Dominick Dunne should have the book thrown at him
Written: Sep 01 '01 (Updated Feb 12 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Did not give me a paper cut.
Cons: Didn't give anything else, either. Contains no new information, and showcases Dunne's callous self-absorption.
The Bottom Line: More than half of book is about O.J.'s murder trial. All essays have been printed before, many of them twice. Need more to dissuade you? Read on.
|
|
|
| eplovejoy's Full Review: Dominick Dunne - Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Puni... |
When Dominique Dunne, daughter of Dominick and his ex-wife, Ellen ("Lenny"), was murdered, news accounts emphasized that she was the niece of writers John Gregory Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion. Dominick Dunne complained to a publicist friend of his who convinced media organizations to change their approach. "It's hurtful to us," Dunne said. "It's as if we had not only lost her but been denied parentage as well."
A few pages later in his essay about the murder trial of his daughter's killer, Dunne refers to murdered journalist Sarai Ribicoff. He describes her only as the "niece of Senator Abraham Ribicoff."
Dunne's obliviousness to the feelings of others taints every one of the 18 essays about high-profile murder cases involving the rich and famous that are reprinted in Justice: Crimes, Trials and Punishments. All the pieces appeared first in Vanity Fair and many have been published also in Dunne's previous books.
In his thrice-told tales, Dunne is ostensibly writing about trials involving O.J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Claus von Bulow, Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel and others. But he is always writing mostly about himself. Dunne is like a grade-school gossip, eager to show how important he is by passing along what the cool kids have told him. The tidbits he passes along are so irredeemably inconsequential they make "Johnny says Mark likes Sally and wants to sit next to her at the pep rally" seem of lasting historical significance.
That previous crack is unfair to grade-school gossips. Even a junior high snitch can be expected to have some concern for the feelings of others. Dunne has none. He feels "great disappointment" writing about one case. His unease doesn't stem from the fact that a woman was murdered. No, Dunne is disappointed that rumors she was performing oral sex when she was brutalized turned out to be false.
Dunne mentions that he once held forth over a catered dinner on the ongoing double-murder trial of Simpson. Dunne cares not a bit that Simpson's older son is one of the waiters and must listen to Dunne pontificate about his father's guilt. One doesn't have to sympathize with the older Simpson to recognize that the younger man has done nothing to deserve Dunne's deliberate callousness.
In yet another of many instances, Dunne manipulates a young man to provide him a secret report on the murder of Martha Moxley, whom Skakel is charged with killing in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1975. Dunne swears not to reveal the young man's identity to anyone, but he breaks his promise. Dunne writes that the young man -- practically a boy, really -- was "deeply frightened that something bad could happen to him . . . and he had reason to be." Dunne knew that revealing the young man's name would jeopardize his career and perhaps his life, but it served Dunne's interests to do it anyway. So he did. But he hastens to assure us, "I felt awful."
When he's not hurting people, Dunne is demonstrating that he is gifted with remarkable omniscience. For example, Dunne mentions former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, whose repeated use of a racist epithet helped to turn the Simpson trial into a circus. Dunne writes, "I knew for sure that the n-word would never pass Mark Fuhrman's lips again." That's the kind of certainty a god would envy.
One could, I suppose, abide an insensitive know-it-all if what that person had to report were new or important. But there is none of that in Dunne's reporting. He fixes his attention on murder cases involving people of privilege, and much of the interest in his reports appears to be rooted in curiosity about what the people in what used to be called "the smart set" have to say to each other. Without fail, what they have to say in Dunne's accounts is insipid. Their remarks are never more revealing than, "Of course I would get up and leave if O.J. came in here. " Or, "I know where the murder weapon is, but I won't say."
Presumably, anyone interested enough in these cases to read Dunne's dreary re-hashes in Justice also was interested enough to have watched or read a news account or two. That means that in all of Dunne's 337 pages, there is only one scrap of information that might not be familiar to anyone who cares.
The potentially new information is about Claus von Bulow, who was found "not guilty" of poisoning his multi-millionaire wife, Sunny, with insulin, and who was played by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons in the 1990 movie Reversal of Fortune. The revelation: von Bulow worked in the law firm that in the 1950s handled the first case alleging murder by insulin injection.
That fact was not entered as evidence in either of the trials against von Bulow because it has no legal significance. It might help in the court of public opinion by enabling people who suspect von Bulow to feel more certain that he really did it. But that's not worth wading through Dunne's self-important but irrelevant reporting.
Dunne's daughter was murdered. By most accounts, the judge was dazzled by the spotlight on a high-profile trial and botched it, securing for the killer a sentence much lighter than is usual. And now Dunne has prostate cancer.
Empathy or sympathy could prevent one from judging Dunne's work harshly. One can indeed feel sorry for him. But just because he's suffered doesn't mean his readers should have to.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
eplovejoy
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Peter William Warn
Location: Buffalo, New York
Reviews written: 351
Trusted by: 304 members
About Me:
Help us compile the definitive list of groundbreaking movies: http://www99.epinions.com/content_5192196228
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.