The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

After Hours actor Griffin recounts in his bittersweet debut how movies, madness, and murder have touched his celebrated American family. Dunne presents his recollections as a colorful ensemble piece starring his accomplished relatives, including his father, Dominick, who torpedoed his career as a Hollywood producer by insulting a powerful agent, then became a famous novelist; his mother, Ellen, who carried on several affairs; his brother, Alex, a brilliant writer; his sister, Dominique, an actor who costarred in Poltergeist; and his uncle and aunt by marriage, authors John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. The narrative is a swirl of parties, crude jokes, and sharply etched celebrity cameos, including a pre-fame, pot-smoking Harrison Ford, still working as a carpenter (“His stuff was so strong that after one toke I couldn’t tell the difference between a saw and a tape measure”), and a magnificently bratty Carrie Fisher. But there are darker currents, too: Dominick’s closeted homosexuality; Ellen’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis; Alex’s intermittent psychosis. Anchoring the book is an account of 22-year-old Dominique’s death by strangulation, and her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney’s subsequent conviction on a relatively minor manslaughter charge. Dunne’s writing is vivid, openhearted, and full of a rich irony that inflects even the most emotional scenes, as when he recalls an extra on the set of the gangster spoof Johnny Dangerously offering to have his mob associates kill Sweeney. The result is a raucously entertaining homage to an unforgettable dynasty. Agents: David Kuhn and Nate Muscato, Aevitas Creative Management. (June)