Dominick Dunne's posthumous novel, Too Much Money, will be published on December 1, 2009 by Random House. The lead character is reporter Gus Bailey, whom Dunne's readers will remember from People Like Us, A Season in Purgatory, and Another City, Not My Own, Dunne's memoir in the form of a novel about the O.J. Simpson case.
The interesting thing is that Dunne killed off Gus Bailey at the end of the O.J. novel. I recall Dunne lamenting to me, when I interviewed him in 1998, that "I wish I hadn't killed Gus Bailey." Well, Dunne has resurrected Bailey for the protagonist's role in Too Much Money. I don't know how he raised Gus from the dead, but I'm eager to find out.
The plot of Too Much Money was inspired by the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy story, and by the Edmond Safra murder case, both of which Dunne chronicled extensively for Vanity Fair magazine. If you followed the Condit/Levy story, you'll know that Dunne was sued by Condit. In Too Much Money, Gus Bailey is slapped with a libel suit by a similarly litigious congressman.
I understand, too, that Dunne was going to write a memoir. How sad it will never be finished and published. When George Plimpton died, he too was working on a memoir. I would have liked to have read it, as I would like to have read Dunne's. Between the two of them, they must have known everyone in the world. With a LOT of overlaps.
In a few days, I'll post here some more of my 1998 interview with Dunne.
The interesting thing is that Dunne killed off Gus Bailey at the end of the O.J. novel. I recall Dunne lamenting to me, when I interviewed him in 1998, that "I wish I hadn't killed Gus Bailey." Well, Dunne has resurrected Bailey for the protagonist's role in Too Much Money. I don't know how he raised Gus from the dead, but I'm eager to find out.
The plot of Too Much Money was inspired by the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy story, and by the Edmond Safra murder case, both of which Dunne chronicled extensively for Vanity Fair magazine. If you followed the Condit/Levy story, you'll know that Dunne was sued by Condit. In Too Much Money, Gus Bailey is slapped with a libel suit by a similarly litigious congressman.
I understand, too, that Dunne was going to write a memoir. How sad it will never be finished and published. When George Plimpton died, he too was working on a memoir. I would have liked to have read it, as I would like to have read Dunne's. Between the two of them, they must have known everyone in the world. With a LOT of overlaps.
In a few days, I'll post here some more of my 1998 interview with Dunne.