Another City, Not My Own

by Dominick Dunne

"Thoroughly absorbing."
-- Time

"MISCHIEVOUSLY GOSSIPY."
-- The New York Times

"MOUTHWATERING."
-- Entertainment Weekly

Gus Bailey, journalist to high society, knows the sordid secrets of the very rich. Now he turns his penetrating gaze to a courtroom in Los Angeles, witnessing the trial of the century unfold before his startled eyes. As the infamous case and characters begin to take shape, and a range of celebrities from Frank Sinatra to Heidi Fleiss share their own theories of the crime, Bailey bears witness to the ultimate perversion of principle and the most amazing gossip machine in Hollywood--all wrapped in a marvelously addictive true-to-life tale of love, rage, and ruin. . . .

Genres: Fiction, True Crime, Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Audiobook, Law

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 12, 1997

About the author

Dominick Dunne was an American writer and investigative journalist whose subjects frequently hinged on the ways high society interacts with the judiciary system. He was a producer in Hollywood and is also known from his frequent appearances on television.

After his studies at Williams College and service in World War II, Dunne moved to New York, then to Hollywood, where he directed Playhouse 90 and became vice president of Four Star Pictures. He hobnobbed with the rich and the famous of those days. In 1979, he left Hollywood, moved to Oregon, and wrote his first book, The Winners. In November 1982, his actress daughter, Dominique Dunne, was murdered. Dunne attended the trial of her murderer (John Thomas Sweeney) and subsequently wrote Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of his Daughter's Killer.

Reviews

[christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dominick, Dominick, Dominick. (Shakes head and sighs). What a piece of work.

Here is the precise formula my new bestie used to write his late-1990s Anti-Ode to OJ Simpson, the novel-ish memoir Another City Not My Own:

Excerpt from "Vanity Fair" editorial on the trial.
Scene in which Dominick Dunne, wearing the name of journalist Gus Bailey for the purposes of this piece, is conversing with someone along the lines of Nancy Reagan or Heidi Fleiss at a fancy schmancy Los Angeles eatery.
Said famous person will ply him for details about the trial, which he is watching from Goldman-family/Brown family-side seats in the downtown L.A. courtroom.
He dishes on jurors' expressions, who OJ makes eye contact with, and some juicy nugget someone told him.
He returns to his hotel room at Chateau Marmont and receives a telephone call from another source who wants to dish goodies on the key players.
If the nugget is a reliable bit of info, he puts it under his tongue for use in his "Vanity Fair" missives or those moments when he is called upon to perform at dinner parties; If it is whack job hypothesis or hearsay, he tells the source: "I'll use it in the novel I'm writing about the case."

It's all very self-referential, a snake swallowing it's own tail (tale?), and name droppy. In the arthritic claw of another writer, it would be satire. A caricature. A story about an insufferable writer who needs to keep reminding people that Frank Sinatra hates him and that the Bloomingdale family has forgiven him for turning them into characters in another of his novels. In Dunne's hands, it is exactly who he is: A starfucker.

Both Dunne and the character he built in his own likeness have a shared desire to see OJ in stripes. Too many high-power people getting away with too many crimes. Both Dunne and Gus have a daughter who was strangled to death by an exboyfriend who ended up serving just a two-year sentence which led to a furious pursuit of justice -- particularly in cases where someone famous confuses a jury with a Heisman Trophy smile.

Both Dunne and Gus make plenty of enemies along the way. When the story opens, Gus is dead. A deviation from his own story -- and a deviation that didn't stick. In Dunne's final novel "Too Much Money," which was released in 2009 after his death, Gus is alive! It's a miracle!

There is this particularly insufferable moment when he is with his ailing ex-wife Peach. Their son is missing. He went on a hiking trip five days earlier and hasn't returned. He doesn't have food or water with him. The remaining members of the Dunne-er-Bailey family have gathered at Peach's house, but they haven't told her what is going on in the main rooms of the house. The phone calls, the food, the traffic. Finally he sits down with her and instead of just blurting the bad news, he reels off a list of names of people he's seen recently and meals he has enjoyed. Marcia Clark's clothing and a memory about Zsa Zsa Gabor's funeral. Finally he tells her, barely starting a new sentence to convey the information "Zander is missing." Then it's back to the talk-talk-talk and he closes with a memory of an infamous party they threw in the 1960s. She smiles.

