The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

Storytelling is a recurring motif in the book and appears in various forms throughout. Griffin’s parents were both drawn to different forms of storytelling very early on in life: Lenny moved to New York to try her hand at theater, although she did not find much success at it. Nick, on the other hand, made television and movies his profession from the outset, first in Manhattan and then in Hollywood. Griffin displayed a tendency to tell “whopping lies” from an early age, such as his fictionalized meeting with the Kennedys at church. This tendency translated into a flair for performance and theater later in life, and both he and Dominique eventually made their way into the movies. It was not just the nuclear family, however; both John Dunne and Joan Didion were celebrated writers in their own right, showcasing how an affinity for storytelling ran in the family.

The recurrence of storytelling in different forms across different family members illustrates The Impact of Fame on Relationships. A storyteller requires an audience just as any performer does, and a talent for storytelling cannot be furthered without positive responses and applause from this audience. This was the case with all the Dunne family members who eventually made a form of storytelling their profession: Nick craved attention and success in a way that negatively affected his marriage, just as Griffin, years later, made a string of bad decisions because he was unable to handle the attention that came with his impactful storytelling—his performances in An American Werewolf in London and After Hours. Ultimately, however, both men found mediums that best suited them, even as they tempered their desire for applause and fame: Nick found success as a Vanity Fair writer, whereas Griffin went on to have a successful career long after the events of the memoir. His penning of the memoir in itself becomes another form of storytelling that he embraces.