The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

This is the greatest memoir I have ever read!!!! Beautiful, heartbreaking, brilliant, witty, funny, intelligent!!!! Thank you Griffin for this gorgeous, masterful memoir. THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB IS TRULY TRULY A MASTERPIECE!!!! I lost my sister a few months ago and am not handling it well but your words definitely brought a calm to me. I can't thank you enough. I am buying a copy of this beautiful work of art for every person in my life that I hold dear. Griffin, you are a beautiful, courageous soul and one of the greatest writers ever!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

I was a huge fan of Dominick Dunne, and he was one of the reasons I kept my subscription to Vanity Fair. This book is a peak behind the curtain, and being a year older than Griffin, I was familiar with all of the 'celebrities' who made an appearance in this truly funny, heartfelt family sage. A great read.

Watching an episode of "Andy Cohen, Watch What Happens Live" Andy said it was his favorite read of the summer. "LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!" After reading the description I decided to try the Audiobook. The author, Griffin Dunne is the narrator and he is one of the best I've ever listened to and I have listened to at least 2 books a week for the last 6 years.It's well written, relatable, and filled with interesting stories of his experiences growing up.Highly recommend!

This is no mere celebrity memoir. Sure, the author is famous, yes, his parents were as well, and he’s the nephew of the late literary ‘it’ girl. All of those things are wonderful, indeed, but what makes this book so special is it’s told by a true raconteur (I knew he could act but clearly, he inherited the writing gene), recounting intimate anecdotes, some tragic, never losing his sense of humor, gratitude, and love for family and friends.Griffin’s family history is fascinating. Made up of his once LA power couple parents Dominick and Lenny, literary luminaries aunt Joan Didion and uncle John Dunne, and his maternal and fraternal grandparents had their own tales to wow. In case you haven’t read any of his father, aunt, or uncle’s books or Vanity Fair articles, suffice it to say, he’s endured more than his share of interesting and heartbreaking events. Griffin grew up in Beverly Hills at a time when parties were parties (the Dunnes hosted many with guests such as Sean Connery, Natalie Wood), his mother was glamorous, well-loved, his brother battled mental illness, his sister Dominique, a budding actress, strangled to death by her boyfriend. Their lives forever changed. Dominick hit hard times before he made a comeback covering true crime of the wealthy set (beginning with the trial of the man who murdered his daughter) and became Tina Brown’s darling (a regular in court during the O.J. trial). Like many families, there is pain and dysfunction. Growing up together, his friendship with Carrie Fisher seemed genuine and fun loving. Their inside jokes, both on the cusp of stardom, you can practically hear their laughter and imagine the mischief they got into.​From west coast to east coast, through ups and downs, childhood antics to faithfully attending the murder trial while shooting a film in the evenings to going on to producing and directing, this is a succinctly captured time capsule told by a kind, witty soul, as he shares his beloved family with us.

I'm surprised how much I related to this book. I expected it to be a vicarious breath of rare air. A tragedy meets privilege memoir. It's so much more. Behind the celebrity & family tragedy is real love, hard earned, lost at too high a price, with anger to be processed, healing hard won with a wry sense of humor. Often when actors take up the pen, the writing is performative. Not Dunne. His writing is understated and insightful. Never overdone. It's easy to dismiss his literary talent as a genetic lottery but that would be short sighted. I suspect he has earned it and made it all his own. Highly recommended.

I'm a fan of Joan Didion and the Dunne brothers so I enjoyed this book. Griffin's style of writing is very readable and some of his experiences are wild!

This memoir is very readable, much like the Vanity Fair articles written by the author’s late father, writer Dominick Dunne. Unfortunately, it desperately needed a good editor and fact checker. There is no explanation as to why it is entitled “The Friday Afternoon Book Club”, and several of the second-hand anecdotes about the author’s father are easily proven inaccurate by simply reading Vanity Fair articles written by the father himself, which are readily available online, or the father’s own memoir. This book contains dozens of references to the author’s friend, Charlie, but never discloses Charlie’s last name. Then the book stops fairly abruptly after the author married and became a father some 35 years ago. The deaths of his parents and famous aunt and uncle feel like a postscript. As someone who has read extensively about many of the main people in the author’s life, I feel that this book barely skimmed the surface. So much of his story has already been more accurately told by Dominick Dunne and Joan Didion that I’m not sure what the author hoped to add in this sloppy memoir.

The Friday Afternoon Club has stayed with me weeks after I finished it. Upon starting this book I was caught up in the world of the Dunne’s. Their world at times is hilariously funny, achingly depressing and NEVER boring. Griffin Dunne has obviously inherited his father Dominic’s abilities to keep the reader focused and intrigued. Just the parts about Carrie Fisher alone are worth the price of the book. But Griffin always remains humble ( mostly) while telling his story and only rivalsPatti Smith’s Just Kids with the matter of fact name dropping that occurs throughout this unforgettable memoir. A 6 Star read!!!

Highly recommended if you love biographies and the Dunne family (incl Joan Didion)

For those of us having grown up with the author's father and his show about crimes, this is an incredible account of how a family can be successful yet so dysfunctional - made me feel positively normal!

I am a fan of Author’s father’s books, have watched Griffin since American Werewolf in London, and had heard about his sister’s horrible murder. His memoir is very honest and well written. I found it very engaging and hope it’s not his last book.

If you are interested in the film industry and this kind of modern Hollywood family then you will enjoy this memoir. Dunne writes with flair and style. An enjoyable read.

His Father was why I bought Vanity Fair, and I very much looked forward to Griffin Dunne’s perspective on their life as a family - I was not disappointed.