First published 2024
Griffin Dunne navigates a surreal Hollywood childhood where Sean Connery pulls him from drowning waters at age nine. By thirteen, he crashes his aunt Joan Didion's party hoping to meet Janis Joplin during the celebration for Tom Wolfe's latest book. In his twenties, Griffin rooms with best friend Carrie Fisher at Manhattan's Hotel Des Artistes while she shoots a space opera and he sells popcorn at Radio City Music Hall between acting auditions. His career takes off when he produces and stars in Martin Scorsese's After Hours. But tragedy strikes when his sister Dominique, a promising young actress, is murdered by her ex-boyfriend. The subsequent trial becomes a media circus that ends in legal failure yet launches their father Dominick Dunne's second career writing true crime. Griffin finds humor and light amid the chaos of fame, family dysfunction, and devastating loss.
Genres: drama, 20th-century, american, biographical-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Hollywood, Manhattan, Radio City Music Hall
Period: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
400 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: death, murder