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Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories
Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's.
In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.
It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.
Also included are three of Capote's best-known stories:
• House of Flowers - Ottilie is entranced by a beautiful young man, and leaves her life and friends to live with him and his old grandmother, who seems to hate her.
• A Diamond Guitar - Hear the story of the prized possession of a younger prison inmate, a rhinestone-studded guitar.
• A Christmas Memory - A poignant tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.
In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.
It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.
Also included are three of Capote's best-known stories:
• House of Flowers - Ottilie is entranced by a beautiful young man, and leaves her life and friends to live with him and his old grandmother, who seems to hate her.
• A Diamond Guitar - Hear the story of the prized possession of a younger prison inmate, a rhinestone-studded guitar.
• A Christmas Memory - A poignant tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.
142 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 1958
About the author
Truman Capote
309 books6,473 followersTruman Capote was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognised literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel." At least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays.
He was born as Truman Streckfus Persons to a salesman Archulus Persons and young Lillie Mae. His parents divorced when he was four and he went to live with his mother's relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. He was a lonely child who learned to read and write by himself before entering school. In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her new husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born businessman. Mr. Capote adopted Truman, legally changing his last name to Capote and enrolling him in private school. After graduating from high school in 1942, Truman Capote began his regular job as a copy boy at The New Yorker. During this time, he also began his career as a writer, publishing many short stories which introduced him into a circle of literary critics. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks and became controversial because of the photograph of Capote used to promote the novel, posing seductively and gazing into the camera.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Capote remained prolific producing both fiction and non-fiction. His masterpiece, In Cold Blood, a story about the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, was published in 1966 in book form by Random House, became a worldwide success and brought Capote much praise from the literary community. After this success he published rarely and suffered from alcohol addiction. He died in 1984 at age 59.
He was born as Truman Streckfus Persons to a salesman Archulus Persons and young Lillie Mae. His parents divorced when he was four and he went to live with his mother's relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. He was a lonely child who learned to read and write by himself before entering school. In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her new husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born businessman. Mr. Capote adopted Truman, legally changing his last name to Capote and enrolling him in private school. After graduating from high school in 1942, Truman Capote began his regular job as a copy boy at The New Yorker. During this time, he also began his career as a writer, publishing many short stories which introduced him into a circle of literary critics. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks and became controversial because of the photograph of Capote used to promote the novel, posing seductively and gazing into the camera.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Capote remained prolific producing both fiction and non-fiction. His masterpiece, In Cold Blood, a story about the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, was published in 1966 in book form by Random House, became a worldwide success and brought Capote much praise from the literary community. After this success he published rarely and suffered from alcohol addiction. He died in 1984 at age 59.
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May 29, 2007
Holiday Golightly. She’s quirky, comical, and glamorous. She’s fashionable, in-the-know, and in-the-now. She’s lonely, lost, and waiting to be rescued. You couldn’t resist her charm if you tried, and you can’t help but fall in love with her.
Well, at least in the Hollywood film version. Capote’s original novella paints a darker portrait of Miss Golightly. Unlike Audrey Hepburn’s adorable Holly, who needs a knight in slightly-rusted armor to save her, Capote’s girl is a “wild thing” who cannot be caged, trained, or rescued.
I can’t deny that the film is a classic and is one of my favorites. Audrey Hepburn may be the epitome of glamour and beauty, and Hollywood’s Holly can’t help but absorb Audrey’s charm. By the end of the film you find yourself rooting for “Fred” to save her from the nonsense of high society, reunite her with the cat, and wipe away her case of “the mean reds” forever. That is Hollywood, after all, and we would expect nothing less.
But the real Holly, Capote’s Holly, can never be caged by convention. It would be hard to imagine her ever settling down and being content with Fred (regardless of the fact that he is an implied homosexual in the book. Hollywood seemed to have “overlooked” that).
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the book’s Holly is a Bad Person; she’s just more layered and real. Think about it – how many people have you come across who create a new persona for themselves, based on what they perceive others to desire? People who feign interest in the popular styles/entertainment/notable people of the day, just to seem like a Very Important Person and garner adoration, fame, and possibly fortune. I could name a few.
But we get to go deeper than Holly’s exterior and see the scared and lonely girl at the core. She is terrified of being a caged animal, but also tired of being alone. She wants to seem as though she’s making a holiday out of life, but struggles with the need for stability and the desire for freedom.
The book I read also included three of Capote’s most famous stories, and I’d be remiss not to mention them as well: House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar, and A Christmas Memory. The three short stories are amazingly intimate and touching, illuminating different sides of human emotion. I have not read Capote’s magnum opus, In Cold Blood, but after witnessing his detailed descriptions and haunting perceptions of human nature in these shorter forms, I have added his novel to my “to-read” list.
Well, at least in the Hollywood film version. Capote’s original novella paints a darker portrait of Miss Golightly. Unlike Audrey Hepburn’s adorable Holly, who needs a knight in slightly-rusted armor to save her, Capote’s girl is a “wild thing” who cannot be caged, trained, or rescued.
I can’t deny that the film is a classic and is one of my favorites. Audrey Hepburn may be the epitome of glamour and beauty, and Hollywood’s Holly can’t help but absorb Audrey’s charm. By the end of the film you find yourself rooting for “Fred” to save her from the nonsense of high society, reunite her with the cat, and wipe away her case of “the mean reds” forever. That is Hollywood, after all, and we would expect nothing less.
But the real Holly, Capote’s Holly, can never be caged by convention. It would be hard to imagine her ever settling down and being content with Fred (regardless of the fact that he is an implied homosexual in the book. Hollywood seemed to have “overlooked” that).
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the book’s Holly is a Bad Person; she’s just more layered and real. Think about it – how many people have you come across who create a new persona for themselves, based on what they perceive others to desire? People who feign interest in the popular styles/entertainment/notable people of the day, just to seem like a Very Important Person and garner adoration, fame, and possibly fortune. I could name a few.
But we get to go deeper than Holly’s exterior and see the scared and lonely girl at the core. She is terrified of being a caged animal, but also tired of being alone. She wants to seem as though she’s making a holiday out of life, but struggles with the need for stability and the desire for freedom.
The book I read also included three of Capote’s most famous stories, and I’d be remiss not to mention them as well: House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar, and A Christmas Memory. The three short stories are amazingly intimate and touching, illuminating different sides of human emotion. I have not read Capote’s magnum opus, In Cold Blood, but after witnessing his detailed descriptions and haunting perceptions of human nature in these shorter forms, I have added his novel to my “to-read” list.
July 29, 2020
As someone who grew up in the 90s, this was in my head the whole time I read this:
I have never seen the movie (update: I finally did see the movie shortly after reading the book), so the only idea I had in my mind is this iconic image of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly:
But, what I actually got was this:
Holly is crass and obnoxious with really no redeeming qualities. She is rude to her enemies, and even worse to her friends. She smokes to excess, drinks to excess, is promiscuous to excess - she is just wild, crazy, and destructive.
Reading this was like watching a train wreck - but I kind of liked it. I couldn't look away!
I have never seen the movie (update: I finally did see the movie shortly after reading the book), so the only idea I had in my mind is this iconic image of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly:
But, what I actually got was this:
Holly is crass and obnoxious with really no redeeming qualities. She is rude to her enemies, and even worse to her friends. She smokes to excess, drinks to excess, is promiscuous to excess - she is just wild, crazy, and destructive.
Reading this was like watching a train wreck - but I kind of liked it. I couldn't look away!
August 15, 2017
3 delicious hours of audio read by Mr. Michael C. Hall aka Dexter!!! What a wonderful performance of Truman Capote's novella! I saw the movie years ago but I've never read the book! I'm so happy to have listened to this edition of the audio!
5+++++Stars for the narrator!
5 Stars for the story!
Highly highly recommended!!!
5+++++Stars for the narrator!
5 Stars for the story!
Highly highly recommended!!!
March 21, 2021
Some persons live their life as if they’re just playing a game. And such is Holly Golightly – she doesn’t live, she’s travelling light… Exactly like her name may suggest.
She doesn’t want to exist in reality, she doesn’t want to grow up, and her life goes on as though she lives in a dollhouse.
She dreams her great American dream and in this way Breakfast at Tiffany's echoes The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Holly Golightly believes that there is a crock of gold hidden at the end of the rainbow…
Dreams of a beautiful life have been the ruins of many a poor girl… And the story keeps repeating.
Her bedroom was consistent with her parlor: it perpetuated the same camping-out atmosphere; crates and suitcases, everything packed and ready to go, like the belongings of a criminal who feels the law not far behind.
She doesn’t want to exist in reality, she doesn’t want to grow up, and her life goes on as though she lives in a dollhouse.
“You’re wrong. She is a phony. But on the other hand you’re right. She isn’t a phony because she’s a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes. You can’t talk her out of it. I’ve tried with tears running down my cheeks.”
She dreams her great American dream and in this way Breakfast at Tiffany's echoes The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Holly Golightly believes that there is a crock of gold hidden at the end of the rainbow…
I don’t mean I’d mind being rich and famous. That’s very much on my schedule, and someday I’ll try to get around to it; but if it happens, I’d like to have my ego tagging along. I want to still be me when I wake up one fine morning and have breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Dreams of a beautiful life have been the ruins of many a poor girl… And the story keeps repeating.
August 5, 2008
This is getting shelved under "The Movie is Better" but honestly, I can't decide which version I prefer. Because I am indecisive, let's make lists.
Reasons The Movie Is Better:
-Audrey Hepburn plays a considerably less racist and foul-mouthed Holly, which is nice. But let's be honest: Holly could spend the entire movie snorting crack off a sidewalk and Audrey Hepburn would make it the most elegant and classy crack-snorting anyone had ever seen.
-Holly actually sets foot inside Tiffany's, instead of just talking about it. Also she is actually seen eating breakfast outside the store, instead of just mentioning it offhandedly.
-The lines, "It's useful being top banana in the shock department" and "I don't want you to take me home until I'm very drunk. Very drunk indeed."
-A happy, schmoopy, formulaic romantic ending in the rain that never fails to win me over. And they come back for Cat.
-George Peppard.
Reasons The Book Is Better:
-Mag Wildwood, a mere caricature in the movie, gets more lines, personality, and scenes in the book.
-Holly is eighteen at the beginning of the story, which makes her instantly more of a badass teen slut, which I admired her for.
-Mr. Yunioshi actually has a sizable shred of dignity and is vital to the plot. This did wonders to undo the damage caused by the sight of a sweaty, overtanned, bucktoothed Mickey Rooney leaning over a banister and screeching, "Missa Gorightry! I musta plotest!"
