Another City, Not My Own: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir [Hardcover]

Dominick Dunne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1997

This is the story of the Trial of the Century as only Dominick Dunne can write it. Told from the point of view of one of Dunne's most familiar fictional characters-Gus Bailey-Another City, Not My Own tells how Gus, the movers and shakers of Los Angeles, and the city itself are drawn into the vortex of the O.J. Simpson trial.

We have met Gus Bailey in previous novels by Dominick Dunne. He is a writer and journalist, father of a murdered child, and chronicler of justice-served or denied-as it relates to the rich and famous.  Now back in Los Angeles, a city that once adored him and later shunned him, Gus is caught up in what soon becomes a national obsession. Using real names and places, Dunne interweaves the story of the trial with the personal trials Gus endures as he faces his own mortality.

By day, Gus is at the courthouse, the confidant of the Goldman and Simpson families, the lawyers, the journalists, the hangers-on, even the judge; at night he is the honored guest at the most dazzling gatherings in town as everyone-from Kirk Douglas to Heidi Fleiss, from Elizabeth Taylor to Nancy Reagan-delights in the latest news from the corridors of the courthouse.

Another City, Not My Own does what no other book on this sensational case has been able to do because of Dominick Dunne's unique ability to probe the sensibilities of participants and observers. This book illuminates the meaning of guilt and innocence in America today. A vivid, revealing achievement, Another City, Not My Own is Dominick Dunne at his best.

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.

Review

By dubbing it "a novel in the form of a memoir"(it's obviously the converse) and telling it through his familiar alter ego, Gus Bailey, (An Inconvenient Woman), this high-society chronicler and inveterate name-dropper gets away with reporting all those toothsome, off-the-record bits of gossip that he couldn't sneak into his Vanity Fair trial bulletins. No one dined out more lavishly on Simpson than Dunne, the recipient of endless hushed and conspiratorial confidences at the Palm and the Bel-Air and a nonstop whirl of parties.... Guiltily mouthwatering stuff. -- Entertainment Weekly, Alexandra Jacobs

What keeps you devouring Dunne's pages like potato chips is the fascination of a superlative social gadfly brought to a peak of popularity by everyone's obsession with the Simpson case. But Dunne appears to have a more serious objective in mind than amusing us with Gus's charms. Again and again he has Gus express his conviction of Simpson's guilt, and his mounting outrage over the way the defense lawyers professed to be seeking the truth while lying to establish their client's innocence. Gus accuses these lawyers of pretending to tell the jurors that the issue of the trial was the innocence or guilt of their client while hypocritically signaling them that the real issue was race…. But subtle irony does not appear to be Dunne's strongest suit. The suspicion remains overwhelming that in this mischievously gossipy book, he is trying to have it both ways: on the one hand, telling a certain form of truth and, on the other, shrugging off all responsibility for that truth. -- The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (November 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609601008
• ISBN-13: 978-0609601006
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,548,149 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.