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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Books Dominick Dunne

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 3:15 PM

The journalist and novelist who specialized in telling stories about the crimes of the wealthy and glamorous is dead at 83.

I haven't read any of Dunne's books, but I've always been intrigued by An Inconvenient Woman.

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it was ok. the two mrs. grenvilles was better.

Posted by ellarosa on August 26, 2009 at 3:31 PM

I liked seeing this crazy man on television interviews. His life seemed fascinating. Always cavorting with celebrities.

Who can forget this iconic shot: http://bit.ly/fcrhs

Posted by SQRL.DUN.GON on August 26, 2009 at 3:31 PM

Another City, Not my Own (about the OJ Simpson trial), and the fictionalized Season in Purgatory were both awesome - great beach reads, Paul.

Posted by Luckier on August 26, 2009 at 3:39 PM

Didn't he have some long running feud with the Kennedys?

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay

on August 26, 2009 at 3:56 PM

@ 4 He had a long running feud with any high-society figure that got away with murder. He reported on the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and wrote a book called "A Season in Purgatory" about the murder of a girl in Connecticut by a shirt-tail relative of the Kennedy's, Michael Skakel.

I always enjoyed his columns in Vanity Fair, especially his feud with Gore Vidal played out in the editorial pages.

Posted by danindowntown on August 26, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Most of his novels were based on real society scandals, particularly the Grenvilles, but I could never figure out who "Inconvenient Woman" was about. I always loved that he tagged his Capote figure as Basil Plant---which as far as I could tell is a Keats reference....unless he meant it as a George Eliot reference.... In Eliot's Middlemarch, the hero calls the wife who ruinged him his basil plant, recalling Keats' poem where the herb is fed by the dead man's brain buried in the soil beneath it....

Posted by attitude devant on August 26, 2009 at 6:00 PM

I only read what he wrote in Vanity Fair but I thought he was kind of creepy/overly obsessed with celebrity crimes.

Posted by care bear on August 26, 2009 at 6:16 PM

@7 --- yeah, he was, but as I recall he had had a daughter who was killed and the guy got off. Sort of set him on a tear; he wanted to expose others who had not paid for their crimes.

Posted by anonymous healthcare worker on August 26, 2009 at 6:53 PM

quit being a snob and read his novels...they're actually well-written pot boilers.

and his non-fiction stuff is good, too.

Posted by michael strangeways

on August 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Dunne's daughter played the teenage girl in "Poltergeist". Her boyfriend beat the hell out of her. Finally she tried to leave him and got a restraining order; he beat her to death. The judge refused to answer the juries' questions about the meaning of Intent - and eventually found him not guilty. The guy got off scott free. Dunne blamed the judge.

It changed Dunne from a socialite-wanna-be into an avenger. All his books after his daughter's murder were about crimes where celebrities got off.

Frankly, I can't blame him. I'm very sorry he died - may he rest in peace at last.

Posted by Schweighsr on August 27, 2009 at 10:47 AM

An entertaining and competent, sometimes brilliant, writer. His novels were indeed great "beach reads" but they have stuck with me more than most of their ilk. THE TWO MRS. GRENVILLES and A SEASON IN PURGATORY were both spellbinding. I look forward to his final novel, TOO MUCH MONEY, due out in December, Rest in peace, Mr. Dunne.

Posted by abeltoleap on August 27, 2009 at 4:10 PM