Despite this, despite all of this repetition and name dropping and hackneyed plot points and me-me-me-ism, I still am charmed by the old coot -- both Gus and Dunne. I think it's because I'm getting to know him so well.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you can call something as barbarous as being glued to the OJ Simpson Trial a guilty pleasure, well, that was me. Granted, I had a full time job so I wasn't glue-glued, but I surely read everything I could get my hands on about the trail and the personalities involved. Dominck Dunne is a shameless namedropper. I like this book very much. It definitely scratched an itch for me.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first book by Dominick Dunne. And I realized that the life of Gus Bailey (the fictional writer/journalist main character) is very similar to that of Dominick Dunne. So I imagine that Dunne created Bailey based on his own personal experiences, many of which were devastatingly heartbreaking.

The book did its job by bringing back all of the memories we all must remember when Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were murdered in Brentwood and the trial of OJ Simpson. This book is like a back-stage pass to the courtroom drama, as Gus Bailey had a primo seat throughout the trial (as did Dominick Dunne in real life). So even though the book is described as "a novel in the form of a memoir" ... it is probably more memoir than novel.

Bailey hobnobs will the rich and famous of LA and Hollywood, who were all riveted by the trial of the century. His dance card is full every night where all anyone wants to do is dish about the trial. (Lots and lots of name-dropping)

As usual when I read, I googled alot, so I watched quite a few youtube clips from the trial. I can't say it was a fun read, since it rehashed such a horrific event, but it was interesting because of the insightfulness Dunne told through Gus Bailey.

I've had this book forever, and it is an autographed copy from one of the great journalists of the day. RIP Dominick Dunne. I'm glad you got to tell your story of this trial of the century.

[Tara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was not impressed by this book at all wherein the fictional alter-ego of the author covers every sordid, over reported instant of the O.J. Simpson trial. His narrator's commentaray which is peppered with, "I would have him/her say this in my book" not only stretches the line between fact and fiction to it's limit, but is also an annoying device. I wish he had just wrote the book from the character's point of view and not his narrator's own. If you lived through the trial, don't waste your time on this one.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not the story of the O J Simpson trial. Rather it is the story of Dunne's covering the story, the interaction not only with the people involved in the trial, and his celebrated friends' reactions to the case. I liked it better than any of his other books.

[Sara Cochran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might have loved it more the second time. I love Dunne and miss his presence on this earth.

[Rachel Xoconostle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm this was kind of weird. I was interested in this book after finishing the Friday Afternoon Club, as this one was written by that author’s father. There was some interesting details in here that surround the OJ case though the book wasn’t exactly “about” the case because most details of what was actually covered in the case were not included in this book. This was rather about the journalists experience following the case, pulling on his interactions and opinions and hearsay. It’s odd that he created a fictional character to stand in for himself , especially with the ending that he had.

[Tom Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dominick Dunne had been sent to LA by Vanity Fair to cover the O.J. Simpson trial. He tells his story as a "novel" which allows his to use real names, but because these real people are speaking to a fictional character, this allows Dunne to include all types of gossip and hearsay for which a non-fiction book would require independent verification. By creating a "novel in the form of a memoir", he allows himself the freedom to experience the social culture of LA over time and in three separate lives Dunne lived there: the first as a producer in the 1970s (he produced "Panic in Needle Park" and "The Boys in the Band"), the second in the 80s, when his daughter Dominique, star of "Poltergeist" was murdered by an abusive boyfriend (whose actions mirror those of OJ) and, finally, returning to LA as a heralded author while covering the trial.

Yes, he name-drops all over the place but that's part of the point. While we "meet" everyone from Princesses Diana and Margaret to Nancy Reagan, Betsy Bloomingdale, Gore Vidal, Liz Taylor, Norman Lear, Gregory Peck, etc, etc, etc, the point of this is to show the cult of celebrity in society, particularly around a crime where almost everyone Dunne's fictional counterpart runs into has a piece of information. We meet a guard who overheard OJ confess to his pastor, the Rev. Rosie Grier while in jail; we learn how Liz Taylor introduced Johnnie Cochran to the LA social scene; how Doris Duke's gay male secretary ended up being Liz's butler and introducing Andrew Cunanan to people in LA; the claim (told by several Brits) that after the Rolling Stones played the Super Bowl, the guy who drove the Bronco weasled his way (with a large bag of cocaine) backstaged and told the "true" story of the murders to Keith Richards!

