Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne

March 13, 2017
Theater critic Hofler (The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson) treats readers to a thoroughly researched tour of the life of famous writer Dominick Dunne (1925–2001). Starting in Dunne’s childhood, Hofler then recounts his WWII Army combat service, work in early television, 1970s stint as a film producer, and late-in-life fame as a novelist (People Like Us) and a true-crime columnist at Vanity Fair. His writing career started with his coverage of the 1983 murder trial of the man who killed his daughter, the actress Dominique Dunne, and lasted until his death. Hofler gives readers a vivid sense of the struggles of life in the closet for a bisexual man of Dunne’s era. Otherwise, the book’s tone is chatty and gossipy, and Hofler seems to enjoy dropping famous names and salacious tidbits as much as his subject did. The first half of the book emphasizes Dunne’s turbulent personal life; later chapters shift their focus to the true-crime cases he covered, notably the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson trials. The book teems with interesting stories, but the narrative sometimes stumbles on awkward sentences and chronological glitches. The absence of any in-depth exploration of Dunne’s longtime romantic relationship with painter Norman Carby also feels like an odd omission, especially since Hofler interviewed him.

February 1, 2017
The gossip-filled, star-studded life of a writer who thrived on scandal.Journalist, novelist, and TV and film producer Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) had two favorite pursuits: gossip--the more salacious the better--and star-watching. Sharing his subject's fascination for celebrities behaving badly, TheWrap lead theater critic Hofler (Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange: How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos, 2014, etc.) proves to be an apt and entertaining chronicler of Dunne's eventful, turbulent, and often sorrowful life. As a child, Dunne was belittled by his father, who called him a sissy, regularly whipped him, and incited his fear that he really was a girl trapped in a boy's body. "I never felt I belonged anywhere, even in my own family," Dunne admitted later. Hofler highlights Dunne's difficult relationship with his younger brother, writer John Gregory Dunne, husband of Joan Didion, from whom Dominick was estranged for many years. But Dunne's family interests Hofler less than his cavorting with celebrities. On the set of Ash Wednesday (1973), which Dunne produced, Elizabeth Taylor was demanding and roaring drunk. She began with bloody marys in the morning (a 16-ounce glass of vodka with a splash of tomato juice) followed by wine at lunch and Jack Daniels all afternoon. At one party (the book is filled with them), the sexually insatiable Rudolf Nureyev sequestered himself in a cottage "and quickly inspired two dozen men to offer him their bodies." A closeted homosexual, Dunne married, had two sons, and tried, unsuccessfully, to play the family man until his wife divorced him. One son violently resented him for many years; the other, more charitably, realized that his father's "big mouth, getting hammered and telling stories out of school" ensured his popularity. Dunne's reputation as a journalist soared when he covered sensational murder trials for Vanity Fair, including O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bulow, Phil Spector, Michael Skakel, and, not least, the man accused of murdering Dunne's daughter. A spirited biography of a complicated, combative, self-aggrandizing, and tormented man.

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Starred review from June 1, 2017

From the famous to the infamous, names drop across every page of Hofler's (lead theater critic; TheWrap; The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson) biography of reporter, novelist, and TV/film producer Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) in a way that would surely have delighted its subject. Dunne, well connected with a flair for gossip, inspired fandom in anyone obsessed, as he was, with the excessively human. Hofler clearly has a deep affection and appreciation for Dunne, and out of respect has not shied away from being frank about the man with a talent for confessions. This unauthorized portrait is heavily researched and well documented, deftly tracing Dunne's early days in television, his rise and fall in Hollywood, to his third act as writer and reporter. Through failure, defeat, and tragedy Dunne transformed and withstood. Along the way he served as the social chronicler of his age. VERDICT A must-read for anyone interested in American celebrity culture, and for fans of Dunne, who raged against verdicts and triumphed over the worst of them.--Todd Simpson, York Coll., CUNY

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