dunne writes well in this page turner about the cross currents among the movers and shakers in los angeles. cops, priests, businessmen and murder are all blended together in this excellent read.

much better than the movie.

"True Confessions" wraps a first-rate murder mystery inside a complex family drama that transpires within the genteel power of the Catholic Church. The story is made memorable (and frequently hilarious) by John Gregory Dunne's chuckle-a-page expositions of Irish Catholic foibles. Lt. Tom Spellacy of the LAPD, a semi-corrupt but competent detective, jousts with his partner, his superiors in the department, and his brother, the Rt. Rev. Msr. Desmond Spellacy, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Dunne is to Irish Catholics as Philip Roth is to Eastern European Jews, and "True Confessions" is Dunne's "Goodbye Columbus"--a must-read.

The Spellacy Brothers: Tom, a copy and Des, a priest, find their lives and pasts entertwining amid the investigation of a grisly murder of "The Virgin Tramp." This book, based, in part on the infamous, never-solved, Black Dahlia murder in 1947 L.A., explores the byzantine and corrupt world of both the L.A. Police force and the Catholic church hierarchy. An outstanding mystery story, period piece and a true joy for anyone who knows and loves L.A. This book is also one of my spouses favorites and has been read by both of us many times. Unlike the general populace, we also loved and understood the movie which was superbly cast and shot.

This is a brilliant, brilliant book, deeply insightful about the Irish American experience. I was sorry to see that it is out of print.

If you like reading about "inside" Hollywood, this is a book I
highly recommend. Dunne goes inside 20th Century Fox and tells all. Actually quite funny.

Excellent, casual writing style. Great stories of the Zanucks and others, their gut-based and fact-less decision making and egos. An easy read on that quick plane trip from Hollywood to your Napa hideaway.

I loved the author's great storytelling of the crazy ways decisions were made by brilliant people, based on their gut instincts, experience and few facts. Dated, but great background to help explain why decisions are still made in crazy ways in Hollywood. Easy and fun reading about the Zanucks and their cohorts.

If you are familiar with John Gregory Dunne only through the novel and movie "True Confessions" you owe it to yourself to find a copy of this underrated, bleakly funny novel. Dutch Shea, Jr. is a down-on-his-luck lawyer with a bitter ex-wife, a beloved daughter murdered by terrorists, and a few secrets he would rather keep private. Over the course of a few days his existence is turned inside out when the true facts of his life are unburied (quite litterally, in the case of his dead father.) You will come to feel for Dutch as he struggles to keep from going under. Dunne makes despair comic, and when you finish this dark story, perversely, you will feel much better.

The title "Monster" is unintentionally ironic, as Dunne, a priviledged WASP insider, suffers little, financially or at the hands of Hollywood. The only "Monster" in this story is his unquestioning ego, which dominates the narrative like a power-broker at a cocktail party.

As a working screenwriter I've read the gamut of books on Hollywood. Some of the best, like "High Concept," and "The Gross," dish the dirt with a cold hand and are both gripping and informative; then there are first-person accounts like Max Adams' "The Screenwriter's Survival Guide," and the William Goldman books, which are self-mocking and full of personality as well as insight (although Goldman is a bit doddering). Dunne, however, plays his hand to his chest, disparages no one, most noticably HIMSELF or his wife (his writing partner/wife Joan Didion), and you learn little to nothing about the industry. Worse, Dunne drops more names than an usher retelling his evening at the Academy Awards. Futher running it out, Dunne often irrelevantly digresses into asides that serve only to pile on the list of the people he knows and places he's been. There are no real anecdotes, lessons or jokes involved with these mastubatory indulgences. Books like these thrive on the likability of the story teller, and if I saw Dunne at one of his many listed celebrity cocktail parties, I'd quickly turn the other way or leave. Truly the WORST and most dull of all the books I've read on the industry (other than Syd Field and his like). An utter waste of time. I returned it.

John Gregory Dunne is an arrogant, name-dropping monster, himself. So much of the book is poisoned by his self-congratulatory tone. While he was a full participant in all of the events he recounts, he drips superiority as if he were floating (sneeringly) above the action rather than right down in it. The book is so lazily written. Abrupt, disjointed sections; his pacing and sense of time only confuse the reader. He indulges great detail on boring scenes that show himself off while he quickly glances over the scenes that would interest the reader the most. We have absolutely no sense of his wife, Joan Didion. We learn nothing about how he actually writes a script. Nevertheless, I couldn't put the darn thing down. I read it in a few hours and was captivated. It doesn't give nearly enough detail, the analysis is slight, the conclusions absent. But, somehow, I whipped through it and was glad I did. The subject matter is so fascinating that--while he forces us to peer at it through the haze of his ego--I still enjoyed looking. Perhaps more than anything, I enjoyed luxuriating in my hatred of the author.

Few times have I been so compelled to finish a book as I finished this one. Of course, I have had a long time fascination with the inner workings of H-wood, which is to so many of us something of a mystery (including, I am sure, some of those who make a living there). This book offers an undressed view at two established and respected writers (John Dunne and his more well known wife Joan Didion) who over a span of eight years accept a screenwriting project and alternately work on it to its long delayed completion. Over the eight years, we get a sense of the "industry" as projects come and go and status' rise and fall and financial needs rather than passion or interest motivate what projects are to be taken and when. This by no means an account of your garden variety H-wood screenwriter. John Dunne and Joan Didion are both along in years and have work in the literary and screenwriting field for some time. Neither are starving young artists; however, they rely on the financing of the entertainment industry to maintain their comfortable lifestyle. What this book does is give us an opportunistic window to a project that in one way itself became a monster, and in another way became a perfect structure to provide an account of the typical dealings in H-wood.

It's up to the reader to decide if the author and his wife are "prima donnas." I did not get that sense. To keep from being taken advantage of, you must be tough, and maybe it rubs some people the wrong way. I do not understand how Dunne "name dropped" either. Many people he dealt with through the course of the book are names we recognize. Would it be preferred if he went the way of a gossip column by writing "a certain legendary so and so who..." and "a leggy blonde actress" type of lines?

One of the things that interested me about this story is the dispassionate though dogged effort with which the writer and his wife pursued Up Close & Personal. Usually books are written about great or even just notable movies. Maybe I should save this for another review, but Up Close & Personal is, to me, neither great nor even notable except to say that an insightful book about H-wood was written because of it. Another thing. I do not fault MONSTER for it, but I wish with it had been included one of the early drafts of the script when still centered on Jessica Savitch. That is a movie that sounds like it would be worthwhile.