While the incessant name-dropping does get repetitive, if you're the kind of person who can keep up with the pagaent of celebrities, you'll love this. Dunne, for his part includes enough about his own failings and faults that the "memoir" aspect holds up: his compulsion with the OJ stories that leave him enraged at the verdict; the pain when E! TV in an attempt to capitalize on his TV popularity as a trial commentator begins a documentary about his daughter's murder; his guilt at throwing away his first career on booze and drugs, his long-standing estrangement from his brother, the writer John Gregory Dunne (who wrote "Panic" and "True Confessions" and who was married to Joan Didion), and his divorce from his wife and her subsequent debilitation from MS.

I enjoyed this book even though I understand why many other readers didn't.

[Chamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to listen to, love the dish! Now I have to read the Nicole Brown Simpson book.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

After watching the OJ Miniseries, this book was recommended to me. An interesting "fictional" following of the OJ Trial.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a guilty pleasure. I could not put it down.

[Rebecca I · Rating 4 out of 5]

It could have been written using all the info as a non fiction book and avoided the last scenes of the gory end of life. Not that much of it wasn't gory already. Funny that I read this now, long after the OJ trial is over, yet I remember it as if it were yesterday. What is more interesting to me is how I was attracted to Joan Didion's writings which led me to explore further and then I read about Griffin Dunne and then about his father. I find myself catching up on history I was too young or too immersed in day to day life to care about, and now I find it fascinating on a weird level. All these "stars" and people who thought so much of themselves because of money or celebrity -- and where do they end up?? Tormented in life at times and dead like the rest of us. I do think that the events of the author's life let him see the irony of much of his life with its ups and downs. The not-celebrity people often imagine those who have money or fame have a happy, easy life. After reading many autobiographies and biographies, I know that not to be true. Money helps to enrich life in some ways, but causes big problems in others. I think this is the fascination about reading about famous persons. We then see their trials and tribulations and that life is not a bed of roses for anyone.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very chatty, name-dropping, genre bending. It says something that while I don't read People magazine or the society columns, I became engrossed in the story behind the story (of the OJ trial). It makes me want to make room on my nightstand for Dunne's other novels. Clever.

[Steve Shilstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitled: A Novel in the form of a Memoir
Proper subtitle: A Memoir in the form of a Novel
Oh, oh, sad. Oh, oh, OJ. Oh, oh, empty Hollywood. Oh, oh, murder most foul.

[Mobeme53 Branson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horrific

A novel about a fictional writer surrounding the O.J. Simpson trial. Too much name dropping and pandering to famous names. He even manages to work Andrew Cunanan, Versace's murderer, into the story. By the way, O.J. did it.

[Henry O'Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoever is saying that the following is a compacted, repetitive sequence of high society name-dropping, fails to understand the context behind Dominick Dunne. And in case the reader is wondering whether the fictional character, Gus Bailey, is based off the real Dominick Dunne, you are correct in your guessing. Just imagine that this is Dunne, because everything that is written, including all the sass and the diva style drama that is involved in Gus Bailey’s life, was in fact a reality throughout Dunne’s experiences of being amongst the socialite circles of Los Angeles and New York City.

The past twenty-seven years has made the O.J Simpson trial age like fine wine, and to reignite this Nineties nostalgia is possible through the way Dominick Dunne writes. He was an intimate source in the way the trial was reported and has since become a cultural treasure for “True Crime” as a genre and to “Rich people” homicide cases. His prose and style were sharp throughout the entirety of the book, since his subjective tone of O. J’s guilt was highlighted from the beginning of the famous Bronco chase – witnessing what the other 95 million Americans were witnessing, Gus Bailey, as we see his character unfold, became obsessed by this new fixture to L.A. folklore – his quest for justice was second to none.

Gus Bailey’s romance with law and order, and especially, with O.J, O.J, and more O.J, lassoes your own judgments to be as equal to his own, the whole “innocent until proven guilty” catch is thrown out the door as you ride the wave of Gus Bailey’s distress and trauma of the tumultuous, ten-month trial. You are a fly-on-the-wall in the entirety of this book, a counterpart to Gus perhaps, as he sits at restaurants with famous Hollywood elite, eating, lunching, and dining with the many names that he causally he drops – of whom existed and were current at the time. Nancy Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, the prosecutors Marcia Clark, and Christopher Darden, whom Gus admired throughout the whole trial, besotted by their virtue and shared fight for justice, and even members of the defense, such as Robert Kardashian, Robert Shapiro, and F. Lee Bailey. As the once “man about town,” Gus Bailey, who is Dominick Dunne to a tee, knows everyone.

