Breakfast at Tiffanys

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Critics

• 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' by Truman Capote

  Perhaps, in some small way, I did not want to read the book for fear of spoiling the illusion. I needn't have worried. Breakfast at Tiffany's is a gorgeous light read (I was going to say frivolous, but I don't think there is really anything frivolous ... (read full critics)

  readingmatters published on Mon, 27 Sep 2010

14 Reviews

• 10 people find this helpful

  

  Glitter and gloom.

  Random notes I took shortly after reading the book.

  The Impossible Cool.
  http://bit.ly/bpeoSH Truman Capote
  http://bit.ly/qnAtHQ Audrey Hepburn, beyond adjectives

  Structure
  Capote has the best ear for dialogue since maybe Oscar Wilde, and a talent for the off-hand aphorism to matc ... (continue)

  Random notes I took shortly after reading the book.

  The Impossible Cool.
  http://bit.ly/bpeoSH Truman Capote
  http://bit.ly/qnAtHQ Audrey Hepburn, beyond adjectives

  Structure
  Capote has the best ear for dialogue since maybe Oscar Wilde, and a talent for the off-hand aphorism to match Andy Warhol’s. And please note the cleverness in picking my points of reference. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a novella (just short of the hundred-page mark) taken up largely by dialogue, in size and structure looking almost as a play―and it’s no wonder that it should be made into a film. Some of the plot’s best ideas would, and as far as I can remember did, sound as effective in screenwriting.
  What at first looks like a superficial story about NY upper-class café society is in fact very worldly, including references to Texas farmers, Hollywood starlets and traffickers, Brazilian diplomats, German-speaking psychiatrists, Italo-American mobsters from Sicily and another century…

  Autobiography
  How much of the plot is autobigraphical, to some extent or other? Not just the character of Rusty Trawler http://bit.ly/uWouny but the whole Southern dimension of the story; plus the biographical elements of Lulamae/Holly, born and raised in the South and then transplanted in NY as a socialite. And then, how much did Capote wish to have the same irresistible effect on men as Holly’s? How much of Capote is there in the narrator? Who has no name throughout the story; except the multiple borrowed names Holly lends him―which collectively amount to nothing.

  Gatsby and Golightly
  If I hadn’t read Breakfast at Tiffany’s right after The Great Gatsby, perhaps I wouldn’t be writing the following words. But I did and I will.
  Both stories are told in the first person by a narrator who looks up to and admires the protagonist, to the point of constructing him/her as better characters than they really are; the narrator in turn presents himself as the anti-protagonist. Jay Gatsby and Holly Golightly are both very successful NY upper-class socialites, are in fact possibly the most talked-upon figures in their orbits, and both hide a childhood and youth lived in extremely poor environments.
  The respective historical periods (the Twenties and World War II) are very much present, if only as background to the endless stream of parties. Both stories are portraits of the society of their time, and of America at large, as well as commentaries on the American Dream; but while Gatsby’s social climb is doomed, Golightly always manages to stay afloat (she’s “top banana” not only “in the shock department”) even if by eloping with men that she openly, and repeatedly, defines as “rats”.
  The Great Gatsby is tragedy; Breakfast at Tiffany’s is comedy.

  There’s in both cases a particular focus on the season(s).

  The other short stories
  In this edition, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is published with three more short stories. The overall feeling is akin to that of certain music albums whose first side is taken up entirely by a single piece, while the second side offers some compositions as side dishes. These do not add anything to the final value of the product, if anything they fall short of the main piece in terms of scope, beauty, quality; yet they’ll entertain you for several minutes. One cannot help but feel they’re there only to fill up space (either pages or vinyl). Think of Alice’s Restaurant: in that case the main song gives the title to the whole collection, too.

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  míol mór said on Oct 9, 2011 about the Paperback edition | 7 feedbacks

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Mr Capote, darling, che spettacolo.

  Va bene Audrey.
  Ma il romanzo è di un'altra dimensione.

  'Poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't any right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each ot ... (continue)

  Va bene Audrey.
  Ma il romanzo è di un'altra dimensione.

  'Poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't any right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an indipendent and so am I. I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like.' She smiled, and let the cat drop to the floor. 'It's like Tiffany's,' she said. '

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  Rosalie said on Oct 13, 2011 about the Paperback edition | 3 feedbacks

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Holly Golightly in a slightly different way

  I bought this book because of the movie, but the differences are significant. This book uses a first-person PoV to paint a portrait of Holly Golightly, and that's it. No particularly happy ending or really a very gripping story line or anything like that, just a portrait of a very complex character. ... (continue)

  I bought this book because of the movie, but the differences are significant. This book uses a first-person PoV to paint a portrait of Holly Golightly, and that's it. No particularly happy ending or really a very gripping story line or anything like that, just a portrait of a very complex character. It works, I'm sure, but reading it to somehow complement the movie is not a good idea - and without re-reading it with a completely different set of expectations, I can't even try to judge it on its own.

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  Hans said on Nov 13, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Novella

  I read this novella in one day, being a story of only 100 pages. It is the original story that the movie of the same name was based on, although the novella is based in the 1940s, whereas the movie is set in the contemporary early-1960s. The plot follows the eccentric and wacky Holly Golightly as se ... (continue)

  I read this novella in one day, being a story of only 100 pages. It is the original story that the movie of the same name was based on, although the novella is based in the 1940s, whereas the movie is set in the contemporary early-1960s. The plot follows the eccentric and wacky Holly Golightly as seen through the eyes of her unnamed neighbour who she names after her brother for a while. A sweet story of a young girl of twenty finding her way in New York through associating with wealthy socialites. Whilst Holly portrays herself as a flighty, free woman, the narrator soon finds out that all she really longs for is a place where she belongs and feels comfortable, other than Tiffany’s (a jewellery shop).

  I liked the story, but I always dislike reading books after seeing the movie (despite the contradiction that I buy the books anyway). Apart from having an image of the characters and setting in my head already, it was a simple, interesting account of how an unconventional woman functioned and slotted herself into 1940s London. Not a stand-out book but it’s a short read and slightly amusing so I might read it again one day.

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  Jemma said on Mar 28, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Un uomo non è un uomo se non ha un gatto

  "'But what about me?' she said, whispered, and shivered again. 'I'm very scared, Buster. Yes, at last. Because it could go on for ever. Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away. The mean reads, they're nothing. The fat woman, she nothing. This though: my mouth's so dry, if my life depend ... (continue)

  "'But what about me?' she said, whispered, and shivered again. 'I'm very scared, Buster. Yes, at last. Because it could go on for ever. Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away. The mean reads, they're nothing. The fat woman, she nothing. This though: my mouth's so dry, if my life depended on it I couldn't spit'."

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  Dominic M. said on Mar 17, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  it touched the bottom of my heart

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  Vicky said on Nov 1, 2011 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Hardcover
• ISBN-10: 0394417704
• ISBN-13: 9780394417707
• Publisher: Random House
• Pub date: Oct 12, 1958
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Paperback, Audio Cassette and Others
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, llibres en català, Libri Italiani, Česká kniha, Slovenske knjige

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