*shudder* Is Mickey Rooney dead? If not, could someone please find him and kill him for thinking he could successfully imitate a Japanese man without turning into a walking stereotype? Thank you.
That's all I can think of at the moment. Bottom line: the book made me sad, and the movie does not.
Reasons The Movie Is Better:
-Audrey Hepburn plays a considerably less racist and foul-mouthed Holly, which is nice. But let's be honest: Holly could spend the entire movie snorting crack off a sidewalk and Audrey Hepburn would make it the most elegant and classy crack-snorting anyone had ever seen.
-Holly actually sets foot inside Tiffany's, instead of just talking about it. Also she is actually seen eating breakfast outside the store, instead of just mentioning it offhandedly.
-The lines, "It's useful being top banana in the shock department" and "I don't want you to take me home until I'm very drunk. Very drunk indeed."
-A happy, schmoopy, formulaic romantic ending in the rain that never fails to win me over. And they come back for Cat.
-George Peppard.
Reasons The Book Is Better:
-Mag Wildwood, a mere caricature in the movie, gets more lines, personality, and scenes in the book.
-Holly is eighteen at the beginning of the story, which makes her instantly more of a badass teen slut, which I admired her for.
-Mr. Yunioshi actually has a sizable shred of dignity and is vital to the plot. This did wonders to undo the damage caused by the sight of a sweaty, overtanned, bucktoothed Mickey Rooney leaning over a banister and screeching, "Missa Gorightry! I musta plotest!"
*shudder* Is Mickey Rooney dead? If not, could someone please find him and kill him for thinking he could successfully imitate a Japanese man without turning into a walking stereotype? Thank you.
That's all I can think of at the moment. Bottom line: the book made me sad, and the movie does not.
June 28, 2012
Breakfast at Tiffany's: Truman Capote's Novella of Love or Something Like It
So it is we know that Holly Golightly is gone, that she's been gone for years. And she had her effect on Joe Bell, the bartender at that little place down on Lexington Avenue in the Big Apple.
Yeah, there's Joe's place. Look hard enough, it's one of those little places tucked away. You probably can't see it. One of those Yellow Cabs is hiding it. Yeah, Joe had it bad. Most men who knew her did, unless they just wanted to use her. There's always that niggling little thought on the nature of what love really is. That it is pure and natural or that it can be purchased. Anything is possible, after all, because everything is negotiable.
Truman Capote first published Breakfast at Tiffany'sin the November, 1958 issue of Esquire Magazine.
It was considered too obscene for Capote's usual sources for periodical publication, Harper's Baazar and Mademoiselle. After all, it's open to question as to whether Holly is a prostitute. And being a woman who speaks her mind, she wishes she could have a bull dyke for a roommate because they make such excellent housekeepers. Such language would never do, so it was off to Esquire. Random house followed suit, publishing "Tiffany's" as a novella.
What man hasn't known and loved a Holly Golightly. I have. I lost her. She was hit and killed by a drunk driver--hit her on the wrong side of the road. It was head on. She never had a chance. She was driving home on a Sunday evening, after dinner with her parents, her adopted parents.
She shared several characteristics with Holly Golightly. She didn't know her real parents. She enjoyed men. Her hair was that shining perfect blond with bands of white that made her always look as though the sun shone directly on her head and hers alone. She liked her men older, too, like Holly. Maybe it was being adopted, not knowing where she came from, not knowing where she truly belonged.
But Holly Golightly had taken a new identity, running away from Tulip, Texas, married at the age of fourteen to Doc Barnes, a veterinarian. Her real name is Lula Mae Barnes, just as Capote's mother's name had been Lillie Mae Faulk before she took a more sophisticated name, Nina, after she married Cuban business man Joe Capote.
I attended her funeral, one of so many, her male coterie. But it was when the minister pulled out a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and began to read from it that I was stunned. For I gave her that book, in the hope, the dream that she would realize if you love anything enough it will become alive. She kept that book all the many years we were apart. Perhaps on some days she thought of me. I know that I still think of her and on some days, like Joe Bell, the bartender, I see bits and pieces of her as I walk the city streets, especially when the sun illuminates the gold, the white, the platinum of a feminine head of hair as if it showed on no other person on boulevard, no matter how bright the sun.
Oh, you say Holly Golightly was a brunette--like Audrey Hepburn. Well, that was Blake Edwards' idea of what Holly Golightly looked like. But it wasn't Capote's idea who should play her. It was Marilyn Monroe. No question. It was that blonde hair, almost platinum. But Capote only sold the film rights. He maintained no control over the direction or production of the film.
Capote was such a wonderful dancer. I can still remember photographs of him swirling Marilyn across the dance floor.
But Lee Strausberg told Marilyn playing Holly Golightly, a prostitute, wouldn't be good for her career. Monroe turned down the role for "The Misfits." It would be her last film. But that's another story.
History took its course. Henry Mancini composed "Moon River" for the score. George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn had chemistry. Following its release in 1961, Edwards' work became one of the iconic American films. However, it bears little resemblance to Capote's work, although Audrey Hepburn is stunning in that little black dress.
It was not uncommon that movies made from Faulkner's books premiered in Oxford, Mississippi. One, to Faulkner's chagrin, bore so little comparison to his original work, when called to the stage to make opening remarks, Faulkner said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the film you're about to see bears absolutely no resemblance to the book I wrote from which the title of this film was taken." He walked off stage and out of the theatre. I can't imagine Capote taking that approach, he was still connected to a famous film that led to further sales of his work. Perhaps it was that desire for fame that ultimately destroyed Capote.
Of course, in the novella, the young writer is unpublished. Holly takes it upon herself to make him famous by introducing him to her Hollywood agent. In the movie, Peppard is a kept man, whose, shall we say, sponsor, is played by Patricia Neal, who is known to Holly as 2E, the lady's apartment number. And, of course, the movie ends happily ever after with George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn embracing in the rain and having found "Cat" whom Holly had kicked out of the taxi cab.
But Capote tells Holly's view regarding love, or whatever feeling she is capable of describing as love.
Truman Capote considered Holly Golightly his favorite character. I think he was right in his feelings. Of course, Capote, has said that the narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany's was gay. In fact, it has been repeatedly surmised that Holly Golightly is the literary embodiment of Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles. What divine decadence. The movie would never have ended the way it did, had Capote maintained creative control.
Let's just say this one will always touch a nerve in me. This one is for all the Holly Golightlys in the world and the Joe Bells who have the sense to listen to them, and I offer it with all the heartfelt sympathy I can muster for those who can't understand what it means to love a wild thing.
"If she was in this city I'd have seen her. You take a man that likes to walk, a man like me, a man's been walking in the streets going on ten or twelve years, and all those years he's got his eye out for one person, and nobody's ever her, don't it stand to reason she's not there? I see pieces of her all the time, a flat litle bottom, any skinny girl that walks fast and straight--...
It's just that I didn't know you'd been in love with her. Not like that."
So it is we know that Holly Golightly is gone, that she's been gone for years. And she had her effect on Joe Bell, the bartender at that little place down on Lexington Avenue in the Big Apple.
Yeah, there's Joe's place. Look hard enough, it's one of those little places tucked away. You probably can't see it. One of those Yellow Cabs is hiding it. Yeah, Joe had it bad. Most men who knew her did, unless they just wanted to use her. There's always that niggling little thought on the nature of what love really is. That it is pure and natural or that it can be purchased. Anything is possible, after all, because everything is negotiable.
Truman Capote first published Breakfast at Tiffany'sin the November, 1958 issue of Esquire Magazine.
It was considered too obscene for Capote's usual sources for periodical publication, Harper's Baazar and Mademoiselle. After all, it's open to question as to whether Holly is a prostitute. And being a woman who speaks her mind, she wishes she could have a bull dyke for a roommate because they make such excellent housekeepers. Such language would never do, so it was off to Esquire. Random house followed suit, publishing "Tiffany's" as a novella.
What man hasn't known and loved a Holly Golightly. I have. I lost her. She was hit and killed by a drunk driver--hit her on the wrong side of the road. It was head on. She never had a chance. She was driving home on a Sunday evening, after dinner with her parents, her adopted parents.
She shared several characteristics with Holly Golightly. She didn't know her real parents. She enjoyed men. Her hair was that shining perfect blond with bands of white that made her always look as though the sun shone directly on her head and hers alone. She liked her men older, too, like Holly. Maybe it was being adopted, not knowing where she came from, not knowing where she truly belonged.
But Holly Golightly had taken a new identity, running away from Tulip, Texas, married at the age of fourteen to Doc Barnes, a veterinarian. Her real name is Lula Mae Barnes, just as Capote's mother's name had been Lillie Mae Faulk before she took a more sophisticated name, Nina, after she married Cuban business man Joe Capote.
I attended her funeral, one of so many, her male coterie. But it was when the minister pulled out a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and began to read from it that I was stunned. For I gave her that book, in the hope, the dream that she would realize if you love anything enough it will become alive. She kept that book all the many years we were apart. Perhaps on some days she thought of me. I know that I still think of her and on some days, like Joe Bell, the bartender, I see bits and pieces of her as I walk the city streets, especially when the sun illuminates the gold, the white, the platinum of a feminine head of hair as if it showed on no other person on boulevard, no matter how bright the sun.
Oh, you say Holly Golightly was a brunette--like Audrey Hepburn. Well, that was Blake Edwards' idea of what Holly Golightly looked like. But it wasn't Capote's idea who should play her. It was Marilyn Monroe. No question. It was that blonde hair, almost platinum. But Capote only sold the film rights. He maintained no control over the direction or production of the film.
Capote was such a wonderful dancer. I can still remember photographs of him swirling Marilyn across the dance floor.
But Lee Strausberg told Marilyn playing Holly Golightly, a prostitute, wouldn't be good for her career. Monroe turned down the role for "The Misfits." It would be her last film. But that's another story.
History took its course. Henry Mancini composed "Moon River" for the score. George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn had chemistry. Following its release in 1961, Edwards' work became one of the iconic American films. However, it bears little resemblance to Capote's work, although Audrey Hepburn is stunning in that little black dress.
It was not uncommon that movies made from Faulkner's books premiered in Oxford, Mississippi. One, to Faulkner's chagrin, bore so little comparison to his original work, when called to the stage to make opening remarks, Faulkner said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the film you're about to see bears absolutely no resemblance to the book I wrote from which the title of this film was taken." He walked off stage and out of the theatre. I can't imagine Capote taking that approach, he was still connected to a famous film that led to further sales of his work. Perhaps it was that desire for fame that ultimately destroyed Capote.
