The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child abuse, pregnancy loss, and child death.

The Friday Afternoon Club is a family memoir more than it is a personal one. It details the lives and experiences of a number of Griffin’s family members, simultaneously exploring the relationships between all of them. As Griffin lays bare the conflicts that have threatened to split his family apart, he emphasizes the role of forgiveness in allowing them to heal.

Griffin begins by offering some background on the different members of his family, although this is not all the context he provides. He details each of his parents’ families and where their roots lie: Lenny was the only child of an Arizona rancher, while Nick was the oldest son of a successful doctor. Alex, Griffin’s younger brother, was a talented but sensitive child from a young age, while Dominique was the cherished youngest sibling and only daughter, born after Lenny had already lost other children either during pregnancy or in infancy. These backgrounds allow the readers to understand not only their individual personalities but also their interactions. For instance, Nick, who was treated cruelly by his own father for his sensitive nature, struggled to accept this same sensitivity in his son.