Griffin Dunne

I had a hard time putting this down. Dunne brings his well-known family to life, including his father, Hollywood producer and writer Dominick Dunne; his uncle, writer John Gregory Dunne; and aunt, author Joan Didion, as well as his indominable mother. There is no glossing over family dysfunction and addictions, but the murder of his sister, actress Dominique Dunne, by her former boyfriend hangs over the lives of Griffin and his family. The opening chapter covers Dunne's mother getting a visit late at night by a police officer there to give her the awful news; the last section deals with the aftermath, with the court case and the emotional toll on Griffin and his family, making this more than a typical actor's memoir.… (more)

My only knowledge of Griffin Dunne, prior to reading this family memoir, was his role in the 1987 movie Who’s That Girl, starring Madonna. Growing up and well into adulthood, I have been a huge fan of Madonna’s. I loved that movie and have seen it countless times. So, when I saw advertisements for The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne, I was intrigued. Yes, I’ll admit it, my first thought was, “Maybe he will mention something fascinating about working with Madonna!” Then, I read the book description and was even more curious about the tales he had to tell. (That was a purely accidental nod to Madonna’s song Live to Tell. haha)

I was truly surprised by what I learned about Griffin’s involvement in celebrity circles and his sister’s murder. His father, Dominick Dunne, started a career in producing television and movies and progressed to journalism. Naturally, Griffin interacted with various celebrities and included interesting stories about Sean Connery, Janis Joplin, and Carrie Fisher. Lots of big names are mentioned throughout the book. Speaking of big names, I had no idea that Joan Didion was his aunt! He openly shared about his relationships with his brother, Alex, and his sister, Dominique. I was just a kid when Poltergeist came out, so it’s new information to me that Dominique played the role of the oldest sister in that movie. I also didn’t know that Dominique was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Griffin painfully revisited that tragedy and the trial that followed.

I enjoyed reading The Friday Afternoon Club. Other people’s lives have always fascinated me, so I appreciate it when people are willing to share some of the most private moments of their lives. I don’t have any experience in the movie business, so I enjoyed learning about some of the movies Griffin acted and produced. Another shocker for me was that he starred in An American Werewolf in London. I’ve seen that movie many times during the Halloween season and never knew he was the starring actor. Oh! Yes, Griffin mentioned acting in the movie Who’s That Girl?, but he didn’t reveal anything astonishing. Mostly, what a flop that movie was. Haha

It seemed like a large portion of the book was focused on Griffin’s teenage years into early adulthood. He was quite transparent as he shared about drug use and his sex life. Personally, I think he spent too much time on this period of his life. Once he talked about the birth of his daughter, Hannah, and marrying his second wife, Carey Lowell, Griffin appeared to gloss over the rest of his life to the present day.

I borrowed the audiobook of The Friday Afternoon Club from my local library with the Libby app. Griffin narrating this book made the audiobook experience special.

I have photos, videos, and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog… (more)

The memoir of actor/director/producer Griffin Dunne, The Friday Afternoon Club recounts his fame-adjacent childhood, early acting career, the brutal murder of his sister Dominique in the early '80s, and the failure of the criminal justice system to gain any real justice for her. Dunne's revisiting of the trial is perhaps the most compelling part of the book, and based on what he says here I'd have to agree that the presiding judge could most charitably be described as incompetent.

But on the whole, this is a rambling, unstructured work which doesn't justify its existence. Dunne acknowledges his tendency to narcissism but doesn't seem to truly grasp what narcissism is or why it's a character trait to be worked on. He talks frankly about his sexual history, and while it's not the crassest thing you're ever going to read, there's an undercurrent to it all that I found extremely juvenile from a man in his 60s—like reading about Holden Caulfield as a character in one of those '80s sex comedies that have dated very badly. This just doesn't read like the memoir of someone given to much introspection. Plus there are things like his throwaway anecdote about a holiday in Sri Lanka when he was just getting started as an actor. The key thing that Dunne wants us to know about it is that he got surrounded by “swarms of children” who pulled at his “sari” (? does he mean sarong?), children whom he more than once thinks of as “little cannibals.” What a thing to write even with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight—what a thing for an editor to let pass by in the 2020s!

I picked up this book because it was marketed as a sparkling memoir by Carrie Fisher's best friend—sparkling it ain't, and honestly if he and Fisher really were that close, it does kind of retrospectively lower my sense of how good a judge of people she was.… (more)