Of course, in the novella, the young writer is unpublished. Holly takes it upon herself to make him famous by introducing him to her Hollywood agent. In the movie, Peppard is a kept man, whose, shall we say, sponsor, is played by Patricia Neal, who is known to Holly as 2E, the lady's apartment number. And, of course, the movie ends happily ever after with George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn embracing in the rain and having found "Cat" whom Holly had kicked out of the taxi cab.
But Capote tells Holly's view regarding love, or whatever feeling she is capable of describing as love.
"Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell," Holly advised him. "That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."
Truman Capote considered Holly Golightly his favorite character. I think he was right in his feelings. Of course, Capote, has said that the narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany's was gay. In fact, it has been repeatedly surmised that Holly Golightly is the literary embodiment of Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles. What divine decadence. The movie would never have ended the way it did, had Capote maintained creative control.
Let's just say this one will always touch a nerve in me. This one is for all the Holly Golightlys in the world and the Joe Bells who have the sense to listen to them, and I offer it with all the heartfelt sympathy I can muster for those who can't understand what it means to love a wild thing.
June 15, 2015
I’m struggling to figure out what makes this quite so great, it could be Truman’s beautiful limpid style which winds its sentences through your inner ear so that you might think that language itself had been melted and turned into vanilla frosting or it could be that this is the sweet sad little tale of a guy who met this creature and got stuck permanently in the friend zone, and kind of almost didn’t really mind because at least the friend zone was something and not nothing, that’s how entranced he was, or it could be that one of the major characters is a cat. It could be that it’s funny, and kind, and that Holly says some really surprising things (just to mention one, that she thinks people of the same sex should be allowed to get married – in 1958!). But this novelette is a small 100 page thing, a drifting fragrance, a single chord, a glint, a hello then goodbye too soon, too soon – ah yes, itself therefore being the perfect embodiment of the Holly Golightly experience. So, of course – that’s why.
July 5, 2021
Holly Golightly… making women feel inadequate since 1958.
At least the iconic Audrey Hepburn film version of her anyway, which technically debuted in 1961. It's probably best to set aside any notion you have of Hepburn’s portrayal in order to immerse yourself in the original Breakfast at Tiffany's text by Truman Capote though.
The film is set in the ‘60s, the book in the ‘40s. Hepburn’s Holly is a polished brunette, Capote’s is a Marilyn Monroe-like blonde. On the screen Ms. Golightly is a café society girl, on the page she is, essentially, a call girl. (To be accurate, she’s referred to as an "American geisha.”)
She’s also fairly crass, and unfortunately quite racist (as is the language in the book). Still, she’s presented as the quintessential object of the male gaze. Even the seemingly brother-like unnamed narrator can’t help but idolize her as the manic pixie dream girl men perceive (want? need?) her to be.
What makes the book so successful is that it’s a master class in character development. By its conclusion readers have a very vivid portrait of Holly Golightly, which is a remarkable feat given she doesn’t really want anyone to know who she truly is. Capote shrouds her in an opaque cloak of mystery but also gives us magical glasses to see right through it.
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
At least the iconic Audrey Hepburn film version of her anyway, which technically debuted in 1961. It's probably best to set aside any notion you have of Hepburn’s portrayal in order to immerse yourself in the original Breakfast at Tiffany's text by Truman Capote though.
The film is set in the ‘60s, the book in the ‘40s. Hepburn’s Holly is a polished brunette, Capote’s is a Marilyn Monroe-like blonde. On the screen Ms. Golightly is a café society girl, on the page she is, essentially, a call girl. (To be accurate, she’s referred to as an "American geisha.”)
She’s also fairly crass, and unfortunately quite racist (as is the language in the book). Still, she’s presented as the quintessential object of the male gaze. Even the seemingly brother-like unnamed narrator can’t help but idolize her as the manic pixie dream girl men perceive (want? need?) her to be.
What makes the book so successful is that it’s a master class in character development. By its conclusion readers have a very vivid portrait of Holly Golightly, which is a remarkable feat given she doesn’t really want anyone to know who she truly is. Capote shrouds her in an opaque cloak of mystery but also gives us magical glasses to see right through it.
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
May 11, 2018
Capote has a mesmerizing way with words. His description of the aptly named Holly Golightly is splendid and the character herself is a sort of blend of Daisy Buchanon and Madame Bovary. The friendship of the narrator Paul/"Fred" with Holly is beautifully and painfully described as are the parties and lovers that she entertains. I must see the film now...(see below)
The atmosphere of the book is a sort of bohemian yet preppy post-Beat decadence but with a tragic sexism that poisons Holly's relationships with everyone except the narrator. She is both an actor and a victim of her status as a sex object - this is what transports this story from something banal to something more complex and enduring.
The Diamond Guitar is a tender story of unrequited love as well, albeit homosexual love and longing and disappearance.
House of Flowers is a vivid depiction of a Haitian whorehouse, the Champs-Elysées and the sadomasochistic love of Ollite for Royal that leads her to an indifferent fate at the House of Flowers.
A Christmas Memory is a heartbreaking tale of camaraderie between a young boy and an older woman and their dreams of surpassing their humble existence.
Each of these stories of love, loss, and hope against hope that avoid sentimentalism in their cold rendering of events. It is more the external elements (the weather in New York, the changing seasons at the farm, the bee prophecy and the wind respectively) that color the psychology of the characters and their ambiguous fates.
I loved these stories and will read more of Truman Capote's work.
I started watching the movie with the amazing Audrey Hepburn as Golightly and George Peppard as "Fred" and find it captures the essence of the relationship between these two characters. However, why did they have Mickey Rooney do that ridiculous (and perhaps racist) imitation of Yunioshi, why not just have a Japanese actor. The other annoying thing about the movie is the comic spin that it puts to the book which while at times somewhat humorous was for the most part darker and more layered than depicted by Blake Edwards.
The atmosphere of the book is a sort of bohemian yet preppy post-Beat decadence but with a tragic sexism that poisons Holly's relationships with everyone except the narrator. She is both an actor and a victim of her status as a sex object - this is what transports this story from something banal to something more complex and enduring.
The Diamond Guitar is a tender story of unrequited love as well, albeit homosexual love and longing and disappearance.
House of Flowers is a vivid depiction of a Haitian whorehouse, the Champs-Elysées and the sadomasochistic love of Ollite for Royal that leads her to an indifferent fate at the House of Flowers.
A Christmas Memory is a heartbreaking tale of camaraderie between a young boy and an older woman and their dreams of surpassing their humble existence.
Each of these stories of love, loss, and hope against hope that avoid sentimentalism in their cold rendering of events. It is more the external elements (the weather in New York, the changing seasons at the farm, the bee prophecy and the wind respectively) that color the psychology of the characters and their ambiguous fates.
I loved these stories and will read more of Truman Capote's work.
I started watching the movie with the amazing Audrey Hepburn as Golightly and George Peppard as "Fred" and find it captures the essence of the relationship between these two characters. However, why did they have Mickey Rooney do that ridiculous (and perhaps racist) imitation of Yunioshi, why not just have a Japanese actor. The other annoying thing about the movie is the comic spin that it puts to the book which while at times somewhat humorous was for the most part darker and more layered than depicted by Blake Edwards.
November 6, 2021
Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. In it, a contemporary writer recalls his early days in New York City, when he makes the acquaintance of his remarkable neighbor, Holly Golightly, who is one of Capote's best-known creations.
Towards the end of World War II, a young, happy, and free girl named Holly Golightly moves to an apartment in New York. Holly easily communicates with various people, including neighbors and tenants, but does not want anyone to know the secrets of her life. But very soon some of the residents of this building complain about the noisy traffic to Holly's apartment.
One of Holly's neighbors, who tells the story, confronts him after a while and becomes interested in Holly and his behavior. But Holly is a strange girl and she does not like anyone to be curious in her life, she makes many surprises until the end of the story.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال2012میلادی
عنوان: صبحانه در تیفانی؛ نویسنده: ترومن کاپوتی؛ مترجم: ایرج غریب؛ اصفهان، فردا، سال1390؛ در156ص؛ شابک9789648757002؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
عنوان: صبحانه در تیفانی؛ نویسنده: ترومن کاپوتی؛ مترجم: رامین آذربهرام؛ تهران، مروارید؛ سال1395؛ در116ص؛ شابک9789641914594؛
عنوان: صبحانه در تیفانی؛ نویسنده: ترومن کاپوتی؛ مترجم: بهمن دارالشفائی؛ تهران، ماهی؛ سال1395؛ در142ص؛ شابک9789642092758؛ چاپ دوم سال1396؛
صبحانه در تیفانی، ماجرای دختر جوانی، در «نیویورک» است، که زندگیاش را، در کافه ها و بارها و رستورانها، �� با مردها میگذراند، و به نظر میرسد: نه شغلی دارد، و نه خانواده ای؛ «ترومن کاپوتی» رمان کوتاه «صبحانه در تیفانی» را، در سال1958میلادی منتشر کردند؛ «هالی گولایتلی»، شخصیت اصلی رمان، مشهورترین شخصیتی شد، که «کاپوتی» آفریده، و همچنین هنوز هم یکی از مشهورترین شخصیتهای تاریخ ادبیات «امریکا» نیز هست؛ نثر «کاپوتی» در این رمان را هم، میتوان اوج پختگی نثر ایشان دانست، تا جاییکه، همین کتاب باعث شد «نورمن میلر»، نویسنده ی همدوره ی «کاپوتی»، ایشان را «کاملترین نویسنده ی نسل من» بنامند؛ «بلیک ادواردز»، کارگردان «امریکایی»، فیلمی از روی این رمان ساختند، که با آنکه مثل یبشتر اقتباسهای سینمایی، از رمان ضعیفتر است، باعث شهرت بیش از پیش رمان شد؛ نقش هالی «گولایتلی» در این فیلم را «ادری هپبورن»، بازی کرده که آن شخصیت هم یکی از بیاد ماندنیترین شخصیتهای سینمایی تاریخ است
نقل از متن: (من همیشه کشش عجیبی به خانه ها و محله هایی دارم، که قبلا در آنها زندگی کرده ام؛ مثلا ساختمانی سنگی در خیابان هفتاد و چندم شرقی هست، که در سالهای اول جنگ جهانی دوم، اولین آپارتمانم در «نیویورک» را آنجا گرفتم؛ کلا یک اتاق بود پر از اسباب و اثاثه ی معمول اتاقهای زیر شیروانی، یک کاناپه، و صندلی های پت و پهنی که روکش مخمل زبری، به رنگ قرمز تند داشتند، و آدم را یاد روزهای داغ، در تراموا میانداختند؛ دیوارها گچی بودند، و به رنگی شبیه تفاله ی توتون؛ همه ی دیوارهای خانه، حتی دیوار دستشویی، پر بود از عکسهای ویرانه های «روم باستان» که گذر زمان بر گوشه گوشه شان، لکه های قهوه ای، به جا گذاشته بود؛ تنها پنجره ی خانه به راه پله ی اضطراری باز میشد
با اینهمه، هر وقت کلید این آپارتمان را، در جیبم لمس میکردم، حس خوبی بهم دست میداد؛ با وجود تاریکی و ملالش، مکانی بود از آن خودم، اولین مکان از آن خودم؛ کتابهایم هم آنجا بودند، و شیشه هایی پر از مداد، در انتظار تراشیده شدن؛ خلاصه آنجا همه چیز فراهم بود، هرچه آن زمان به خیالم لازم داشتم تا نویسنده ای شوم که دلم میخواست
آن روزها هیچ به ذهنم نرسیده بود، که درباره ی «هالی گولایتلی» بنویسم؛ شاید اگر آن گفتگو با «جو بل» پیش نمیآمد، و همه ی خاطره هایم از نو زنده نمیشد، حالا هم به صرافتش نمیافتادم
هالی گولایتلی، مستأجر یکی از واحدهای ساختمان سنگی قدیمی بود، درست زیر واحد من؛ «جو بل»، صاحب باری نبش خیابان «لکزینگتون» بود، و هنوز هم هست؛ هم من و هم «هالی» روزی شش هفت مرتبه میرفتیم آنجا؛ البته همیشه به قصد نوشیدن نمیرفتیم، بلکه گاهی میخواستیم تلفنی بزنیم؛ زمان جنگ، کمتر کسی تلفن خصوصی داشت؛ به علاوہ، «جو بل»، پیغامگیر خوبی بود، و این برای «هالی»، موهبت بزرگی به حساب میآمد، چون هر روز کلی پیغام داشت
البته که همه ی اینها مال مدتها پیش است، و من تا همین هفته ی پیش، سالها میشد که «جو بل» را ندیده بودم)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 03/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 14/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. In it, a contemporary writer recalls his early days in New York City, when he makes the acquaintance of his remarkable neighbor, Holly Golightly, who is one of Capote's best-known creations.
