SUMMARIES to follow: PARAGRAPH, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, HAIKU, MORSE CODE.

THE PARAGRAPH SUMMARY.
I didn't like Holly Golightly. A 1940s woman that comported the way she did and was magnanimized by a sizzling contemporary author must have hit 'brass tacks' in early 1950's literature. From that perspective Breakfast at Tiffany's was something special. But, I didn't like Holly Golightly. She was mercurial, condescending, phony, a prick-tease; she was a vagabond that leached on others. Sure, a confident woman with quasi-sexual links to millionaires, imprisoned maffia kingpins, a swarthy Brazilian manly-man, and a provocative escape story from her youth makes for compelling storytelling. But, I didn't like Holly Golightly. She steamed through life, inconsequentially, letting others foam in her wake. It's a novella, and in less than 100 pages, 5x7 and 13 point font, Truman Capote entreats you to like or dislike Holly Golightly. I didn't. I think that Capote manuevered the story merely to present a few ringing, timeless, profound thoughts about life. The best, deliverd by Holly, and metaphorically about her escape from her husband was this: "Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell," Holly advised him. "That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But 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." Flying=flighty. That's it. That's why I didn't like Holly Golightly.

THE FACEBOOK SUMMARY.
Holly Golightly is a wannabe inamorata. A flirt, a nuisance, much maintenance required. You know my taste in women--she's not my type, so I find her disagreeable. However, Capote has a simple, compelling style of writing, an economy of words. Audrey Hepburn absolutely crushed Holly Golightly. Rent the movie over the book; it's 4 stars to 3.

THE TWITTER SUMMARY.
Capote is in love with Holly Golightly. I've got a problem with her, but the writing is good.

THE HAIKU SUMMARY.
Woman on cruise,
Skittering across class
Not for me.

THE MORSE CODE SUMMARY.
.- / ...- / . / .-. / .- / --. / .

This novella showcases Capote’s gifts in characterization and dialog. It made a pleasant excursion for me to Manhattan as a field of dreams. Where a young unnamed writer (who becomes "you") gets his imagination engaged over an unforgettable character residing upstairs in a Midtown brownstone in 1943. Holly Golightly is barely a woman, lovely, brash and witty. She a bit of gold-digger and a bit of tramp, but there is some level of innocence and integrity that draws our protagonist to her like a moth to a flame.

When she is not noisily entertaining men at all hours, she may be heard on the balcony some days singing a song with her guitar that makes her seem old before her time:
Don’t wanna sleep, don’t wanna die, just wanna go a-travelin’ through the pastures of the sky.

As you get to know her, you get surprised by her sudden acts of generosity, like buying you a coveted, expensive antique birdcage for your birthday, when you don’t even have a bird. Other times, her self-centeredness drives you away:
She was I decided a “crude exhibitionist”, “a time waster”, “an utter fake”: someone never to be spoken to again.

Your affections for her are hopeless as she has her sights set on a sugar daddy you know is not good for her. Yet some people who hang around her remain loyal to her despite the frustrations. An agent friend from California pegs her this way:

She is a phony. But on the other hand, you are right. She isn’t a phony because she’s a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes. You can’t talk her out of it. I’ve tried with tears running down my cheeks

I like the kid. Everybody does, but there’s lots that don’t. I do. I sincerely like the kid. I’m sensitive, that’s why. You’ve got to be sensitive to appreciate her: a streak of the poet. But I’ll tell you the truth. You can beat your brains out for her, and she’ll hand you horseshit on a platter.

Like so many, Holly has come to New York from a troubled past infected with a version of the American Dream. She may aspire to the elegance of high society, but she has an odd sort of integrity that keeps her from fooling herself too soon:
I don’t want to own anything until I found the place where me and things belong together. I’m not sure where that is yet. But I know what it’s like. … It’s like Tiffany’s.