Another City, Not My Own, was a travel back in time to Los Angeles in the Nineties. A fading combination of old Hollywood and new, the book transports you to legendary landmarks within the City of Angels. You quite literally feel like that you are attending these court room trials, dramas, and T.V/radio interviews with Gus. There are even times when you can feel as though you are riding in the back seat of the Mercedes with Gus, gossiping about the insights of the entire trial, and sipping on cocktails in the lobby of the Chateau Marmont. Dunne’s portrayal of Los Angeles is executed beautifully, even while it was a city that he regularly described with complete loathing.

There is a bigger story here than the O.J trial, the story is Gus Bailey (Dominick Dunne), and his reflections on his personal highs and lows. No one lived a more tumultuous life, filled with adversity after adversity, more than him. From his rise to fall as a movie producer in Hollywood, to his degenerate drugtaking stage, he went broke, lost everything, lost his beloved daughter who was murdered by a jealous ex-boyfriend, and who subsequentially went to serve a two-and-half-year sentence in jail – a slap on the wrist – in the words of Dominick. The hardships that are played out throughout this novel, in which Dunne subtitles it as also being a memoir, presents the richness of one’s own suffering, and how one can recover from the greatest falls.

He loved those trials so much that he had to base a fictional character on himself to relive each stage of the ten-month proceeding during the O.J trial. At times, he writes with such fury and passion, at others it can be sloppy and quite unnecessary, but overall, a marvellous escapade of that specific period in America’s history, and a monumental one, indeed. A note to the reader: some background research before reading any of Dunne’s works is required. He may come across pompous and highbrow, but his intent is sincere. And all that name dropping that everyone seems to hate is a part of Dunne’s signatory style.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely addictive audio book, narrated by the author himself. About the OJ Simpson trial, and a slice of time; if you were alive during the trial, you'll recognize each and every character (unless you were under a rock): Judge Ito, Robert Kardashian, the Goldman family, Marsh Clark, Johnny Cochran, the whole kit and kaboodle of them, up to and including OJ himself. The book is sprinkled with Hollywood elite - Elizabeth Taylor, Nancy Reagan, Kirk Douglas, etc. etc. etc. Kris Jenner and Harvey Levin make appearances as well, their true fame (infamy?) to come much later (I wonder if Dunne knew how famous each of them would become).Keep on listening until the very end - I shrieked aloud with the kind of pleasure you get from a perfect (and perfectly surprising) ending. I never in a million years saw THAT coming.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I really liked several other Dominick Dunne books and adored his Court TV series, but this book just left me unimpressed and irritated with the ending. I suppose I should have done some research on this one, but I was in the bookstore and saw it on the shelf and had to have. THis was really hard to get through, what with all the name dropping. Also, the dialogue in this was just a little flimsy. I was really hoping for more. As other reviewers said, the "I will put this in my novel" or the Vanity Fair article excerpts were overused and in the end, I hated Gus.

"A Season in Purgatory" or "The Two Mrs Greenvilles" are much much better books

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dominick Dunne is one of my guilty pleasures of reading. His books are always a voyeuristic look into the lives and lifestyles of the rich and famous. Like so many of his other books, once I picked it up I could not put it down. Reliving the trial of OJ Simpson through the eyes of Dunne's antagonist, Gus Baily brought back the fascination and obsession we had with every aspect of this case. Only Dunne can fill in so many side stories, supporting players and the details of the Trial of the Century. Taking liberties of writing as a fictional memoir only fuels the fire of celebrity gossip, speculation and of course the consequences of the jury's verdict.

[Jon]

This book is a hopeless mishmash of fact and fiction that sells both genres short. No worries about Dunne overtaking Joe McGinniss' FATAL VISION or BLIND FAITH, Clark Howard's ZEBRA, Robert Graysmith's ZODIAC, or Diana Trilling's MRS. HARRIS in the true-crime sweepstakes. I don't agree with Ishmael Reed's notion that OJ might possibly be innocent, but I agree with Reed's attack on Dunne and this book. Read Marcia Clark's WITHOUT A DOUBT, Christopher Darden's IN CONTEMPT...or Dunne's nonfiction pieces about OJ collected in his book JUSTICE, but skip this.