Towards the end of World War II, a young, happy, and free girl named Holly Golightly moves to an apartment in New York. Holly easily communicates with various people, including neighbors and tenants, but does not want anyone to know the secrets of her life. But very soon some of the residents of this building complain about the noisy traffic to Holly's apartment.
One of Holly's neighbors, who tells the story, confronts him after a while and becomes interested in Holly and his behavior. But Holly is a strange girl and she does not like anyone to be curious in her life, she makes many surprises until the end of the story.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال2012میلادی
عنوان: صبحانه در تیفانی؛ نویسنده: ترومن کاپوتی؛ مترجم: ایرج غریب؛ اصفهان، فردا، سال1390؛ در156ص؛ شابک9789648757002؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
عنوان: صبحانه در تیفانی؛ نویسنده: ترومن کاپوتی؛ مترجم: رامین آذربهرام؛ تهران، مروارید؛ سال1395؛ در116ص؛ شابک9789641914594؛
عنوان: صبحانه در تیفانی؛ نویسنده: ترومن کاپوتی؛ مترجم: بهمن دارالشفائی؛ تهران، ماهی؛ سال1395؛ در142ص؛ شابک9789642092758؛ چاپ دوم سال1396؛
صبحانه در تیفانی، ماجرای دختر جوانی، در «نیویورک» است، که زندگیاش را، در کافه ها و بارها و رستورانها، �� با مردها میگذراند، و به نظر میرسد: نه شغلی دارد، و نه خانواده ای؛ «ترومن کاپوتی» رمان کوتاه «صبحانه در تیفانی» را، در سال1958میلادی منتشر کردند؛ «هالی گولایتلی»، شخصیت اصلی رمان، مشهورترین شخصیتی شد، که «کاپوتی» آفریده، و همچنین هنوز هم یکی از مشهورترین شخصیتهای تاریخ ادبیات «امریکا» نیز هست؛ نثر «کاپوتی» در این رمان را هم، میتوان اوج پختگی نثر ایشان دانست، تا جاییکه، همین کتاب باعث شد «نورمن میلر»، نویسنده ی همدوره ی «کاپوتی»، ایشان را «کاملترین نویسنده ی نسل من» بنامند؛ «بلیک ادواردز»، کارگردان «امریکایی»، فیلمی از روی این رمان ساختند، که با آنکه مثل یبشتر اقتباسهای سینمایی، از رمان ضعیفتر است، باعث شهرت بیش از پیش رمان شد؛ نقش هالی «گولایتلی» در این فیلم را «ادری هپبورن»، بازی کرده که آن شخصیت هم یکی از بیاد ماندنیترین شخصیتهای سینمایی تاریخ است
نقل از متن: (من همیشه کشش عجیبی به خانه ها و محله هایی دارم، که قبلا در آنها زندگی کرده ام؛ مثلا ساختمانی سنگی در خیابان هفتاد و چندم شرقی هست، که در سالهای اول جنگ جهانی دوم، اولین آپارتمانم در «نیویورک» را آنجا گرفتم؛ کلا یک اتاق بود پر از اسباب و اثاثه ی معمول اتاقهای زیر شیروانی، یک کاناپه، و صندلی های پت و پهنی که روکش مخمل زبری، به رنگ قرمز تند داشتند، و آدم را یاد روزهای داغ، در تراموا میانداختند؛ دیوارها گچی بودند، و به رنگی شبیه تفاله ی توتون؛ همه ی دیوارهای خانه، حتی دیوار دستشویی، پر بود از عکسهای ویرانه های «روم باستان» که گذر زمان بر گوشه گوشه شان، لکه های قهوه ای، به جا گذاشته بود؛ تنها پنجره ی خانه به راه پله ی اضطراری باز میشد
با اینهمه، هر وقت کلید این آپارتمان را، در جیبم لمس میکردم، حس خوبی بهم دست میداد؛ با وجود تاریکی و ملالش، مکانی بود از آن خودم، اولین مکان از آن خودم؛ کتابهایم هم آنجا بودند، و شیشه هایی پر از مداد، در انتظار تراشیده شدن؛ خلاصه آنجا همه چیز فراهم بود، هرچه آن زمان به خیالم لازم داشتم تا نویسنده ای شوم که دلم میخواست
آن روزها هیچ به ذهنم نرسیده بود، که درباره ی «هالی گولایتلی» بنویسم؛ شاید اگر آن گفتگو با «جو بل» پیش نمیآمد، و همه ی خاطره هایم از نو زنده نمیشد، حالا هم به صرافتش نمیافتادم
هالی گولایتلی، مستأجر یکی از واحدهای ساختمان سنگی قدیمی بود، درست زیر واحد من؛ «جو بل»، صاحب باری نبش خیابان «لکزینگتون» بود، و هنوز هم هست؛ هم من و هم «هالی» روزی شش هفت مرتبه میرفتیم آنجا؛ البته همیشه به قصد نوشیدن نمیرفتیم، بلکه گاهی میخواستیم تلفنی بزنیم؛ زمان جنگ، کمتر کسی تلفن خصوصی داشت؛ به علاوہ، «جو بل»، پیغامگیر خوبی بود، و این برای «هالی»، موهبت بزرگی به حساب میآمد، چون هر روز کلی پیغام داشت
البته که همه ی اینها مال مدتها پیش است، و من تا همین هفته ی پیش، سالها میشد که «جو بل» را ندیده بودم)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 03/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 14/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
July 27, 2021
“If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany’s, then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name.”
Only Truman Capote could make me feel so nostalgic for a place and time I’ve never inhabited. He’s done this remarkably well with all of the pieces I’ve read thus far. This particular collection includes the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s as well as three shorter pieces, one of which I’ve reviewed elsewhere – A Christmas Memory (loved it!). I’ve never seen the film. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Holly Golightly was not at all like the angel I imagined Audrey Hepburn to have portrayed! That’s not a complaint by any means. I was entirely beguiled by the original version of Holly that Capote dreamed up before Hollywood stepped in. Capote’s Holly is charming, for sure, but also much more enigmatic than I would have envisioned. She’s deliciously darker. There’s something about Holly that I could relate to – a restlessness of spirit, perhaps. Unlike yours truly, however, Holly is a bit of a fleeting vision. One gets the sense that she’ll be here one second and the next… poof!. Even the name slot affixed to her mailbox gives us a clue straightaway.
“Printed, rather Cartier-formal, it read: Miss Holiday Golightly; and, underneath, in the corner, Traveling. It nagged me like a tune: Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling.”
Just who is this woman? That’s what our narrator, an aspiring writer, intends to find out. I was fascinated by the dynamics and the dialogue between Holly and those with whom she interacted. I’m always perplexed by the fact that some people seem so closed off from one another these days. Yet these charming creatures in literature suddenly materialize on the fire escapes of neighbors they know nary a lick! I fell a little in love with Holly Golightly along with the rest of the crowd from that moment on. What more can I say? Bravo, Mr. Capote!
“… you can’t give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky.”
Only Truman Capote could make me feel so nostalgic for a place and time I’ve never inhabited. He’s done this remarkably well with all of the pieces I’ve read thus far. This particular collection includes the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s as well as three shorter pieces, one of which I’ve reviewed elsewhere – A Christmas Memory (loved it!). I’ve never seen the film. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Holly Golightly was not at all like the angel I imagined Audrey Hepburn to have portrayed! That’s not a complaint by any means. I was entirely beguiled by the original version of Holly that Capote dreamed up before Hollywood stepped in. Capote’s Holly is charming, for sure, but also much more enigmatic than I would have envisioned. She’s deliciously darker. There’s something about Holly that I could relate to – a restlessness of spirit, perhaps. Unlike yours truly, however, Holly is a bit of a fleeting vision. One gets the sense that she’ll be here one second and the next… poof!. Even the name slot affixed to her mailbox gives us a clue straightaway.
“Printed, rather Cartier-formal, it read: Miss Holiday Golightly; and, underneath, in the corner, Traveling. It nagged me like a tune: Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling.”
