Another City, Not My Own [Mass Market Paperback]

Dominick Dunne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 1998

"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. . . .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dominick Dunne was a ringside witness to the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, about which he wrote extensively for Vanity Fair magazine. In Another City, Not My Own, he revisits the case, this time in fictional form. In this "novel in the form of a memoir," Dunne's fiction skates perilously close to fact in most instances. O.J., Marcia Clark, Johnnie Cochran, and a whole host of celebrity characters keep their own names while the life story of protagonist Gus Bailey closely follows Dunne's own. Like Dunne, Bailey--who has appeared in previous works by the author--is a journalist, the father of a murdered child and thus a keen chronicler of the American justice system. The O.J. Simpson trial is a natural magnet for such a man.

Throughout the novel, Bailey spends his days in the courtroom and his evenings at celebrity-studded soirees; names such as Heidi Fleiss, Elizabeth Taylor, and Kirk Douglas punctuate the narrative as Dunne comments on the case, the sensibilities of both the accused and his accusers, and the roles of race, fame, and guilt in America today. But shocking as the Simpson case was, Dunne's denouement to his fictional memoir is so bizarre that it may well eclipse the verdict entirely. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"He is one of those writers who seems effortlessly to collide with copy. Movie stars confide to his answering machine. Wanted men hail the same taxi. Heiresses unload their life stories in elevators. Except, of course, Dunne's luck is not luck. People love to talk to him because he has a gift for intimacy that is real and generous."
-Tina Brown, editor, The New Yorker

"Dunne's antennae are always turned to the offbeat story... He is magazine journalism's ace social anthropologist whose area of study is the famous and infamous up close and personal."
-San Francisco Chronicle

"A sharp and unfooled observer of decor and mores."
-Los Angeles Times

"Dunne is a genius."
-Newsday

"He knows every story there is to tell, precisely how it happened, and why."
-The New York Times Book Review


From the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Ballantine Books ed edition (November 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345430514
• ISBN-13: 978-0345430519
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,302,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) was the author of five bestselling novels, two collections of essays, and "The Way We Lived Then," a memoir with photographs. His final novel, "Too Much Money," will be published in December 2009. He was a Special Correspondent for "Vanity Fair" and lived in New York City and Hadlyme, Connecticut.

Photo (C) H. Thompson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you love GOSSIP...you'll love this!, June 7, 2000

By 

"carolynh2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Another City, Not My Own (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished listening to the book on tape for the SECOND TIME. I listen while I walk for exercise...and this made it easy. (added 30 min. to each walk) I loved the gossip and name dropping, and thought the inclusion of Andrew Kunanin was clever. For those of you who "bashed it"...lower your expectations and enjoy it for what it is...a GREAT RIDE! Long live the works of Dominick Dunne...he never fails to entertain me.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love Dominick Dunne!, June 30, 2005

By 

Cecilia Sheppard (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Another City, Not My Own (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read every word Dominick Dunne has ever written (at least the published ones). I simply devour this man's books like fine chocolates. This book was perhaps the most interesting of all the "O.J." books. It is vintage Dunne: a juicy, gossipy read that really gives you an idea of the atmosphere in Los Angeles at the time of the trial, and bemoans that fact that somehow Ron and Nicole got lost in all the hoopla. The ending has an unexpected twist. Very enjoyable--I can't wait for his next one.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, October 11, 2002

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Another City, Not My Own (Mass Market Paperback)

While at first glance, ANOTHER CITY, NOT MY OWN, seems to be a barely fictionalized first-person report by a writer covering the O.J. Simpson trial, it actually is far more significant than the news event it purportedly documents.

There is no escaping that this "novel" (in the form of a "memoir," the cover of the book tells buyers) is a personal anecdote about author Dominick Dunne. As a result, it is self-revelatory in the extreme. Dunne does not spare himself when he recounts his life. The story of his marriage, and of his daughter's murder, inescapably are touching. Once this novel--or memoir--has been completed, these are the details which stay with a reader, not the additional account of the Simpson trial.

There is no escaping that Dunne was born under some combined influence of stars and planets which has planted him, over and over, in places which allowed him to witness, from the inside, some of the most important social events of the 20th century. As a result, his memoir makes for fascinating reading.