A Season in Purgatoryis a 1993 novel byDominick Dunne.[1][2][3]It was inspired by the 1975 murder ofMartha Moxley,for whichEthel Skakel Kennedy's nephewMichael Skakelwas eventually convicted. Dunne became fascinated with the story after coveringWilliam Kennedy Smith's 1991 rape trial forVanity Fair.[4]
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Dominick Dunne |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Crown |
Publication date | May 5, 1993 |
| ISBN | 0-517-58386-0 |
The hardcover edition (ISBN0-517-58386-0) was released byCrown Publisherson April 13, 1993. The paperback (ISBN0-553-29076-2) was published by Bantam Books on June 1, 1994.
Plot synopsis
editThe novel's protagonist and narrator is Harrison Burns, whose boarding school education was partially funded by Gerald Bradley, the patriarch of a large, wealthy, politically well-connectedIrish Catholicfamily who has links toorganized crime.Twenty years after Bradley's neighbor,Connecticutteenager Winifred Utley, was bludgeoned to death, her murder remains unsolved. Burns, now a successfultrue crimewriter, is haunted by the secret he has kept for the past two decades. He chooses to step forward and accuse Gerald's son Constant of the crime. Constant is currently being groomed to run forPresident of the United States.The ensuing investigation represents a threat to the Bradleys, a politically powerful family.
Critical reception
editInThe New York Times,Maureen Dowdobserved, "In his latest cafe-societyroman a clef...Dominick Dunne takes all the most chilling character flaws of three generations of Kennedys and compresses them into one creepy plot line. If you can bear to read one more word, even with a gossamer veneer of fiction, about America's royal and sorrowful Irish Catholic clan, and if you like Mr. Dunne's dishy style of society vivisection, then you will probably enjoy his new tour of the toxic side of a golden American family. "[5]
Gene Lyons ofEntertainment Weeklythought, "What ought to have been the gripping courtroom drama hinted at in the novel's opening pages becomes a murky progression of botched assassinations, fortuitous heart attacks and strokes, and a homicide trial filled with more legal absurdities than a half-dozen episodes ofNight Court.After so promising a start, it's a letdown. "Despite his disappointment, he graded it" a solid B. "[6]
A critical analysis of themes in Dunne's fiction, "The Inconvenient Women: Feminine Consciousness and the American Gentry in the Popular Novels of Dominick Dunne"[7] byRobert von Dassanowsky,posits thatEvelyn Waugh'sBrideshead Revisitedstrongly influenced the structure and characters ofA Season in Purgatory.
Television adaptation
editRobert W. Lenski adapted the novel for a May 1996CBSminiseriesdirected byDavid Greene.The cast includedPatrick Dempseyas Harrison Burns,Craig Shefferas Constant Bradley, andBrian Dennehyas Gerald Bradley, withSherilyn Fenn,Edward Herrmann,David Marshall Grant,Bonnie Bedelia,andBlair Brownin supporting roles.
References
edit- ^"A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne".Publishers Weekly.March 29, 1993.RetrievedOctober 13,2024.
- ^"A Season in Purgatory".Kirkus Reviews.March 15, 1993.RetrievedOctober 12,2024.
- ^"A Season in Purgatory".Booklist.April 15, 1993.RetrievedOctober 12,2024.
- ^December 17, 2002 Dominick Dunne profile by Jeff Falcon at Surftofind
- ^Dowd, Maureen."The Crimes of Constant Bradley".archive.nytimes.Archivedfrom the original on April 20, 2022.RetrievedApril 10,2023.
- ^"A Season in Purgatory".Entertainment Weekly.Archived fromthe originalon April 21, 2009.RetrievedOctober 1,2008.
- ^Popular Culture ReviewVII/1 (1997)