Just who is this woman? That’s what our narrator, an aspiring writer, intends to find out. I was fascinated by the dynamics and the dialogue between Holly and those with whom she interacted. I’m always perplexed by the fact that some people seem so closed off from one another these days. Yet these charming creatures in literature suddenly materialize on the fire escapes of neighbors they know nary a lick! I fell a little in love with Holly Golightly along with the rest of the crowd from that moment on. What more can I say? Bravo, Mr. Capote!
“… you can’t give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky.”
December 25, 2018
The most famous of Capote's novels, Breakfast at Tiffany’s charms the reader with wit and a lively storyline. Its subject is the short-lived friendship between a straight woman and a gay man living in New York during the early '40s, its theme the yearning for deep connection and a sense of belonging. In spite of Capote's ethereal prose and dazzling imagery, an excruciating sadness suffuses the novella: none of the self-destructive characters find what they long for by the end, and it seems unlikely that they ever will. What on the surface appears to be a wistful bit of fluff, then, is in fact far more sorrowful and complex.
May 4, 2021
“Oh darling, this is the most perfect little story, my idea of the absolute finito! Not a comma out of place, not a iota of clumsiness blurring the flawless tone. The most proper words pushing all the right buttons, stirring up emotions one didn’t even know were there.
And quel dialogue; not un peu bit phony. Or perhaps it is so, but it is real phony and that makes it genuine. Same as everyone inhabiting this story. Bless you, darling, for having done such a marvellous job with the whole merde of an affair; you managed to make it shine, positively glow. Not that those other people in Hollywood didn’t, by God, it had the most spectacular sugarcoating, their film did, très charming, they even changed the time from the early 1940s to the 1960s so that they could have Mr Givenchy’s divine gowns, them being infinitely more chic than those war-time frocks. But quel rat that they had to add the romance and the happy end and take out all the hard edges. Oh well, it did turn out beautifully, no complaints, but still…
…this is the real thing, and yes, I got what you did, even though, I’m no ‘serious’ reader, my reading consisting of tabloids and travel folders and astrological charts, not that this ever stopped you from sharing your stories with me. But I must simply insist that those know-it-all book lovers give it a try, if only to get an idea of what the mean reds were really all about, why I’d rather have cancer than a dishonest heart and why it’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague.
I can’t haul myself to Tiffany’s these days, but your heavenly little story serves as that kind of place I want to lose myself in. The place where nothing very bad could happen. Not while those perfectly constructed sentences unfold, anyway.
I’m very scared, Buster. Yes, at last. Because it could go on forever. Not knowing what’s yours until you’ve thrown it away. Happy endings are for the screen. Books afford to show that it’s the everlasting journey that matters…
Lulamae Barnes, aka Holly Golightly, (still) Travelling."
Fourth reading. All in one sitting. Getting even better with time.
And quel dialogue; not un peu bit phony. Or perhaps it is so, but it is real phony and that makes it genuine. Same as everyone inhabiting this story. Bless you, darling, for having done such a marvellous job with the whole merde of an affair; you managed to make it shine, positively glow. Not that those other people in Hollywood didn’t, by God, it had the most spectacular sugarcoating, their film did, très charming, they even changed the time from the early 1940s to the 1960s so that they could have Mr Givenchy’s divine gowns, them being infinitely more chic than those war-time frocks. But quel rat that they had to add the romance and the happy end and take out all the hard edges. Oh well, it did turn out beautifully, no complaints, but still…
…this is the real thing, and yes, I got what you did, even though, I’m no ‘serious’ reader, my reading consisting of tabloids and travel folders and astrological charts, not that this ever stopped you from sharing your stories with me. But I must simply insist that those know-it-all book lovers give it a try, if only to get an idea of what the mean reds were really all about, why I’d rather have cancer than a dishonest heart and why it’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague.
I can’t haul myself to Tiffany’s these days, but your heavenly little story serves as that kind of place I want to lose myself in. The place where nothing very bad could happen. Not while those perfectly constructed sentences unfold, anyway.
I’m very scared, Buster. Yes, at last. Because it could go on forever. Not knowing what’s yours until you’ve thrown it away. Happy endings are for the screen. Books afford to show that it’s the everlasting journey that matters…
Lulamae Barnes, aka Holly Golightly, (still) Travelling."
Fourth reading. All in one sitting. Getting even better with time.
January 16, 2019
A charming little anecdote about some ruby-rare bright young thing & ensuing crew--delightly-ful! To be read in a complete sitting in some secret well-lit garden with a basket of tea and crumpets. Necessary as stress relief and sweet as a caramel. Another plus for the already egotistical NYC, Holly Golightly is heavily embossed onto the overall structure, asphalt jungle, itself.
May 20, 2017
Delicious.
Upon finishing Truman Capote’s 1958 brilliant short novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s my first thought was that Capote had been influenced heavily by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 Jazz Age masterpiece The Great Gatsby. I was intrigued further to find that several other reviewers had noticed the same similarities. Both involve and are centrally concerned with a charismatic and alluring socialite with humble beginnings and sketchy personal details and with a subtle naiveté hidden under a mask of societal cunning bordering on the streetwise.
I would also draw a comparison between Holly and Vladimir Nabokov’s Dolores from his 1955 work Lolita. Both heroines exhibit a frank and earthy, almost playful sexuality that is intoxicating to the male characters, who pine and lust with barely contained libido.
Finally, I see similarities between Capote’s themes and settings and Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, especially between the tense platonic relationship concerning Holly and the narrator and Hemingway’s Lady Brett and Jake. Both male narrators are sad caricatures of voyeuristic and doomed love, both pale also-rans to the Latin rivals.
In Holly Golightly, Capote has created an archetypal American woman of the twentieth century, at once sexual and material, yet in a playful, teasing and fun way. He could have written another hundred pages of scenes with her and I would have been as captivated as the unnamed (except casually by Holly) narrator. Of course, Audrey Hepburn’s 1961 portrayal was so intoxicating as to become one with Capote’s vision.
Capote has penned a dandy and, like the best chocolate, it is a guilty delight.
Upon finishing Truman Capote’s 1958 brilliant short novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s my first thought was that Capote had been influenced heavily by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 Jazz Age masterpiece The Great Gatsby. I was intrigued further to find that several other reviewers had noticed the same similarities. Both involve and are centrally concerned with a charismatic and alluring socialite with humble beginnings and sketchy personal details and with a subtle naiveté hidden under a mask of societal cunning bordering on the streetwise.
I would also draw a comparison between Holly and Vladimir Nabokov’s Dolores from his 1955 work Lolita. Both heroines exhibit a frank and earthy, almost playful sexuality that is intoxicating to the male characters, who pine and lust with barely contained libido.
Finally, I see similarities between Capote’s themes and settings and Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, especially between the tense platonic relationship concerning Holly and the narrator and Hemingway’s Lady Brett and Jake. Both male narrators are sad caricatures of voyeuristic and doomed love, both pale also-rans to the Latin rivals.
In Holly Golightly, Capote has created an archetypal American woman of the twentieth century, at once sexual and material, yet in a playful, teasing and fun way. He could have written another hundred pages of scenes with her and I would have been as captivated as the unnamed (except casually by Holly) narrator. Of course, Audrey Hepburn’s 1961 portrayal was so intoxicating as to become one with Capote’s vision.
Capote has penned a dandy and, like the best chocolate, it is a guilty delight.
April 15, 2018
The theme that unites Breakfast at Tiffany's with the three much shorter stories in this volume is the powerful bond of friendship between unexpected people or in unusual circumstances.
The title story is a male fantasy - so I wrote in 2010. Except that Capote was gay, so it's probably his idea of a typical straight man's fantasy. As Carmen says in a comment, she's what we'd now call a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Holly
The story is of course about Holly Golightly, a charming but utterly self-absorbed, mysterious fantasist, full of intriguing contradictions. She has big ambitions and none at all, but she does want the security of having breakfast at Tiffany's. She is often flirtatious, but at other times she plays the total innocent (e.g. getting her neighbour to put sun oil on her). At times she is oblivious to what people around her know and think, but at others, she is remarkably perspicacious about the personality and motives of those around her.
Knowing more about Holly only makes one realise how unknowable she is. When talking about her childhood, "it was elusive, nameless, placeless, an impressionistic recital".
Fred
At times, the narrator acts like a stalker of his attractive and enigmatic neighbour (examining her rubbish and investigating what she read at the library), yet he didn't alienate me. Perhaps one reason is the way that Holly uses men. As the men are happy to be used by her, where's the harm?
Film
It's written in such a visual way, that I'm not surprised it was turned into a film. (I hadn't seen the film when I read and wrote this, though I had seen pictures of Audrey Hepburn as Holly.)
Quirky quote
"A group of nuns who were trying on masks" (in a department store).
Quirky "fact"
Holly has a problem with Thursdays, much like Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
The other, shorter stories in this volume
House of Flowers
This starts in a brothel in Port au Prince and the dialogue did not ring at all true to me (but I'm hardly an expert on Haitian prostitution). It explores the friendship between the working girls, and how love is hard to discern in such an environment.
What is love like? "You feel as though pepper had been sprinkled on your heart, as though tiny fish are swimming in your veins".
A Diamond Guitar
About friendship in prison and the effect of long-term incarceration on the psyche.
A Christmas Memory
A beautiful story of the self-made traditions that form a loving bond between a young boy and an elderly relative.
Note: I updated this review in April 2018, picking up on comments below - without rereading the book!
The title story is a male fantasy - so I wrote in 2010. Except that Capote was gay, so it's probably his idea of a typical straight man's fantasy. As Carmen says in a comment, she's what we'd now call a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Holly
The story is of course about Holly Golightly, a charming but utterly self-absorbed, mysterious fantasist, full of intriguing contradictions. She has big ambitions and none at all, but she does want the security of having breakfast at Tiffany's. She is often flirtatious, but at other times she plays the total innocent (e.g. getting her neighbour to put sun oil on her). At times she is oblivious to what people around her know and think, but at others, she is remarkably perspicacious about the personality and motives of those around her.
Knowing more about Holly only makes one realise how unknowable she is. When talking about her childhood, "it was elusive, nameless, placeless, an impressionistic recital".
Fred
At times, the narrator acts like a stalker of his attractive and enigmatic neighbour (examining her rubbish and investigating what she read at the library), yet he didn't alienate me. Perhaps one reason is the way that Holly uses men. As the men are happy to be used by her, where's the harm?
Film
It's written in such a visual way, that I'm not surprised it was turned into a film. (I hadn't seen the film when I read and wrote this, though I had seen pictures of Audrey Hepburn as Holly.)
