Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was not sure what to expect, but this is very different from the movie (which I probably haven’t seen in 20 years, so my memory could be sketchy). There’s a good amount of telling and passive sentences up front, which was at first off-putting, but then I got used to it and stopped fixating on it. It helped once there was more dialogue.

Holly Golightly is an eccentric, fanciful, and sometimes shallow individual. She seems to be all talk and no real substance, though there are moments where she also seems to take action or to see things on a deeper level. I can’t decide if those are accidental, or if those are the true Holly. She’s definitely self-centered and selfish at times (so she’s human), but she’s also a woman who was trying to be who she wanted to be in a time in which it was much harder to achieve that. She seems flighty sometimes, but she also seems to grab life by the throat and really live it, in a way most people are scared to do.

Maybe all the versions of her are true. I shifted frequently between disliking her, feeling sorry for her, trying to understand her, and being amused by her. One moment I would feel disappointed, and the next impressed. Then I considered that the story seems to be entirely told from male perspectives, which could have skewed or romanticized who Holly really was. They often talk about her like this mythical creature, which means they potentially only saw the most surface level versions of her.

Considering how much time I spent pondering this short novel, I think that means that it’s still a decent read, after all these years. It gave me something to think about and was entertaining.

Based on this story, I think Capote must have been a clever man. He has this way of throwing out dialogue that sounds light, but if you really pay attention, it is littered with comments that have real depth or that really mean something. It’s easy to overlook, because there will be something profound tucked right in the middle of some lighthearted rambling.

I was prepared to be disappointed, but overall I was intrigued by all the idiosyncrasies.

Book 44 read in 2019

Pages: 142