Breakfast at Tiffany's
Ratings232
Average rating3.6
I read this decades back. Brilliant. It's hard to believe that the same author who wrote In Cold Blood also wrote this wonderfully poignant tale of a young woman at sea in New York.
Somehow the first capote I've read. There are bits of it which aged like milk but otherwise this is a pretty stellar short novel. Also the audiobook is read by Michael C Hall in a top notch performance.
3.5 stars
Micheal c Hall is just stellar as the narrator. I'm not always a fan of men doing women's voices, but his were believable. Sometimes I even forgot that he was the only one narrating because there were different accents and things that were really well done. I didn't quite connect to the story even though it's very well written.
The narrative changes and it can be hard to know who is talking or what is going on. There is a lot going on in the story, but I found it an interesting story.
2.5 I'm not a fan of the movie, but liked this a lot more. I've had a string of disappointing reads of classic books this year. It's hard to get past all the racist comments and descriptors that get casually thrown around.
This volume also includes three of Capote's best-known stories, “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory.”
Truman Capote style is great. It's easy to read, and most importantly, enjoyable.
I enjoyed the book more the second time around, especially when narrated by Michael C Hall. The narration definitely put a new, darker, spin on the book for me. I loved all Hall's character voices except that of Holly, but I'd still give this 5 star for the narration and 4 or less for Capote because I still just don't really like the book.
Not sure how I managed to live 32,5 years on this planet without ever reading the book or even watching the movie.
Holly Golightly is a surprisingly dark character, very nicely penned.
Although I love Truman Capote's style and especially his short stories, Breakfast at Tiffany's has never been on my radar. I haven't watched the film, either, of course. For some reason, knowing the subject matter, I knew this wouldn't be my cup of tea. I started reading it a few days ago, because of a group discussion, and the conclusion I came to was the same all along. The prose flows naturally, Holly Golightly is an interesting character with her ‘‘joie de vivre'' attitude in life, and the narrator -called ‘‘Fred'' by our heroine, is a voice of reason and sympathy. However, I still fail to see the appeal of the novella, as the plot is nothing special. Perhaps this is exactly why people are fascinated by it. Perhaps it is the way of simplicity with which Capote wants to pass his message to the reader. It is an entertaining story, but not something I would read again.
The three stories that are included in Breakfast at Tiffany's 50th anniversary edition are House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar and the moving, beautiful A Christmas Memory.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is really a great book while staying quite simple. It's a recollection of memories of an encounter with a truly distinct and petulant lady : Holly Golightly. The way the novel is built bring us back to those memories, and I think I've never felt such a connection with a memory than through this book. For such a (too) short moment, I felt connected to the narrator and seemed to also get to know Holly, her bluntness, her character, her craziness, ... I can't really explain what made me love this novel so much, but there it is, I really grew fond of Holly and all her world, and while the book ends on quite an open note, it left me with a sweet feeling...
“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.”
While this way a very good character sketch, I didn't really feel any way about this novella. Holly slept around and had a very unrealistic view of life. However everyone has dreams, but Holly just had no sense of where she was headed in life. All she knew was she wanted to live wherever she felt was home, a place similar to how she feels when she's at Tiffany's. I guess my problem with this short story is that I couldn't connect with Holly's life nor the narrator's feeling towards Holly. I just couldn't get into the story that much, but the writing of it is wonderful and for its time it displays very risque behavior for a female in the 1940s. If not for Capote's wonderful character sketch and insight into a city and time period portraying what was acceptable and unacceptable in such a bold, sassy Holly, I probably would've gave this novella only 1 star.
I'm glad I read this, as I was not familiar with the story behind Breakfast at Tiffany's. But I actually liked the short stories at the end more than I liked Holly Golightly's story.
Beautiful and devastating. I'm glad I read this. It definitely added to my appreciation of the movie.
Am not sure why this one resonates with so many, why it's so acclaimed, but it is. For the most part, the narrative left me cold, as did the characters.
Capote's descriptions on the other hand...great stuff, delicious writing there. Made it worth my while, but I can't imagine I'll be back for more.
I haven't seen the movie in its entirety but I found the story insightful and intriguing. The relationship between the narrator and Holly is deep and realistic. Holly is free spirited, complex and naive. The character never faltered in the story. Capote's writing seems effortless and is not to be ignored. “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “ A Christmas Memory” should not be overlooked.
Fourth hour, fourth book completed. (Mind you, all my books for the read-a-thon were jump started; I'm not really reading books...I'm finishing them.)
And not just another book completed...another GREAT book completed. I would recommend highly all the books I've read today.
Breakfast at Tiffany's. I'd seen the movie. I've read two other Capote books and was wowed by them. Breakfast at Tiffany's is equally wonderful. The juxtaposition of our narrator and Holly Golightly makes the book. Holly would probably be called manic-depressive today when she was hospitalized but to the narrator and her other admirers she has that rare zest for life that is to wonderous to behold. Others, more thoughtful observers, would also see in Holly the devastation she left in her wake.
Who is Holly Golightly? If you answered a character in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's then you're in the minority (and you're wrong). If you answered Audrey Hepburn, you're right. (Don't give me that look!)
Unfortunately for Truman Capote's novella, Blake Edwards' 1961 rendition of Breakfast at Tiffany's remains the quintessential telling of this story in most people's minds. Hepburn proved to be an attractive, charming, and even mature casting of Golightly. Nearly fifty years later, many movie buffs are still relishing in her spell.
The Holly Golightly of Capote's 1958 novella is none of the things Hepburn was; she was naive, vulgar, and nearly hopeless. With Hepburn's charm gone, Breakfast at Tiffany's loses nearly everything of value. Capote's journalistic writing in this story leaves little to consider and the story is nearly forgettable.
It would be easy to write off Capote as a literary impostor if it weren't for the other stories that are included with most (if not all) editions of the novella. Three tales, “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory,” showcase Capote's talent to paint a beautiful picture with words. None more so than “A Christmas Memory,” the story of a young boy and his best friend, an elderly woman on the verge of losing her mind.
The theme in all four of these titles is friendship, especially those unique in their nature. Regardless of the similar theme, each story feels unique and has its own valuable qualities; yes, even Breakfast at Tiffany's, although I personally would rather have my breakfast with Audrey.
(From The Literary Snob)