[Sera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dunne wrote this book after the OJ trial in California. He provides an interesting look at life in Hollywood, murder and the justice system. It always amazes me how Dunne gets away with writing these books based on real life people and that people still talk to him and invite him to their parties. One never knows what he is going to disclose next, which is one reason why I really enjoy his books.

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speaking as an Australian who only knew the bare bones of the O.J.Simpson saga and who missed the recent mini series about it,I found this treatment of the drama strangely compelling.It's easy to read as all his books are and very interesting.Even the relentless name dropping is interesting as a window on a world completely beyond me.He also seems a likeable guy.I did see many years ago a documentary of his life that he made which drew me to his life.

[Geoff Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first 10 chapters are littered with gratuitous name-dropping, clumsy dialogue, overwrought exposition, unsympathetic characters, and nothing resembling a coherent plot. Presumably the other 19 chapters are similarly constructed.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did NOT realize this was a profile of the OJ Simpson case when I picked it up, but then, in the end the case winds up serving second role to the narrator’s social life and critiques of the case. Dunne uses one of his old reliable characters from another society novel, Gus Bailey, to stand in as his alter ego. In all aspects otherwise, the name dropping is authentic and prolific. It’s slightly confusing that Dunne connects his various story arcs and shamelessly promotes his other (much better) novels such as People Like Us and The Two Mrs Greenvilles, particularly when Dunne created a much different conclusion for Bailey in the former novel. It’s disjointed to meet Bailey again and find he has very different feelings about the man who killed his daughter and walked after a two-year sentence. This winds up playing a major role in Bailey’s passionate opinions on the OJ case so it’s worth mentioning, and further has resonance with Dunne’s own personal history. Lots of baggage to unpack.
Dunne’s brilliance in the two novels mentioned above shines in his character development. He gives the reader more than just a glimpse behind the velvet rope, he creates an understanding of the sentiments and motivations of the upper crust.
The OJ Simpson case involved a very different set of players, West Coast not East Coast, different era, and very different milleu. All that said, Dunne never delves into the actual personalities involved in the case, even though they were larger than life and there was plenty of material. Instead he casts his alter ego as the central character and goes on and on and on and on and on about the glittering social events and people he rubs elbows with. Given how staunchly he holds the moral high ground in so many instances, it’s surprising he has no issue repeating unconfirmed theories and says on many occasions how the OJ case elevated his social status into the stratosphere. Seems crass to say the least. It’s also just not very well written. Sloppy notes slapped together on the fly and lots of very self-reverential excerpts of Bailey telling friends exactly how he’s going to shape that latest tidbit of gossip as another scene in his tell all. Great, just do that then! Show, don’t tell! It’s very distracting, as is the extent of the name dropping. He can’t just give you a roster of everyone in the room, he has to detail every event he ever attended with them and why they are so chummy, and whether they dropped him when he was down and out. It just gets boring and sad after awhile, all this trying so hard to prove himself.
Bailey/Dunne’s obsession with the case mounts as the verdict looms and he becomes less like able with each passing page, especially the way he handles his son’s disappearance and major family events as afterthoughts to his social schedule.
And then, the plot thickens. The narrator meets his end, so to speak, in a moment that Dunne has set up with three possible perpetrators. The resolution isn’t a surprise, it just doesn’t make much sense or relate back to the trial exactly, or Dunne/Bailey’s past with unsettled justice, it’s a real head scratcher.
The best indictment of Dunne’s ardent desire for justice is the last scene. Bailey’s would be biographer discovers the identity of the perpetrator and faces a dilemma: call the police or save the reveal for the last chapter of his book?! Would a true justice seeker have to contemplate their own reward/fame/bestseller projections in that calculation?

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was about fourteen pages into Dominick Dunne’s Another City, Not My Own, struggling a little, when it hit me. Something about the writing, something about the protagonist, Gus Bailey, was reminding me of someone, and in Chapter 2 it dawned on me who. (Whom? Dominick Dunne is big on his whoms, but oh well.) Anyway: Truman Capote! I felt like I'd stepped back twenty or thirty years to my Truman Capote phase, when I was reading everything he wrote, and everything about him that I could find. What writer drops names, what writer is as starstruck as Truman Capote? Why, Dominick Dunne, apparently.

