Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories

I've heard about Breakfast at Tiffany's for years and finally got around to reading it. I'm kicking myself for waiting so long!In Breakfast at Tiffany's, we meet Holly Golightly, a young woman who just can't seem to find a place where she belongs. She can't settle. The narrator, her friend and would-be boyfriend (if she asked), tells the story of Holly's various adventures. It's not just her story, though. It's also the narrator's, and reading this story is almost like a coming-of-age story crossed with a romance crossed with something akin to slice-of-life.It's so, so rare to read a book with a narrative voice as strong as in Breakfast at Tiffany's. All the descriptions are perfect. The mood-setting is perfect. The characterization is amazing. I know some people complain about the length of the story, but think of what Breakfast at Tiffany's is really *about*: finding some place you belong, your home. That kind of story can't go on too long. It would be depressing. For those of us nearing middle age who haven't found our home, I can tell you it *is* depressing. No, the story is just right.This book also includes a story called House of Flowers. In House of Flowers, we meet the vain, albeit illiterate, Ottilie. Ottilie has been "picked up" into, say, a finer society on the basis of her looks, although her friends recognize her intelligence. When her friends talk about love, Ottilie realizes she's never felt it and seeks out a Houngan to help her. All she has to do is hold a bee. If it doesn't sting her, she's found love.Ottilie does discover love with a man named Royal Bonaparte. But there's a problem: Old Bonaparte, a nasty old woman determined to make Ottilie's life miserable, and her husband's reaction to Ottilie's solution.This is one of those stories where you leave thinking the main character has no self-respect and that maybe she took the "wise old mentor's" advice a little too seriously. After Breakfast at Tiffany's, House of Flowers was a huge let-down.In A Diamond Guitar, we meet Mr Schaeffer, one of a couple hundred prisoners in a farm where they perform labor. One day, a Cuban boy, Tico, is brought to the farm after being caught cutting up some sailors, and he has a "guitar with jewels all over it". The two become fast friends.But with his guitar, Tico brings to mind what the men have lost beyond the farm. Many of them--Mr Schaeffer included--are there basically for the rest of their lives. There's something going on with Tico, too. Finally, he convinces Mr Schaeffer to make a run for it with him.An excellent story, sad as hell. There's not much more you can say about this one. You need to read it to understand.Finally, we have A Christmas Morning, with an old woman and her 7-year-old cousin, "Buddy". Buddy is enlisted, as usual for this time of year, to help his cousin make fruitcakes. The story is almost a study in contrasts as the two go about making fruitcakes, but not so much between Buddy and his cousin, but rather between the two and the family that doesn't like them much, and between Buddy's cousin and the life she hasn't lived (and has no interest in, it seems), and where the old goes and the young goes. The two are what should be an inseparable pair, but life rolls on.A very sweet, very sad story. Reminds me a lot of my grandpa before he died. We were best friends. The family often snapped at us. I grew up and got busy with a career, and the cancer found its way to grandpa's brain. That's how the world turns, isn't it? You make an old friend when you're young, and as you go, so do they.This is an excellent collection. I will almost certainly read more from this author when I get the chance.

There are some racial slurs in Breakfast at Tiffany's that did tarnish moments of this read for me. As a whole, the writing is exquisite. Holly Golightly is one of the most complex and textured subjects of a story I've ever read. A sad tale of striving for better when starting with nothing.The short stories to follow are so beautiful.

I bought this after reading Truman’s Women. Very interesting put a new light on this book

Well written, imaginative, and joyful, these Capote gems capture places in time more completely than any film or camera. Rich dialogue and detailed descriptions create scenes unfolding like sections in a play.

In an interview with Playboy, Capote calls Holly Golightly an "American geisha."Set in the mid 1940s, Breakfast at Tiffany's takes a striking look at female sexuality.Holly Golightly is one of America's most famous and controversial heroines. The blonde beauty stumbles gracefully-perhaps a little tipsy-into the narrator's life and assumes command of his heart and the story. The narrator is a sad sort of person. He reminds me of Nick from The Great Gatsby. They are both ineffectual men who are in love with a woman, all the while completely disapproving of her.Holly hails from Texas, where at 14 she married and became a step-mother. Soon she abandoned her post as wife and mother for life in the big city. The ex-child-bride makes a living by spending time with wealthy men who shower her with gifts and cash. She is a New York cafe society girl. Holly is not a prostitute really. Nevertheless, Holly is a skill-less girl in an era when women didn't have a lot of options. Independence comes at a price.Near the end of the story, the prospect of marriage opens up an opportunity to leave her life as a geisha behind, and Holly jumps at the idea of domesticity and motherhood. Marriage seems to be her only way out of society girl life. But when she gets in trouble with the law, Holly's marriage plans fall to pieces.Every man in the story is completely taken with Holly. There is something about her beautiful nonchalance and engaging, endless chatter that has men falling over themselves just to be around her. Breakfast at Tiffany's is really quite a pathetic portrayal of men.Yet Holly is not exactly likeable either. Under her elegantly simple exterior, she is a maze of contradictions. She's rather shallow, has no convictions, doesn't seem too bright, and is kind of a floozy. Yet she adores her brother and is sympathetic toward her former husband; these glimpses of her humanity make her a believable-if not likable- character. Her unpredictability is infinitely intriguing!By the way, Breakfast at Tiffany's is actually a novella, meaning an incredibly short novel (or an incredibly long short story). The novella itself is about 90 pages long, but Breakfast at Tiffany's is an umbrella title that shelters three additional stories (I skipped those).

I’ve been on a kick lately of reading classic literature, and thought some Truman Capote would be a good addition to my list. Glad I did. It’s so well written.

Llego en buen estado, la calidad del libro es buena

Einfach eine schöne Geschichte. Noch viel schöner und tiefgehender, als der FIlm. Die Charaktere sind im Buch viel ausführlicher, verständlicher und liebevoller gezeichnet. (Klar, liegt am Medium, aber Fakt ist: Das Lesen lohnt sich, auch wenn man den Film schon kennt!)

一度原文を読んでおきたかったので、手ごろな価格で良かったと思います。またページ数が本文95頁でしたので、なんとか肺活量のとどく範囲で読めたので助かりました。本書は映画にもなりましたし、映画－翻訳－原文と3つを楽しめる最適な教材だと思います。

Good book

❤ ''Dont you just love it'' ''Love What?'' '' Tiffany's '' ❤What girl hasn't seen this movie or read the book and wanted to be just like Holly Golightly.I decided to read Breakfast at Tiffany’s because of the iconic movie in which Audrey Hepburn plays a 19-year-old Holly Golightly. At 176 pages this is a light read, and structured more like a story than a novel. The author paints her in a way that makes you struggle between admiring her, and feeling sorry for her.This is an old time classic and Truman Capote's Is an Amazing writer. His descriptions are so vivid that, as your thinking them up in your mind, it's as if you're actually in the story. Capote is a magnificent storyteller.Would without a doubt recommend darlings