Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 4 stars

“interesting stories. Breakfast at Tiffany's was much darker than I would have thought. I enjoyed his style of writing.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Much better than the movie!”

• Rated 5 stars

“Amazing book, I love Capote (: ”

• Rated 0 stars

“The last story in Truman Capote's book : A Christmas Memory ,I liked it best ,it was just like a piece of music!”

• Rated 2 stars

“I love the movie but the book disappointed.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Admittedly, out of this collection of short stories, I only read Breakfast at Tiffany's (but it was the longest one!). I am in love with everything Tiffany & Co., but this is one of those rare cases where I believe the movie is 1,000,000 times better than Truman Capote's style of writing.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This novella showcases Capote’s gifts in characterization and dialog. It made a pleasant excursion for me to Manhattan as a field of dreams. Where a young unnamed writer gets his imagination engaged over an unforgettable character residing upstairs in a Midtown brownstone in 1943. Holly Golightly is barely a woman, lovely, brash and witty. She a bit of gold-digger and a bit of tramp, but there is some level of innocence and integrity that draws our protagonist to her like a moth to a flame.

When she is not noisily entertaining men at all hours, she may be heard on the balcony some days singing a song with her guitar that makes her seem old before her time:
Don’t wanna sleep, don’t wanna die, just wanna go a-travelin’ through the pastures of the sky.

As you get to know her, you get surprised by her sudden acts of generosity, like buying you a coveted, expensive antique birdcage for your birthday, when you don’t even have a bird. Other times, her self-centeredness drives you away:
She was I decided a “crude exhibitionist”, “a time waster”, “an utter fake”: someone never to be spoken to again.

Your affections for her are hopeless as she has her sights set on a sugar daddy you know is not good for her. Yet some people who hang around her remain loyal to her despite the frustrations. An agent friend from California pegs her this way:

She is a phony. But on the other hand, you are 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

I like the kid. Everybody does, but there’s lots that don’t. I do. I sincerely like the kid. I’m sensitive, that’s why. 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.

Like so many, Holly has come to New York from a troubled past infected with a version of the American Dream. She may aspire to the elegance of high society, but she has an odd sort of integrity that keeps her from fooling herself too soon:
I don’t want to own anything until I found the place where me and things belong together. I’m not sure where that is yet. But I know what it’s like. … It’s like Tiffany’s.[./i]

My motivation to read this came from a disappointing experience with The Rules of Civility, Amor Towles atmospheric slice of life novel about social climbers in New York City in the late 30’s. I thing it does a better job in capturing the essence of the place and time without a lot of empty plotting.
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