Synopses & Reviews
No writer captured the tragic absurdity of late-twentieth-century America better than John Gregory Dunne. For over forty years, he cast an unsparing eye on contemporary America, never flinching from the unpleasant truths he saw around him. Whether novels, screenplays, or nonfiction, his work was marked with a droll wit and a pointed cynicism that often examined buried aspects of public and private life in Hollywood and America at large.
Regards is a celebration of Dunne's best nonfiction, from frank observations on the film industry, politics, sports, and popular culture to tender reflections on what it was like to raise an adopted daughter. The collection spans his entire career, including his depictions of Las Vegas and an L.A. film studio, and essays from both of his existing compilations, as well as the essays from the last fifteen years of his life, never before collected. This book is a magnificent gift from one of the finest and most uncompromising writers of a generation.
Review
"In the end, what makes these pieces so revealing...is not just Mr. Dunne's robust prose or his sardonic wit, but his stereoscopic vision." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
Review
"I think I could look at a blind paragraph of Dunne's on almost any subject and tell that he wrote it; the sentences crackle and often finish with a little pop. Knowingness and worldly skepticism are his trademarks." Los Angeles Times
Review
"A compelling sampling from one of the premier journalists of his time." Seattle Times
Review
"Regards reminds us that Dunne was one of the best nonfiction writers of his time. It is also a rich, thoughtful series of true stories that memorably capture the complicated dynamics of American life during the last 50 years." Providence Journal
Review
"Myth is illusion with better public relations. In this collection, they often meet their match in a voice that you still can hear long after last call." Boston Globe
Review
"[Dunne] was a splendidly gifted prose stylist, and in his novels he created many distinctly memorable characters, but at heart he was a journalist and a polemicist." Washington Post
About the Author
Calvin Trillin, the author of twenty-three books, has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1963.