From page 14 on I was hooked. Of course I was already familiar with Dominick Dunne from his pieces in Vanity Fair, but I had never till now read a novel of his. The O.J. Simpson case can be addictive in itself, and since I've been through an O.J. phase as well as a Truman Capote phase (and many, many other unrelated phases) and have not totally lost interest in the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ron Goldman murders, I was pleased to shell out a whopping buck fifty at Salvation Army, where I came across Another City, Not My Own.

There wasn't much new there, at least of substance. But Dominick Dunne knew everybody who was anybody (including Truman Capote, of COURSE), so at various points in Another City, Not My Own, I found myself enlightened as to what Nancy Reagan, or Princess Diana, or Elizabeth Taylor, or Queen Noor of Jordan, just for starters, had to say to Dominick (excuse me, "Gus") about their views on O.J. and the Trial of the Century.

Personally, I am not in love with royalty, or Hollywood, or the rich and the famous for being rich and famous, but I now love Dominick Dunne, at least a little. He is soooo Truman Capote-esque; I will have to keep an eye out at Salvation Army for more of his books. As I read Another City, Not My Own, I found myself wondering during those long dialogues between Gus and his famous friends if Dominick was—as Truman was, according to Truman—blessed with total recall, able to remember conversations verbatim without notes.

As for the verdict, I do not see how it could have gone any other way, considering the times. Black men beyond number, year after year, decade after decade, century upon century, have been wrongfully punished—tortured and lynched at the whim of rogue whites (who themselves so often have gone unpunished for their crimes against African Americans), and incarcerated or put to death by the state—for crimes they have not committed.

O.J. Simpson, personally, may have been an unenthusiastic, unengaged, and unwilling African American, a black man who preferred white society almost exclusively, but to his fellow African Americans, he was a hero. His acquittal may have been a travesty of justice, but for America’s people of color, who so desperately needed a very public win for one of the first times ever, the verdict of “not guilty” at the end of that race-driven, divisive trial was something to be relished and celebrated.

Nicole and Ron were dead and beyond pain, so the true victims were their loved ones, who with O.J.’s acquittal did not see justice done. The innocent suffer when a murder is done. Nicole and Ron died, their loved ones suffered, O.J. and his team triumphed, and millions of Americans—if they were not white—for once were able to rejoice.

Life is complicated, and Lady Justice is not blind.

[Graceann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A "novel in the form of a memoir;" this is genius. Bear with me.

Dominick Dunne, for all the snark thrown at him over his career, for choosing gossipy, tabloid-friendly stories, and then covering them in sensationalist, sometimes sloppy ways, had a touch of the genius about him. Another City, Not My Own may be replete with repetition, a downpour of dropped names, and a lead character who loves himself quite a lot but, I repeat, it's got a touch of the genius about it. Bear with me.

If this had been written as a straightforward memoir, pure non-fiction, Dunne would have had to worry about being sued and about fact-checking. With as many names as he names here - everyone from the principals in the murders to the West Coast/East Coast elite among whom he mingles with a little too much enthusiasm - the indexing alone would have been a nightmare. As a novel, however, no matter what brickbats are thrown at him, he can claim literary license. Seriously, genius.

"Gus Bailey," the character in the lead here, lost a daughter who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, has two sons (one of whom, "Grafton," is a successful director who had a role in American Werewolf in London), and has been away from Los Angeles for a long time after losing his career to alcoholism and other personal issues. Strange, how all these things, other than the names, were true for Dominick Dunne, too. "Gus" is requested by his, and Dunne's, magazine, Vanity Fair, to attend the trial of O.J. Simpson for the murders of Brown and Goldman. Gus, like Dunne, is there for a year, and believes from the very start, based on the overwhelming evidence, that Simpson is guilty.

Just about everything depicted here happened in the real world, right down to Dunne's reaction to the verdict, and his incendiary anger when speaking to the media afterward. The books that Gus has written in the past are given the titles of Dunne's own books, and are about the same subjects. Dunne's family is used, with names slightly changed. Dunne's feelings about various people in the trial, the media, and his own family are written into Gus's story.

There's plenty to complain about here, but I couldn't bring myself to care too much, frankly, beyond the deduction of a star. The story was too entertaining, too compelling, too jaw-dropping, for me to do much more than roll my eyes when I encountered repetition (how many times do we need to be reminded that Gus's home is in Prud'homme, Connecticut?) or self-aggrandizement. Some scenes strained credulity and one was so ridiculous that I laughed out loud, but I can't deny that I enjoyed reading this. Dunne is such a raconteur, at times such a self-parody, that I can't help but offer a grudging admiration for this roman a clef.