My motivation to read this came from a disappointing experience with The Rules of Civility, Amor Towles atmospheric slice of life novel about social climbers in New York City in the late 30’s. I thing it does a better job in capturing the timeless essence of people intersecting in this world's city at a point in time without a lot of empty plotting.

در مورد کتاب صبحانه در تیفانی نوشتن برام سخته چون دچار احساسات متناقضی شدم! واقعیتش شخصت اصلی این کتاب منو یاد یه نفر انداخت که نسبت به اون هم احساسات دوگانه‌ای داشتم، گاهی شیفته و گاهی متنفر. الان در مورد این شخص هم همه چیز دوگانه بود، این که این دختر آزاد و رهاست یا بی بند و بار؟ کدومش درست تره؟ باهوشه یا ساده؟ و... به نظرم بهترین قسمت کتاب اونجاست که میگه: «شما نمی‌توانید به یک موجود وحشی دل ببندید. هرچه بیشتر دل ببندید، آن موجود قوی‌تر می‌شود. خلاصه آن‌قدر قوی می‌شود که به جنگل فرار می‌کند. یا می‌پرد روی شاخۀ درخت. بعد درختی بلندتر. بعد هم آسمان. اگر به خودت اجازه بدهی عاشق یک موجود وحشی بشوی، سرنوشتت این است که به آسمان چشم بدوزی»ه

Well, what can one say about Holly Golightly. She was beautiful, she was mean, she was independent, sometimes cruel, sometimes caring. Holly was as free as a bird, but shackled by her birth. She was temptress and torturer. She was glue and glamorous. Holly was light and darkness. She conquered and crashed. She loved and loathed.

Holly:"... good things only happen to you if you're good. Good? Honest is more what I mean. Not law-type honest -- I'd rob a grave, I'd steal two-bits off a dead man's eyes if I thought it would contribute to the day's enjoyment -- but unto-thyself-type honest. Be anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a whore: I'd rather have cancer than a dishonest heart. Which isn't being pious. Just practical. Cancer may cool you, but the other's sure to. Oh, screw it, cookie -- hand me my guitar, and I'll sing you a fada in the most perfect Portuguese."

Her story is narrated by her upstairs neighbor, an aspiring writer, who befriended her, despite a downstairs neighbor, Madame Sapphia Spanella's outspoken wrath against Holly: "A crude exhibitionist, a time waster, an utter fake, somebody never to be spoken to again". But Holly was also 'pampered, calmly immaculate, as though she'd been attended by Cleopatra's maids'.

Nineteen year old Holly was from Tulip, Texas, before she landed up in New York. Since the age of fourteen she was on her own, taking care of her brother Fred, who was in the army. He loved peanut butter, which she bought for him anywhere she could find it during the war times.

n  "Fred's a soldier," said Holly. "But I doubt if he'll ever be a statue. Could be. They say the more stupid you are the braver. He's pretty stupid."

"Fred's that boy upstairs? I didn't realize he was a soldier. But he does look stupid."

"Yearning. Not stupid. He wants awfully to be on the inside staring out: anybody with their nose pressed against a glass is liable to look stupid. Anyhow, he's a different Fred. Fred's my brother."

"You call your own f-f-flesh and b-b-blood stupid?"

"If he is he is."n

This is a short novella, about a female character who deserved her place as one of the most outstanding literary characters of all times. What captured me the most is the way this young woman was presented to the world. Someone who could be loved; a young woman who could become a friend. She had heart and soul. She was warm and wonderful. But just as cold and calculating, since she did not quite trust the people's intentions towards her and therefore never really allowed herself to bond with anyone.

n  "I like a man who sees the humor; most of them, they're all pant and puff."n

Her actions prevented people to come too near, even her friends stood aside. A tragic figure. A statistic for the cognoscenti, the people who despised the likes of her.

