After spending at least two horror-filled months reading Stephen King’s 1000+ page novel “It”, I desperately needed to read something relatively fast and absorbing. Griffin Dunne’s family memoir, “The Friday Afternoon Club”, totally fit the bill! So many famous names had been dropped by page 28 that I felt like I was reading a (celebrity) phone book.
Blue blood and famous people aside, Dunne’s life has not been without enormous tragedy–his little sister Dominique was murdered by an abusive ex-boyfriend when she was 22, and this and the subsequent trial take up a large section of the second half of the book. He also details mental health struggles his relatives have been through, his father’s largely unspoken attraction to men which obviously affected his relationship with Dunne’s mother as well as his own and his family’s wellbeing, etc. etc.. Though not without emotional and painful themes, in his book Dunne approaches these stories with the thoughtfulness and consideration that time can bring, and his sense of humor always serves him (and us) well. There are parts that are laugh-out-loud funny, and his descriptions of 1970s New York and Los Angeles are quite colorful.
Recommended for anyone into: celebrity memoirs or classic Hollywood, 60s/70s/80s pop culture, theater/acting, old gossip (à la Karina Longworth’s “You Must Remember This” podcast).