Quirky quote
"A group of nuns who were trying on masks" (in a department store).
Quirky "fact"
Holly has a problem with Thursdays, much like Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
The other, shorter stories in this volume
House of Flowers
This starts in a brothel in Port au Prince and the dialogue did not ring at all true to me (but I'm hardly an expert on Haitian prostitution). It explores the friendship between the working girls, and how love is hard to discern in such an environment.
What is love like? "You feel as though pepper had been sprinkled on your heart, as though tiny fish are swimming in your veins".
A Diamond Guitar
About friendship in prison and the effect of long-term incarceration on the psyche.
A Christmas Memory
A beautiful story of the self-made traditions that form a loving bond between a young boy and an elderly relative.
Note: I updated this review in April 2018, picking up on comments below - without rereading the book!
August 5, 2016
Fred, our story's narrator, has been called by Joe Bell the proprietor of Hamburg Heaven because he has heard about Holly. So begins Truman Capote's classic Breakfast at Tiffany's, the tale of New York society girl Holly Golightly. As soon as Fred hears about Holly, the story flashes back to 1943 and we begin our story of Holly.
Growing up I knew Aubrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle and Tiffany's as a diamond store, so I envisioned Breakfast at Tiffany's to be a tale of the upper crust of New York society dining at the Plaza Hotel. How wrong was in these thoughts. Our protagonists live in a brownstone apartment, not the Plaza. "Fred" named in honor of Holly's brother is a festering writer who seems to be Capote himself and his upstairs neighbor is a mysterious girl named Holly Golightly who adds traveling to her business cards. Until the two have any interactions, Holly remains an enigma, adding to her mystique.
Throughout the book, Holly still remains an enigma even after she and "Fred" build on their friendly, platonic relationship. Who is Holly? Is she a Hollywood starlet or Arkansas hillbilly? A New York society girl or prostitute or a member of the mafia? Because the novella is only 100 pages in length, Capote tackles all of these ideas while really building up Holly's character. Even though I prefer epic novels, I also enjoy a shorter story that flushes out a character's personality and has me captivated from the first pages. Capote's novella does this and then some, allowing me to quickly read to the conclusion.
Tiffany's does make an appearance in the novella although not the way I had thought it would. Holly in spite of all the glitz in her life, wants to be remembered the same when she has the money to eat breakfast at Tiffany's. Does this mean she will be down to earth or a multi-layered character? Will she keep the same company or dine with movie stars? Capote hints that Holly would prefer the former but never tells us, allowing for the reader to draw their own conclusions. Again, this device enabled me to read the novella in one sitting so I could find out whether or not Holly ever ate breakfast at Tiffany's.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the three other stories included in this novella. All of them bring out Capote's prose and show us why he is highly regarded as a classic American writer. The collection ends on a high note with A Christmas Memory, allowing is some insight into Capote's family life growing up. I look forward to seeing Breakfast at Tiffany's on screen to compare the movie to the book and also reading his masterpiece In Cold Blood. A 5-star classic.
Growing up I knew Aubrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle and Tiffany's as a diamond store, so I envisioned Breakfast at Tiffany's to be a tale of the upper crust of New York society dining at the Plaza Hotel. How wrong was in these thoughts. Our protagonists live in a brownstone apartment, not the Plaza. "Fred" named in honor of Holly's brother is a festering writer who seems to be Capote himself and his upstairs neighbor is a mysterious girl named Holly Golightly who adds traveling to her business cards. Until the two have any interactions, Holly remains an enigma, adding to her mystique.
Throughout the book, Holly still remains an enigma even after she and "Fred" build on their friendly, platonic relationship. Who is Holly? Is she a Hollywood starlet or Arkansas hillbilly? A New York society girl or prostitute or a member of the mafia? Because the novella is only 100 pages in length, Capote tackles all of these ideas while really building up Holly's character. Even though I prefer epic novels, I also enjoy a shorter story that flushes out a character's personality and has me captivated from the first pages. Capote's novella does this and then some, allowing me to quickly read to the conclusion.
Tiffany's does make an appearance in the novella although not the way I had thought it would. Holly in spite of all the glitz in her life, wants to be remembered the same when she has the money to eat breakfast at Tiffany's. Does this mean she will be down to earth or a multi-layered character? Will she keep the same company or dine with movie stars? Capote hints that Holly would prefer the former but never tells us, allowing for the reader to draw their own conclusions. Again, this device enabled me to read the novella in one sitting so I could find out whether or not Holly ever ate breakfast at Tiffany's.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the three other stories included in this novella. All of them bring out Capote's prose and show us why he is highly regarded as a classic American writer. The collection ends on a high note with A Christmas Memory, allowing is some insight into Capote's family life growing up. I look forward to seeing Breakfast at Tiffany's on screen to compare the movie to the book and also reading his masterpiece In Cold Blood. A 5-star classic.
September 2, 2022
Am citit atîtea povestiri nereușite despre fete nebunatice, nesăbuite, zăpăcite, rele, răutăcioase, meschine etc., încît am deschis cartea lui Capote fără să-mi fac nici o iluzie. Am urmărit acțiunea (cîtă este!) cu mult scepticism. Am fost vigilent la fiecare f(r)ază a povestirii, am măsurat gesturile lui Holly Golightly (adevăratul ei nume e, în realitate, Lulamae Barnes) cu asprimea unui judecător de moravuri, am încercat s-o privesc nu prin ochii naratorului fascinat de exuberanta femeie, ci prin ochii mei neîncrezători, exigenți, acri, răi...
Povestirea (că doar n-o fi roman...) m-a constrîns să las la o parte scepticismul. Mi-a plăcut. O fată, un soi de „gheișă americană” (zice Capote), îi zăpăcește pe bărbați și, în urma unui incident bizar (e acuzată de legături cu mafia drogurilor), ia avionul spre Rio și dispare în neant. Așa, pur și simplu. Peste 15 ani, neconsolatul narator anonim și Joe Bell, proprietarul unei crîșme de pe Lexington Avenue, își amintesc de Holly și de fulgerătoarea ei prezență în New York-ul anilor 40. Aș îndrăzni să spun că Holly e o perfectă întrupare a tîrfei neprihănite. Și mai are și umor...
P. S. Am văzut filmul cu Audrey Hepburn cu prea mult timp în urmă și nu mai păstrez nici o amintire legată de el.
Povestirea (că doar n-o fi roman...) m-a constrîns să las la o parte scepticismul. Mi-a plăcut. O fată, un soi de „gheișă americană” (zice Capote), îi zăpăcește pe bărbați și, în urma unui incident bizar (e acuzată de legături cu mafia drogurilor), ia avionul spre Rio și dispare în neant. Așa, pur și simplu. Peste 15 ani, neconsolatul narator anonim și Joe Bell, proprietarul unei crîșme de pe Lexington Avenue, își amintesc de Holly și de fulgerătoarea ei prezență în New York-ul anilor 40. Aș îndrăzni să spun că Holly e o perfectă întrupare a tîrfei neprihănite. Și mai are și umor...
P. S. Am văzut filmul cu Audrey Hepburn cu prea mult timp în urmă și nu mai păstrez nici o amintire legată de el.
March 24, 2022
I spent today in bed because I wasn't feeling well and spent part of that time just reading this from front to end and I have to say it was a nice set of short stories to read while feeling sick and sorry for myself. I feel like writing was comforting and all the stories had that undertone of loneliness or grief that tends to resonate with me. Of course I loved Holly Golightly, I tend to really like flawed/ridiculous/over the top characters. I really liked the last story as well, A Christmas Memory, or maybe it just made me cry so I'm feeling very tender about it. I didn't really like House of Flowers but I did like A Diamond Guitar as well. Overall a good read, hoping to read In Cold Blood sometime soon too since I really enjoyed Capote's writing style.
February 1, 2020
"It's better to look at the sky than live there; such an empty place, so vague, just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear"
[I'd forgotten how absolutely gorgeous Audrey Hepburn was]
Until a decade ago, I'd only seen the trailer for the film version. The phrase "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is iconic for that era. I'd not read the novel despite Truman Capote coming from the 2 states in which I've lived nearly all my life: Alabama and Mississippi, both of which have indisputably earned their places as regular punching bags of all outside the South, especially the cognoscenti and other snobbish bastards who would rather point fingers in a direction than look at all the bigotry around them.
I might be a little differently affected by this short novel than many others, especially those who grew up in a large metropolis. Before I explain what I mean, I'll say that I found Capote's short novel to masterfully display this young lady's complexities of character underlying the shallow facade of wealth. Capote shows how some of us are willing to do nearly anything to achieve a dream, no matter how grandiose or superficial others may find it. Holly Golightly was a dreamer extraordinaire or as Capote put it, a "lopsided romantic" whose trait of personality would never change.
A poignant line which I think best captures a major theme of the novel is Holly's observation late in the novel that:
Though I've lived all my life in the American South, I'm not a redneck. I recall the first time I went to New York City. I was in awe, which is more of a small town thing than Southern. I've been many times since and the sheer size of it never fails to amaze me.
City people, particularly those in NYC, are disgusted by such provincialism--a contempt they cannot hide. Even though I'm straight, I think I can imagine how it must have been for an outcast sissy-boy from Monroeville, AL and Meridian, MS, trying to make his dreams come true in the Big Apple. Certainly, he would have been very sensitive and keenly observant of his environment in New York City, having grown up ostracized by his classmates. The fact that he was a gay man from down South up in the big city (suffering prejudices in NYC against not only his sexuality but much moreso against his Southern upbringing and drawl) probably served to further enhance his remarkable attention to detail in that society, at that time.
These difficulties formed an integral part of the artist who so vividly painted one of the best ever outsiders looking in with longing.
[I'd forgotten how absolutely gorgeous Audrey Hepburn was]
Until a decade ago, I'd only seen the trailer for the film version. The phrase "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is iconic for that era. I'd not read the novel despite Truman Capote coming from the 2 states in which I've lived nearly all my life: Alabama and Mississippi, both of which have indisputably earned their places as regular punching bags of all outside the South, especially the cognoscenti and other snobbish bastards who would rather point fingers in a direction than look at all the bigotry around them.
I might be a little differently affected by this short novel than many others, especially those who grew up in a large metropolis. Before I explain what I mean, I'll say that I found Capote's short novel to masterfully display this young lady's complexities of character underlying the shallow facade of wealth. Capote shows how some of us are willing to do nearly anything to achieve a dream, no matter how grandiose or superficial others may find it. Holly Golightly was a dreamer extraordinaire or as Capote put it, a "lopsided romantic" whose trait of personality would never change.