[Judi Hensley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something made me think of the late Dominick Dunne the other day, who was a favorite author of mine back in the day. Long before he wrote Another City, Not My Own, he wrote several thinly disguised books about rich socialites behaving badly. I devoured these books then and also remember devouring this later book about “The Crime of the Century” aka the OJ Simpson trial.

Like everyone else during that time, I was glued to the TV day after day, first watching the infamous white Bronco vs police chase, then the televised trial. At the time I despised OJ’s lawyers, and even more so, OJ himself. I always thought OJ was guilty without any shadow of a doubt. I thought in light of so many cases of police brutality and cover ups in the years that have passed that perhaps a re-read of this book may change my mind or shed some doubt on his guilt. But nope, didn’t happen. I still think he’s guilty as sin and hearing how it played out and the horrible moment of hearing that shocking verdict made me feel sick all over again. I will never forget the Goldmans, the poor family of Ron Goldman who was so viciously killed in cold blood. My heart bled for them then and while reading it all again it still does.

Dominick Dunne is a master storyteller, no doubt about it. That said, second time around all the name dropping got tiresome. Gus Bailey, while mostly likable, came off as hypocritical this time around. I don’t remember thinking that when I read it years ago. I think I can attribute that to the passage of time. This book has not held up that well over time, but it’s still great story telling and I found myself still flipping the pages just as fast as I did 25 years ago when the book was first published. I’m not sorry I revisited it, but don’t think I will be re-reading any of Dunne’s other books. Some things are better left as a nice memory. RIP Dominick Dunne, thank you for all the years of guilty pleasure I got from reading your books, but I’m happy to say my reading and general line of thinking has evolved.

[Chrissie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings. I actually enjoyed the name-dropping and the fancy-party-attending parts. A fun little window into a world far from my own. Fun enough that it kept me reading.

But the parts about the trial, oof. First, I'm sure they would make no sense to someone who didn't already know about the case. Trial characters and details pop in without explanation or context. I get that Dunne is not a lawyer, but the constant assertions that "he" knew what happened (not just at the time of the murder, but also during the aftermath) and what jurors would/should have done, fell flat without being backed up by discussions of the evidence. Ditto the repeated assertions that the entire defense team was knowingly lying to the court. That's a huge accusation, and one that's not backed up here. (Certainly his accusations that defense attorneys routinely lie for their clients is false and irresponsible.)

Finally, Dunne's overall approach to the justice system was hard to accept. His views were skewed by his family tragedy and by having watched a few, super-high-profile trials. Sometimes he acknowledges these limits. But more often he makes broad pronouncements about the criminal justice system and how it does (or does not) work based on having seen an incredibly small sliver of what the justice system is/does (the vast majority of cases do not end in trial, and even fewer come to national prominence).

For whatever reason, I remembered Andrew Cunanan's name, and I saw some version of the final twist coming.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book 30 years after the trial of OJ Simpson allowed me to see the parallels that persisted beyond the event itself. What makes a group of people support someone who is most likely a murderer? The author's contention is that the African-American members of the jury believed they would become unwelcome in their own neighborhoods if they voted to convict OJ. Hatred of the LAPD and the judicial system ran deep. Meanwhile, all the wealthy white people foamed and frothed about a murderer being acquitted because he could afford a high-priced legal team, without out a trace of irony in their aggrieved scolding. After his own daughter's murder, Dominick Dunne made a second career out of covering celebrity trials. He drops names like rain, and ferrets out the juiciest nuggets of gossip simply be being available, charming, and a good listener. I happened to find this thinly fictionalized memoir at a library sale, but it's worth looking for to read with 30 years of hindsight.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

#10 of 120 books pledged to read during 2018

I've read this at least 4 times but picked it up again since I tend to read it every couple of years or so. This book is a VERY thinly disguised account of the author, called "Gus Bailey" here but it was actually Dominick Dunne himself, who covered the Simpson trial for Vanity Fair magazine. In fact it seems that mostly real names were used throughout, except that the Dunne family names had been changed. It is about the year or so that "Gus" spent writing about and appearing on numerous interview/talk shows to discuss the trial, and the many celebrity friends, also obsessed with talking about the trial, with whom he got together regularly. If you are acquainted with the case and with the others he talks about, the book is hard to put down. One of my favorites.