The film adaptation of this novella was very different from the book. I suspect nobody wanted to play the lead role of Holly, since it was unacceptable for their careers. And to get Audrey Hepburn to be the star, the script had to be changed considerably. The most important difference was to portray Holly as an innocent young woman who did not prostitute herself in the movie. The male lead, played by George Peppard, became a romantic character instead of the gay writer who became her friend in the book(he fell in love with his childhood postman). In the movie he also became a toy-boy himself to a wealthy women (not part of the book).

Although I enjoyed the movie, I loved the book much more.

Truman Capote created a complex character in his iconic writing style. Nobody can forget Holly Golightly. The social realism of the 1940s-New York embraced this girl next door, and made her something very different than the normal portrayal of these social climbers. She became a person with a heart and soul. Someone to empathize with.

A wonderful, soul-touching story. A classic must-read.

A trillion billion times more profound & wonderful than movie, which is drivel, aside from featuring the ever luminous Audrey Hepburn. Sugh a great, great book!!!!

And now to finally watch the movie.... which may take as long as it's taken me to finally read this.

خطر فاش شدن داستان

کتاب صبحانه در تیفانی نوشته ترومن کاپوتی ، یک شخصیت اصلی دارد و داستان حول محور او می چرخد ، خانم هالی گولایتلی
هالی سه خصوصیت اصلی دارد :
او بسیار شاد است و سرخوشانه زندگی می کند و اصولا نوع زندگی او ایجاب می کند که با مردان زیادی رابطه داشته باشد .
هالی در عین حال که باهوش هست کودن هم هست ، او با هوش خود مردان را اغوا می کند و موقعیت و فرصت برای خود فراهم می کند ولی در عین حال آنقدر نادان هم هست که پیام های رمزی یک زندانی را به خارج انتقال دهد !
مهمترین خصلت او همیشه در سفر بودن است ، همان طور که در صندوق پستیش نوشته : هالی گولایتلی در سفر . او ساکن نیست ، همیشه در حرکت است . در اطاقش همیشه همه چیز در چمدان و بسته بندی شده است . در عین حال هالی کمی هم وحشی ایست . در زیباترین بخش کتاب ، هالی خود را این گونه تعریف می کند :
شما نمی‌توانید به یک موجود وحشی دل ببندید. هرچه بیشتر دل ببندید، آن موجود قوی‌تر می‌شود. خلاصه آن‌قدر قوی می‌شود که به جنگل فرار می‌کند. یا می‌پرد روی شاخۀ درخت. بعد درختی بلندتر. بعد هم آسمان. اگر به خودت اجازه بدهی عاشق یک موجود وحشی بشوی، سرنوشتت این است که به آسمان چشم بدوزی
قهرمان دیگر کتاب گربه هالی ایست ، گربه ای که هالی برایش اسمی نگذاشته . آنها همدیگر را کنار رودخانه ای یافته اند و اصلا به هم تعلق ندارند ، به قول هالی هم او موجود مستقلی ایست هم هالی .
اما هالی اشتباه می کند . در پایان این داستان سر خوشانه گربه سروسامانی گرفته و به خانه ای خو کرده و راحت زندگیش را می کند ؛ اما هالی به سفر رفته ، هالی ایست که به قول خود به مرد ثروتمندی چسبیده و خود را در جایی از جهان گم و گور کرده

This was such an engrossing and enjoyable reading experience. I hadn't seen the movie (or any Audrey Hepburn movies, if I'm being honest) and really didn't know what to expect. I still haven't seen the movie, but Holly Golightly is a character I won't soon forget. She had depth and a backstory that I wasn't expecting, and I found her to be utterly charming and awful at once. The scenes just jump off the page and into your mind, they are so vivid and believable-- a testament to the author's ability. I'm excited to revisit this book in the future and to read more by Capote.

I wanted to read 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' to understand how the man who wrote 'In Cold Blood' could have authored the basis for the Audrey Hepburn movie.

Here's the short answer: the novella is nothing like the film. There are certain plot points in common, and the character of Holly Golightly, and even a few strands of dialogue. But the relationship between 'Breakfast at Tiffany's', the story, and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' the movie is roughly that between 'The Little Mermaid,' the Hans Christian Andersen tale and 'The Little Mermaid,' the Disney cartoon. Don't expect a happy ending or a nice moral to the story.

