The humanity of the book overshadows all.

I enjoyed every minute.

Heartwarming and heart-wrenching. So many funny anecdotes. Such random celebrity encounters! My only complaint, I wanted to be up-to-date! I’m ready to hear about the next 30 years.