A poignant line which I think best captures a major theme of the novel is Holly's observation late in the novel that:
"it's better to look at the sky than live there; such an empty place, so vague, just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear."
Though I've lived all my life in the American South, I'm not a redneck. I recall the first time I went to New York City. I was in awe, which is more of a small town thing than Southern. I've been many times since and the sheer size of it never fails to amaze me.
City people, particularly those in NYC, are disgusted by such provincialism--a contempt they cannot hide. Even though I'm straight, I think I can imagine how it must have been for an outcast sissy-boy from Monroeville, AL and Meridian, MS, trying to make his dreams come true in the Big Apple. Certainly, he would have been very sensitive and keenly observant of his environment in New York City, having grown up ostracized by his classmates. The fact that he was a gay man from down South up in the big city (suffering prejudices in NYC against not only his sexuality but much moreso against his Southern upbringing and drawl) probably served to further enhance his remarkable attention to detail in that society, at that time.
These difficulties formed an integral part of the artist who so vividly painted one of the best ever outsiders looking in with longing.
July 18, 2023
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote is an American Classic!
Did you know that Capote's 'Holiday Golightly' is somewhat different from Hollywood's 'Holly Golightly'? In fact, everything about Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's is truer, more realistic, and life-like than the elegant, gentile, and filtered version depicted on the Silver Screen.
What stands out to me the most in this novella is the author's writing style. Truman Capote can write.
Capote held my attention with enlightening spurts of dialogue and the wandering, yet contemplative thoughts of the nameless narrator. In case you don't already know, this story is about the relationship between Holly and her neighbor, who is our nameless narrator.
Told from the narrator's perspective, it's quite an adventure he takes on as he enters into the 'whirlwind of excitement" in the form of nineteen-year-old Holly. This young woman is fiercely social and although she has at least one female friends we know about, it's men Holly chooses to be surrounded by. Lots and lots of wealthy men who provide her with gifts and such...
Listening to the '2 hour 50 minute' audiobook narrated by Michael C. Hall isn't a half-bad way to spend an afternoon. His gender voicing, especially for Holly, is particularly entertaining. I'm usually a little put-off when a male narrator does female voicing but this is "Dexter", after all, and somehow it works. The voice he uses for the nameless narrator sounds unbelievably similar to George Peppard's voice, who plays this character in the movie, and I enjoyed that special nod to the past.
There's a lot to love here. When someone speaks of Breakfast at Tiffany's it seems to strike a pleasant memory and feeling by the look on their face and the smile in their eyes. It's the movie, I think, but the true credit of this common reaction needs to go where it all began, with Capote.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is an American Classic that was first published in the November 1958 issue of Esquire Magazine, almost 65 years ago. This is Truman Capote's story, his characters, it all began with him and I highly recommend this novella!
5⭐
Did you know that Capote's 'Holiday Golightly' is somewhat different from Hollywood's 'Holly Golightly'? In fact, everything about Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's is truer, more realistic, and life-like than the elegant, gentile, and filtered version depicted on the Silver Screen.
What stands out to me the most in this novella is the author's writing style. Truman Capote can write.
Capote held my attention with enlightening spurts of dialogue and the wandering, yet contemplative thoughts of the nameless narrator. In case you don't already know, this story is about the relationship between Holly and her neighbor, who is our nameless narrator.
Told from the narrator's perspective, it's quite an adventure he takes on as he enters into the 'whirlwind of excitement" in the form of nineteen-year-old Holly. This young woman is fiercely social and although she has at least one female friends we know about, it's men Holly chooses to be surrounded by. Lots and lots of wealthy men who provide her with gifts and such...
Listening to the '2 hour 50 minute' audiobook narrated by Michael C. Hall isn't a half-bad way to spend an afternoon. His gender voicing, especially for Holly, is particularly entertaining. I'm usually a little put-off when a male narrator does female voicing but this is "Dexter", after all, and somehow it works. The voice he uses for the nameless narrator sounds unbelievably similar to George Peppard's voice, who plays this character in the movie, and I enjoyed that special nod to the past.
There's a lot to love here. When someone speaks of Breakfast at Tiffany's it seems to strike a pleasant memory and feeling by the look on their face and the smile in their eyes. It's the movie, I think, but the true credit of this common reaction needs to go where it all began, with Capote.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is an American Classic that was first published in the November 1958 issue of Esquire Magazine, almost 65 years ago. This is Truman Capote's story, his characters, it all began with him and I highly recommend this novella!
5⭐
May 17, 2020
Attempted to read in my teens, didn't do anything for me. Twenty-five years later, and now more literary adept, gave it another go. With much better results. Boy oh boy, could he write!.
It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.
Holly is a petite little bundle of scandal in World War II New York society. She works her way through various characters, and any other men who can pay her tab. The narrator, an aspiring Capote-like writer, is her neighbor in their trendy-ish NYC apartment building. He is witness to her parade of gentlemen callers, and as he befriends her and falls in and out of love with her, bears witness to her dramas and the slowly revealed facets of her character and history.
The dialog in Breakfast at Tiffany's is snappy and moves along nicely, very much of the era, but it still sounds almost contemporary in tone if not in verbiage. Holly loves easily and leaves easily. She is easily angered and quick to forgive. She buys expensive gifts on a whim, expects to be treated to expensive things regularly. Eventually we find out where she's really from and how she became Manhattan's Girl About Town. Then she gets in some legal trouble and goes on the lam, leaving the narrator to pine wistfully over her postcards from Brazil or wherever she's fled to.
It's a cute, almost whimsical novel, and was probably much more scandalous when it was written. Neither the author nor the narrator ever come out and say that Holly is a lady of the night, but it's heavily implied. At best, she lives a sugar daddy lifestyle. Today her behavior would barely raise an eyebrow in Manhattan, but in the 40s, when it was written, such a female protagonist was more shocking.
Capote clearly wrote of his central characters with a big heart, of which there is also an echoing bittersweet sadness. It took little time at all to get into the story, which is sizewise of the short novel/lengthy novella mold. Doable in one or two sittings. A worthy read for sure.
It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.
Holly is a petite little bundle of scandal in World War II New York society. She works her way through various characters, and any other men who can pay her tab. The narrator, an aspiring Capote-like writer, is her neighbor in their trendy-ish NYC apartment building. He is witness to her parade of gentlemen callers, and as he befriends her and falls in and out of love with her, bears witness to her dramas and the slowly revealed facets of her character and history.
The dialog in Breakfast at Tiffany's is snappy and moves along nicely, very much of the era, but it still sounds almost contemporary in tone if not in verbiage. Holly loves easily and leaves easily. She is easily angered and quick to forgive. She buys expensive gifts on a whim, expects to be treated to expensive things regularly. Eventually we find out where she's really from and how she became Manhattan's Girl About Town. Then she gets in some legal trouble and goes on the lam, leaving the narrator to pine wistfully over her postcards from Brazil or wherever she's fled to.
It's a cute, almost whimsical novel, and was probably much more scandalous when it was written. Neither the author nor the narrator ever come out and say that Holly is a lady of the night, but it's heavily implied. At best, she lives a sugar daddy lifestyle. Today her behavior would barely raise an eyebrow in Manhattan, but in the 40s, when it was written, such a female protagonist was more shocking.
Capote clearly wrote of his central characters with a big heart, of which there is also an echoing bittersweet sadness. It took little time at all to get into the story, which is sizewise of the short novel/lengthy novella mold. Doable in one or two sittings. A worthy read for sure.
February 28, 2016
"Buono? Non un'onestà di tipo legale - io non ci penserei due volte a profanare una tomba e a rubare gli occhi di un morto se pensassi che può contribuire al mio divertimento quotidiano - ma un'onestà nei confronti di se stessi. Sii quello che vuoi ma non un vigliacco, un fanfarone, un ladro di emozioni, una sgualdrina; preferirei avere il cancro piuttosto che un cuore disonesto. Il che non significa essere pii. Semplicemente pratici. Il cancro può stenderti, ma quell'altra cosa ti stende di sicuro. Oh, ma al diavolo...".
Leggere tutto Truman Capote.
Leggere tutto Truman Capote.
February 12, 2023
First Capote that I read and have absolutely no regrets about, the author brilliantly paints the complexity of feelings and the quest for freedom of youth. I loved this reading, presenting an impossible passionate love and how Capote offers the New York environment.
April 28, 2017
“If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky.”
Told in a reflective and almost lyrical tone, this is the story of a writer, referred to as 'Fred', who reminisces about the neighbor he fell for back in 1943. The thing is, I’m not sure if we ever get a glimpse of the real Holly Golightly.
An enigma of sorts; Holly’s not one to get attached or share much of anything about her past. She avoids the truth by putting a fun and often ridiculous spin on things and she’s full of biting comments. It’s hard to say who she really is under that facetious facade. From all outward appearances, she’s a nineteen-year-old woman who enjoys the company of many men and pretty things. A woman making her way, amidst the excitement and wonder of New York City.
The few things she openly admits - the soft spot she has for her brother (the actual Fred) and her cure for the mean reds. She claims being surrounded by the quiet of Tiffany’s, although we don’t actually see any of that in the book, is enough to calm her soul. You can’t think of the movie, read this book, or in my case listen to the audio without picturing Audrey Hepburn as Holly. She’s become synonymous with Breakfast at Tiffany’s. So my question is - what happened to the trips to Tiffany’s and the ring? Having seen the movie several times before listening to the audio, it felt to me like a piece of the story was missing. With a very different ending, the book didn’t come across as the great love story the movie did. It almost makes me cringe to say this, but I actually enjoyed the movie a tad bit more than the book.
The crazy cat lady in me has to mention how heartbroken I was that Holly left her “cat” behind, too. How could she? At least, he ended up with a home, I guess. And maybe even a name.
If you’re a Dexter fan, like me, you’ll love this audio. Michael C. Hall is the narrator and his voice is pretty unique. There were a few times his voice for Holly made me laugh, but for the most part, his narration was heavenly. At just under three hours, I found this to be a quick but wholly enjoyable listen.
Told in a reflective and almost lyrical tone, this is the story of a writer, referred to as 'Fred', who reminisces about the neighbor he fell for back in 1943. The thing is, I’m not sure if we ever get a glimpse of the real Holly Golightly.
An enigma of sorts; Holly’s not one to get attached or share much of anything about her past. She avoids the truth by putting a fun and often ridiculous spin on things and she’s full of biting comments. It’s hard to say who she really is under that facetious facade. From all outward appearances, she’s a nineteen-year-old woman who enjoys the company of many men and pretty things. A woman making her way, amidst the excitement and wonder of New York City.