Even half a century after the Capote wrote the story, Holly Golightly is a bit shocking, if only because it's hard to imagine this golddigger and unknowing mob runner as a contemporary of my grandmother.

Yet I can relate to her feelings on buying some furniture and giving the cat a name.

Capote has fascinated me for several reasons: his ambivalent approach to truth in nonfiction, the remarkable way he structured 'In Cold Blood,' and his inspiration of a supporting character in 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Add now his talent for description: fans beat like 'delirious moths,' a character's hair is as yellow as another's teeth. I wish I could see this way.

The three short stories included in this edition are quite good. My favorite was 'A Christmas Memory,' because I think it likely stemmed from Capote's own childhood experiences and because it is poignant and sad rather than just sad.

"Buono? Non un'onestà di tipo legale - io non ci penserei due volte a profanare una tomba e a rubare gli occhi di un morto se pensassi che può contribuire al mio divertimento quotidiano - ma un'onestà nei confronti di se stessi. Sii quello che vuoi ma non un vigliacco, un fanfarone, un ladro di emozioni, una sgualdrina; preferirei avere il cancro piuttosto che un cuore disonesto. Il che non significa essere pii. Semplicemente pratici. Il cancro può stenderti, ma quell'altra cosa ti stende di sicuro. Oh, ma al diavolo...".
Leggere tutto Truman Capote.

So I read it. It was good, Holly was nuts but purposeful. Playing the ditsy blonde was a job to her, it earned her money and other benefits. Kind of disgusting really, but as long as there are rich men with an inflated idea of their own ability to pull pretty women for themselves alone, then there are women who will play up to them.

I loved the way the book was written. The longing of the narrator for the elusive Holly. If only he'd had more money...

3.5 stars

***

Before I actually read the book. On books appearing on my wishlist I've never read. I've actually just started to read this book as my first ever buddy-read and was startled to find it already on my list.

I've never read this book. I don't know why it's here and rated 3 star. Last week it was Infinite Jest that got on my list with a 3* rating and I've never read that either. I wonder how many more books are on it that I have no knowledge of and how this is happening? Is it from GR end or is from people in my shop doing stuff when I've left myself signed into Goodreads? I've had people do stuff before but usually comments, and mostly on a blog I had, not here. This is weird.

So I've changed the dates and cleared the ratings, but still very puzzled.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: Truman Capote's Novella of Love or Something Like It

n  "If she was in this city I'd have seen her. You take a man that likes to walk, a man like me, a man's been walking in the streets going on ten or twelve years, and all those years he's got his eye out for one person, and nobody's ever her, don't it stand to reason she's not there? I see pieces of her all the time, a flat litle bottom, any skinny girl that walks fast and straight--...

It's just that I didn't know you'd been in love with her. Not like that."n

So it is we know that Holly Golightly is gone, that she's been gone for years. And she had her effect on Joe Bell, the bartender at that little place down on Lexington Avenue in the Big Apple.

n  n

Yeah, there's Joe's place. Look hard enough, it's one of those little places tucked away. You probably can't see it. One of those Yellow Cabs is hiding it. Yeah, Joe had it bad. Most men who knew her did, unless they just wanted to use her. There's always that niggling little thought on the nature of what love really is. That it is pure and natural or that it can be purchased. Anything is possible, after all, because everything is negotiable.

Truman Capote first published Breakfast at Tiffany'sin the November, 1958 issue of Esquire Magazine.

n  n

It was considered too obscene for Capote's usual sources for periodical publication, Harper's Baazar and Mademoiselle. After all, it's open to question as to whether Holly is a prostitute. And being a woman who speaks her mind, she wishes she could have a bull dyke for a roommate because they make such excellent housekeepers. Such language would never do, so it was off to Esquire. Random house followed suit, publishing "Tiffany's" as a novella.

n  n

What man hasn't known and loved a Holly Golightly. I have. I lost her. She was hit and killed by a drunk driver--hit her on the wrong side of the road. It was head on. She never had a chance. She was driving home on a Sunday evening, after dinner with her parents, her adopted parents.

