The Friday Afternoon Club

<p><b>THE INSTANT<i> NEW YORK TIMES </i>BESTSELLER</b><br><b>''Wise, funny and generous'' <i>The Times</i></b><br><b>''Warm and perceptive'' <i>New York Times</i></b><br><b>''So honest and funny and smart'' <i>Observer</i></b><br><b>''Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story'' <i>Washington Post</i></b><br><b>''Dunne is a prospector for the incandescent detail'' <i>Los Angeles Times</i></b><br><b>''Full of light, life and colour...a startling tale of precarious American privilege, spotlighting a family that is blessed and cursed'' <i>Guardian</i></b><br><br>At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion''s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe''s <i>The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test</i>. In his early twenties, he shared a Manhattan apartment with his best friend and soulmate Carrie Fisher while she was filming some sci-fi movie called <i>Star Wars</i> and he was a struggling actor selling popcorn at Radio City Music Hall. A few years later, he produced and starred in the now-iconic film <i>After Hours</i>, directed by Martin Scorsese.<br><br>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 bestselling author of true crime narratives.<br><br>And yet, for all its boldface cast of characters and jaw-dropping scenes, <i>The Friday Afternoon Club</i> 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.</p>