The few things she openly admits - the soft spot she has for her brother (the actual Fred) and her cure for the mean reds. She claims being surrounded by the quiet of Tiffany’s, although we don’t actually see any of that in the book, is enough to calm her soul. You can’t think of the movie, read this book, or in my case listen to the audio without picturing Audrey Hepburn as Holly. She’s become synonymous with Breakfast at Tiffany’s. So my question is - what happened to the trips to Tiffany’s and the ring? Having seen the movie several times before listening to the audio, it felt to me like a piece of the story was missing. With a very different ending, the book didn’t come across as the great love story the movie did. It almost makes me cringe to say this, but I actually enjoyed the movie a tad bit more than the book.
The crazy cat lady in me has to mention how heartbroken I was that Holly left her “cat” behind, too. How could she? At least, he ended up with a home, I guess. And maybe even a name.
If you’re a Dexter fan, like me, you’ll love this audio. Michael C. Hall is the narrator and his voice is pretty unique. There were a few times his voice for Holly made me laugh, but for the most part, his narration was heavenly. At just under three hours, I found this to be a quick but wholly enjoyable listen.
January 24, 2021
I’m probably one of the few people on this site who has never seen the film version of this book. I had formed an impression of the film from stills of Audrey Hepburn as she appears in it. My impression turns out to have been largely erroneous, at least as far as the book is concerned. I listened to the audiobook version, superbly narrated by Michael C. Hall.
For those unfamiliar with the story, as I was a week ago, an unnamed narrator relates his fascination with Holly Golightly, his downstairs neighbour in a 1940s NYC brownstone. Apart from Holly, the novel contains several characters with names that are almost Dickensian in their eccentricity. Some of the others include Rusty Trawler, Mag Wildwood and Sally Tomato.
The novel though, is really all about Holly. At the outset of the story she is 18, younger than I expected from seeing the movie stills, and is physically beautiful if somewhat waif-like. She is manipulative, although, in one strand of the plot, is herself manipulated. The only person she genuinely cares for is her brother Fred, who doesn’t directly make an appearance in the story. Despite her rather calculating nature, I can see how her enigmatic personality would reel men in, particularly if they were either a naïve young man or an old fool. The narrator’s own attraction to Holly is primarily non-sexual, since it is strongly implied in the book that he is gay, or predominantly so at least.
This is the first book I’ve read by Truman Capote and I understand why he is so highly regarded as a writer. I shared the narrator’s fascination with Holly and enjoyed how more of her was gradually revealed as the novel progressed. She is a memorable creation.
I suppose I had better watch the film at some point.
For those unfamiliar with the story, as I was a week ago, an unnamed narrator relates his fascination with Holly Golightly, his downstairs neighbour in a 1940s NYC brownstone. Apart from Holly, the novel contains several characters with names that are almost Dickensian in their eccentricity. Some of the others include Rusty Trawler, Mag Wildwood and Sally Tomato.
The novel though, is really all about Holly. At the outset of the story she is 18, younger than I expected from seeing the movie stills, and is physically beautiful if somewhat waif-like. She is manipulative, although, in one strand of the plot, is herself manipulated. The only person she genuinely cares for is her brother Fred, who doesn’t directly make an appearance in the story. Despite her rather calculating nature, I can see how her enigmatic personality would reel men in, particularly if they were either a naïve young man or an old fool. The narrator’s own attraction to Holly is primarily non-sexual, since it is strongly implied in the book that he is gay, or predominantly so at least.
This is the first book I’ve read by Truman Capote and I understand why he is so highly regarded as a writer. I shared the narrator’s fascination with Holly and enjoyed how more of her was gradually revealed as the novel progressed. She is a memorable creation.
I suppose I had better watch the film at some point.
November 8, 2020
"Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell", Holly advised him. "That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky"
"Good luck and believe me, dearest Doc - it's better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear."
"Good luck and believe me, dearest Doc - it's better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear."
May 2, 2020
"Anyway, home is where you feel at home. I'm still looking."
Ok, I no longer believe in 'never Judge a book by its cover'. I read this one mainly because of it's cover. Have you ever feared being trapped by love and similar demons? It is basically about that fear.
"You've got to be sensitive to appreciate her: a streak of the poet. But I'll tell you the truth. You can beat your brains out for her, and she'll hand you horseshit on a platter."
There are some people who, in their easy-going and wanting-to-include-everyone-in-their-joy ways become highly likable to sensitive souls, the sensitive folks find themselves emotionally invested in them only getting indifference in return. The indifference is not always because of malice. Sometimes, these people, just as Holly was, are as sensitive as others but have decided that they won't let themselves caged down even by love.
"Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,"
It is a kind of life that most people are often tempted to lead. We look at the birds flying in the sky and are envious of their so-called 'freedom':
"Don't wanna sleep, don't wanna die, just wanna go a-travelin' through the pastures of the sky."
but:
"and believe me, dearest Doc -- it's better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear."
And so, Holly learned her lesson - freedom,as we wish to see it, is an illusion. The only real freedom we can have is freedom to choose our own cage - and, what we need is to find a cage where we can feel at home. Unfortunately, it was too late.
March 26, 2021
It may be normal, darling; but I’d rather be natural.
کدبانو، خانواده دار، محترم، وابسته، معمولی، بدون آرزوهای بزرگ
این تصویر زن ایده آل دهه چهل آمریکاست. تصویری که هالی گولایتلی در اون نمی گنجه
هالی جذاب، رها، دیوانه و رام نشدنیه و در یک سفر همیشگی زندگی می کنه. مال هیچکس نیست و هیچکس و هیچ چیز هم مال اون نیست. حتی گربه ی بی اسمش. آپارتمانش جوریه که انگار ساکنش هر لحظه در حال رفتنه، چون هالی هنوز خونه اش رو پیدا نکرده
این بخش جالب این کاراکتر فراموش نشدنیه، همون بخشی که هالیوود رو شیفته کرد و توسط آدری هپبورن زیبا به تصویر در اومد
ولی هالی کتاب ترومن کاپوتی فقط این نیست. خیلی سیاه تره. دختری که در چهارده سالگی به خاطر یتیم بودن ازدواج کرده، دختری که هویت و اسمش رو عوض کرده و با اینکه گفته نمی شه فاحشه ست، واضحه که از رفت و آمد با مردان گذران زندگی می کنه. هالی دوره های افسردگی شدید داره و با اینکه در ظاهر زندگی شلوغ و جذابی داره تنهاست. در توهم استقلال زندگی میکنه ولی شاید حتی از زنان دیگه به مردان وابسته تره. معلوم نیست که گاهی خودش رو به حماقت می زنه یا واقعا انقدر سادست که توسط رئیس مافیا به بازی گرفته بشه
ترومن کاپوتی رو از کتاب معروفش "در کمال خونسردی" می شناختم. قلمش با وجود جذابیت مخصوص به خودش و آمریکایی بودن، سردی خاصی داره. این سردی اینجا در نگاه راوی داستان حس میشه. یک جور بی تفاوتی در عین توجه زیاد. راوی ای که اول داستان احتمال مردن یا بستری بودن هالی در یک بیمارستان روانی رو مثل یک حقیقت خیلی معمولی میگه ولی همون فرد ساعت ها دنبال گربه اش می گرده
برای خواننده ی قرن ٢١ مزه پرانی های نژادپرستانه و دید تحقیر آمیز نسبت به هم جنس گرایان به شدت توی چشم می زنه و نمی تونم فکر نکنم که شاید گاهی از قصد این کار رو می کنه. با توجه به اینکه خود کاپوتی آشکارا همجنس گرا بوده و در مورد گرایش جنسی نویسنده ای که راوی داستانه، فردی به شدت شبیه خود کاپوتی، حدث و گمان و تحلیل زیاده
هالی گولایتلی تشابهات زیادی با الهه ی هالیوود مرلین مونرو داره و اگر بدونید که کاپوتی و مونرو دوستان نزدیکی بودند دلیلش رو می فهمید.[کاپوتی حتی یک داستان درباره ی پرسه زدن هاش در نیویورک با مونرو نوشته] هر دو زن، گمشده، تحسین شده و تنها هستند و دنیا تصمیم گرفته فقط بخشی از وجودشون رو ببینه. با دونستن این قضیه شاید بهتر بشه داینامیک عجیب بین هالی و همسایه نویسنده اش رو درک کرد. شیفتگی ای که جنسی نیست، تمایل به بودن در کنارشه نه باهاش. چیزی شبیه به رابطه ی کاپوتی و مونرو
و در نهایت این جمله، که همه ی "هالی" ها رو خلاصه می کنه
Never love a wild thing … you can’t give your heart to a wild thing; the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky.
99.4.8
February 8, 2022
“It’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes.”
I didn't know what to expect from Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I thoroughly enjoyed how Capote told his story. This backwards (at times almost nostalgic) glance at a life which had all but vanished from anything but memory (the whimsically kind and cruel and slightly tragic Holly Golightly) reminded me more of Willa Cather's My Antonia than Capote's other seminal work, In Cold Blood. Of course, Antonia and Holly Golightly have virtually nothing in common except how they occupy the center of the narrator's imagination.
When Jim Burden explores Antonia's character, he discovers depth he didn't fully understand when he was a boy. The narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany's finds a disarmingly charming shallowness in Holly that hides complexity neither he (nor the reader) can fully understand. In the end, the Holly of Capote's novella doesn't match the charming portrayal of Audrey Hepburn in the movie, but Holly, I think, was meant to be a little darker, someone closer to tragedy than the stuff of dreams.
I didn't know what to expect from Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I thoroughly enjoyed how Capote told his story. This backwards (at times almost nostalgic) glance at a life which had all but vanished from anything but memory (the whimsically kind and cruel and slightly tragic Holly Golightly) reminded me more of Willa Cather's My Antonia than Capote's other seminal work, In Cold Blood. Of course, Antonia and Holly Golightly have virtually nothing in common except how they occupy the center of the narrator's imagination.
When Jim Burden explores Antonia's character, he discovers depth he didn't fully understand when he was a boy. The narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany's finds a disarmingly charming shallowness in Holly that hides complexity neither he (nor the reader) can fully understand. In the end, the Holly of Capote's novella doesn't match the charming portrayal of Audrey Hepburn in the movie, but Holly, I think, was meant to be a little darker, someone closer to tragedy than the stuff of dreams.
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