She shared several characteristics with Holly Golightly. She didn't know her real parents. She enjoyed men. Her hair was that shining perfect blond with bands of white that made her always look as though the sun shone directly on her head and hers alone. She liked her men older, too, like Holly. Maybe it was being adopted, not knowing where she came from, not knowing where she truly belonged.

But Holly Golightly had taken a new identity, running away from Tulip, Texas, married at the age of fourteen to Doc Barnes, a veterinarian. Her real name is Lula Mae Barnes, just as Capote's mother's name had been Lillie Mae Faulk before she took a more sophisticated name, Nina, after she married Cuban business man Joe Capote.

I attended her funeral, one of so many, her male coterie. But it was when the minister pulled out a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and began to read from it that I was stunned. For I gave her that book, in the hope, the dream that she would realize if you love anything enough it will become alive. She kept that book all the many years we were apart. Perhaps on some days she thought of me. I know that I still think of her and on some days, like Joe Bell, the bartender, I see bits and pieces of her as I walk the city streets, especially when the sun illuminates the gold, the white, the platinum of a feminine head of hair as if it showed on no other person on boulevard, no matter how bright the sun.

Oh, you say Holly Golightly was a brunette--like Audrey Hepburn. Well, that was Blake Edwards' idea of what Holly Golightly looked like. But it wasn't Capote's idea who should play her. It was Marilyn Monroe. No question. It was that blonde hair, almost platinum. But Capote only sold the film rights. He maintained no control over the direction or production of the film.

Capote was such a wonderful dancer. I can still remember photographs of him swirling Marilyn across the dance floor.

n  n

But Lee Strausberg told Marilyn playing Holly Golightly, a prostitute, wouldn't be good for her career. Monroe turned down the role for "The Misfits." It would be her last film. But that's another story.

History took its course. Henry Mancini composed "Moon River" for the score. George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn had chemistry. Following its release in 1961, Edwards' work became one of the iconic American films. However, it bears little resemblance to Capote's work, although Audrey Hepburn is stunning in that little black dress.

It was not uncommon that movies made from Faulkner's books premiered in Oxford, Mississippi. One, to Faulkner's chagrin, bore so little comparison to his original work, when called to the stage to make opening remarks, Faulkner said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the film you're about to see bears absolutely no resemblance to the book I wrote from which the title of this film was taken." He walked off stage and out of the theatre. I can't imagine Capote taking that approach, he was still connected to a famous film that led to further sales of his work. Perhaps it was that desire for fame that ultimately destroyed Capote.

Of course, in the novella, the young writer is unpublished. Holly takes it upon herself to make him famous by introducing him to her Hollywood agent. In the movie, Peppard is a kept man, whose, shall we say, sponsor, is played by Patricia Neal, who is known to Holly as 2E, the lady's apartment number. And, of course, the movie ends happily ever after with George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn embracing in the rain and having found "Cat" whom Holly had kicked out of the taxi cab.

But Capote tells Holly's view regarding love, or whatever feeling she is capable of describing as love.

n   "Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell," Holly advised him. "That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But 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."n

Truman Capote considered Holly Golightly his favorite character. I think he was right in his feelings. Of course, Capote, has said that the narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany's was gay. In fact, it has been repeatedly surmised that Holly Golightly is the literary embodiment of Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles. What divine decadence. The movie would never have ended the way it did, had Capote maintained creative control.

Let's just say this one will always touch a nerve in me. This one is for all the Holly Golightlys in the world and the Joe Bells who have the sense to listen to them, and I offer it with all the heartfelt sympathy I can muster for those who can't understand what it means to love a wild thing.