Books like Monster by John Gregory Dunne


Monster is John Gregory Dunne's mordantly funny account of life on the Hollywood food chain. Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion, have been working in the movies for over twenty-five years, and have written, rewritten, brainstormed, and developed two dozen scripts, seven of which have been produced. Monster is the candid chronicle of how one of those scripts finally got made into Up Close & Personal, starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. The Up Close screenplay started out as the story of Jessica Savitch, the television news anchorwoman whose history included drugs, opportunistic sex, and an early, violent death. Over the years it was refined into a story that would 'make the audience walk out feeling uplifted, good about something, and good about themselves,' as one executive put it in an early script meeting. The tale of how this happened is a hilarious saga that Dunne relates with a wicked eye and perfect pitch for the absurdities and savage infighting of the film industry.
First publish date: 1997
Genre: Memoir/Professional Memoir
Authors: John Gregory Dunne
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 0.0 (0 community ratings)

Monster by John Gregory Dunne

How are these books recommended?

The books recommended for Monster by John Gregory Dunne are shaped by reader interaction. Votes on how closely books relate, user ratings, and community comments all help refine these recommendations and highlight books readers genuinely find similar in theme, ideas, and overall reading experience.


Have you read any of these books?
Your votes, ratings, and comments help improve recommendations and make it easier for other readers to discover books they’ll enjoy.

Books similar to Monster (14 similar books)

In Cold Blood by 6734402|Truman Capote book cover

📘 In Cold Blood

A chilling, factual account of the 1959 shotgun murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, where four members were killed with no clear motive or clues.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 (84 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by 10231963|John Berendt book cover

📘 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

After a May 1981 shooting in Savannah, John Berendt chronicles the city’s eccentric society, a murder trial, and the undercurrents of Southern culture in a nonfiction narrative that reads like a taut novel.

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 (28 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The Killer Inside Me by 6494130|Jim Thompson book cover

📘 The Killer Inside Me

Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford of a small Texas town hides a dark illness that once threatened his career; now it resurfaces, threatening his peace and the town’s safety.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 (5 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The executioner's song by 6513508|Norman Mailer book cover

📘 The executioner's song

A biographical portrait of Gary Gilmore, the 1976 Utah murderer who demanded his death sentence be carried out, fighting a system eager to keep him alive long after conviction.

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.2 (4 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The Stranger Beside Me by 12243109|Ann Rule book cover

📘 The Stranger Beside Me
 by Ann Rule

Ann Rule’s true‑crime biography exposes the chilling rise of serial killer Ted Bundy and the devastating realization she faced when she discovered the killer was her friend.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 (4 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The demonologist by 5950576|Gerald Brittle book cover

📘 The demonologist

Gerald Brittle’s classic study of ghosts and demonology, now presented in its original uncut form. Illustrated with living‑scene photographs, it has been used in seminaries and classrooms for over twenty years.

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 (2 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Film flam by 6530894|Larry McMurtry book cover

📘 Film flam

A compilation of essays that examine the film industry’s moguls, trends, failures, and triumphs.

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.0 (1 rating)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Character, Scene, and Story by 10902302|Will Dunne book cover

📘 Character, Scene, and Story
 by Will Dunne


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Alfred Hitchcock by 6448451|Peter Ackroyd book cover

📘 Alfred Hitchcock

"Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century? As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of him, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films: Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures cuts and bruises from a real-life fearsome flock of birds. In [this book], Peter Ackroyd wrests the director's chair back from the master of control and discovers what lurks just out of sight, in the corner of the shot,"--Amazon.com.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Helter skelter by 11867626|Vincent Bugliosi book cover

📘 Helter skelter


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Hopeful monsters by 7744214|Nicholas Mosley book cover

📘 Hopeful monsters

A compelling love story set against the backdrop of twentieth‑century science and politics, following a young English physicist and a German‑Jewish anthropologist as they navigate Nazi Germany and the early days of the atomic age.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Spike, Mike, slackers & dykes by 8500447|John Pierson book cover

📘 Spike, Mike, slackers & dykes

Variety called John Pierson the "guru of independent film." Why? Perhaps because he wrote Spike Lee a $10,000 check to finish She's Gotta Have It; helped make "slacker" a household word; sold the documentary Roger & Me for $3 million; made Clerks famous; and has seen over 1,000 debut features, and (unlike most independent film companies) managed not to lose his shirt while backing those films he liked most. In short, he's been at the epicenter of the tumultuous last decade that changed independent film forever, and launched a new generation of hilarious, ambitious, talented, and sometimes wacked filmmakers. Here, for the first time, he tells it like it is - the unvarnished truth about film financing; the importance of timing and lighting; creating a sensation on the film festival circuit; the dark side of overnight success; the anatomy of the deals that get films to a theater somewhere near you; and what definitely not to do if you want to make a film (illustrated with dozens of embarrassing examples - like having Elvis come back as a golfing vampire who's shooting a feature). As punctuation throughout the book, Pierson and Clerks creator Kevin Smith dish about everything from Batman, sex, and Quentin Tarantino to American Psycho, Matty Rich, and of course, Rob "Vanilla" Weiss, who "typifies everything you don't want to be as a first-time filmmaker." Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes is a first of its kind: an inside look at the art, the heart, and the enterprise of the spiteful, fractious, and finally, entertaining place that is the world of independent film.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Speaking of monsters by 6688773|Caroline Joan Picart book cover

📘 Speaking of monsters


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0

Some Other Similar Books

Bloodland: A Family Story of Faith, Hope, and Reckoning by Dennis McFadden
Devil's Knot by Mara Leverett

Have a similar book in mind? Let others know!

Please login to submit books!