Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Breakfast at Tiffany's A short novel and three stories by Truman Capote

Truman was an incredible writer, and I think overall the prose here is as masterful as his tends to be, but it’s worth noting that this book has a lot of depictions of people having deeply entrenched biases and using very derogatory language. Personally, I find the “historical accuracy”/“it’s of its times” argument complicated at best when it is employed: to be clear, I’m willing to approach a work where it’s at, but if I think the bigoted sentiments being depicted are being endorsed within the narrative or by the author, the time and place in which it was written doesn’t make a difference in my judgment of something. Ultimately, I don’t think Capote was agreeing with the characters in this work (or in much any of his work, really), so much as showing us a lense into the world he saw around him. That being said, I still wouldn’t be able to in good conscience recommend this to people as an “entertainment” read, especially without huge caveats for period-typical language and depictions of various kinds of bigotry.

Something I find interesting about Holly Golightly in the book, as opposed to the film, is that she is far more overtly flawed and ergo more human—I know a lot of people say she’s the manic pixie dream girl prototype, but to me, the film embodies that much more than the book. The book contains fragments of that, for sure, but it feels more like a story about people perceiving someone in that way than a story pushing the concept; Holly’s presence is ephemeral, fleeting, but also incredibly sharp and sometimes callous, and in her, I can’t help but see Nina Capote (or Lillie Mae Faulk), Truman’s mother. I think that in itself is a big part of why she’s seen in such a glittering way despite being a relatively bad friend and person, not to mention the animosity broiling beneath the narrator’s surface towards her just as much as his affection for her. Glamorous, hell-bent on becoming part of a particular upper echelon of society, and ultimately, as cruel beneath the surface as they are enthralling: these words describe Holly, Truman, and Nina each in their own right.

At its core, this is a story of home, of belonging, of identity, and of the search for that: but central to that, too, is both hopefulness and uncertainty. The characters at play, obviously save for the cat, are generally not very likeable. The facts about Holly Golightly are on unstable ground, and how accurate the narrator’s interpretation of her is, as well; as for the narrator, his identity in the story is built up entirely around his connection to Holly, and despite us knowing his life extends beyond her, he does not share it with us. Their characters are reflected in the cat, who ultimately may have found a name of his own, but as he doesn’t belong to Holly or to the narrator in the end, we never learn it; he is ultimately both a symbol of freedom and of belonging, and in the end, it seems he may be the only one who has settled into a home. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a dreamlike snapshot of New York café society from its fringes, transient and grimy, longing for home and leaving us wondering if the narrator or the central heroine ever found it.

Content Warnings

rosiekorzie's review against another edition

Go to review page

fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

samarakroeger's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

oops, didn't like this one! there was a LOT of offensive language (racist, homophobic, ableist, etc.) that I was not expecting. Holly Golightly is an overtly racist, mildly sociopathic fraudster and "American geisha" who does have an interesting backstory as a child bride. I've never seen the movie, but I'm pretty sure that Audrey Hepburn's Holly bears little to no resemblance to Capote's Holly.

Honestly, the writing was pretty good. Capote does have a way with words (if you ignore the slurs), but to me it felt like a pale imitation of Fitzgerald. Really, a lot of the aspects of Breakfast at Tiffany's feel like they were heavily lifted from other works, including from Isherwood and Fitzgerald (who I both consider to be far superior writers). How did this novella come to be considered an American classic ... I think it was purely because of the association with the (incredibly loose) movie adaptation.

overall, just kinda bleh. it needed to actually say something, but it really didn't. Michael C. Hall did a great job narrating the audiobook, though.

Content Warnings

grannycat's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Content Warnings

sydneybedell's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Content Warnings

More...