Title: Breakfast at Tiffany’s: A Short Novel and Three Stories by Truman Capote

Pages: 162

Genres: Fiction, Classic, Short Stories

Published by: Modern Library (Jan. 13th, 1994, originally 1958)

Summary

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.

This edition also contains three stories: ‘House of Flowers’, ‘A Diamond Guitar’ and ‘A Christmas Memory’.

What I Thought

I decided to read Breakfast at Tiffany’s because of how well-loved the movie is. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize it was based on a book until recently. I’ve never seen the movie, but I’ve been wanting to, especially since I saw that it was on Netflix. So, I decided to read the book first.

The first thing that stood out to me was that Holly Golightly was a character who was way ahead of her time. She displayed a very feminist world view and stood up for sexuality, which is something that definitely wasn’t exactly placed in a positive light in the 1950’s when this book was originally published. The character of Holly Golightly is quite complex, and I found her honesty and desire to be shocking to make a really interesting character. She was a little too bratty of a character at times, but even though I didn’t always like her, I felt like it fit her personality well.

That being said, I’m not sure if this was the book for me. The narrator, who is someone who knew Holly, really made me feel disconnected from the story. It felt like he was simply telling what happened when he encountered Holly, as opposed to actually telling a story. Because of that, I spent the whole book almost waiting for the story to begin, if that makes sense.

This copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s also included three other short stories by Truman Capote.

The first short story, House of Flowers was very compelling. It’s about the power of love and choices, even if both choices are very poor. This story is quite short, and is one that really makes you think. I found it interesting, but it wasn’t my favorite.

The next short story was A Diamond Guitar. This one was my least favorite. It’s filled with metaphors, and I definitely think some people will love this story, but I just did not care for it. I got bored through it, and honestly, don’t remember a lot about it. It was a struggle to get through, and honestly, if it was any longer, I would have DNFd it.

The last short story was A Christmas Memory, and it was probably my favorite of them. It’s about a young boy and his elderly cousin who live together. It’s very sweet and heartbreaking.

Overall, I enjoyed parts of this book, but I don’t think this was necessarily the book for me. I just don’t think that I, personally, enjoy Truman Capote’s writing style. That being said, I still plan on watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s and seeing how the book and movie compare.

Follow me on:

Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Litsy (@thecalicobooks)

Buy from:

The Book Depository

(I receive a tiny commission if you follow my BD links!)