This is getting shelved under "The Movie is Better" but honestly, I can't decide which version I prefer. Because I am indecisive, let's make lists.

Reasons The Movie Is Better:
-Audrey Hepburn plays a considerably less racist and foul-mouthed Holly, which is nice. But let's be honest: Holly could spend the entire movie snorting crack off a sidewalk and Audrey Hepburn would make it the most elegant and classy crack-snorting anyone had ever seen.
-Holly actually sets foot inside Tiffany's, instead of just talking about it. Also she is actually seen eating breakfast outside the store, instead of just mentioning it offhandedly.
-The lines, "It's useful being top banana in the shock department" and "I don't want you to take me home until I'm very drunk. Very drunk indeed."
-A happy, schmoopy, formulaic romantic ending in the rain that never fails to win me over. And they come back for Cat.
-George Peppard.

Reasons The Book Is Better:
-Mag Wildwood, a mere caricature in the movie, gets more lines, personality, and scenes in the book.
-Holly is eighteen at the beginning of the story, which makes her instantly more of a badass teen slut, which I admired her for.
-Mr. Yunioshi actually has a sizable shred of dignity and is vital to the plot. This did wonders to undo the damage caused by the sight of a sweaty, overtanned, bucktoothed Mickey Rooney leaning over a banister and screeching, "Missa Gorightry! I musta plotest!"

*shudder* Is Mickey Rooney dead? If not, could someone please find him and kill him for thinking he could successfully imitate a Japanese man without turning into a walking stereotype? Thank you.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Bottom line: the book made me sad, and the movie does not.

I listened to Breakfast at Tiffany's as an audio, which is a perfect way to absorb this one. I'd never seen the movie and I've never read the book, but the characters and story felt very familiar. This is probably because the dance between the naive adoring narrator and the elusive Holly Golightly has become somewhat iconic. I love Capote's language. With very few words, he conveys very clearly what is going on between the characters. And the audio is lovely.

Livro que surpreende, encanta e se abandona com um sorriso já de saudade da extravagante e original Holly, do seu gato, do seu amor à vida.

«- Querido – pediu-me ela - , eras capaz de abrir aquela gaveta e dares-me a minha mala? Uma miúda não se presta a ler este tipo de coisas sem usar o seu bâton.»

Dizem que Truman Capote tinha um grande amor por gatos, pelo que não seja estranho que o felino sem nome do livro Boneca de Luxo desempenhe um papel importante no coração da história. Holly resume a novela com a citação: «Se eu pudesse encontrar um lugar da vida real que me fizesse sentir como Tiffany, então eu ia comprar alguns móveis e dar um nome ao gato.»

E ainda:

«Pobre desgraçado… – lamentou-se, coçando-lhe a cabeça. – Pobre desgraçado sem nome. Não é muito correcto que ele não tenha um nome. Mas eu não tenho qualquer direito de lhe pôr um nome, vai ter de esperar pertencer a alguém. Nós apenas nos encontramos um belo dia à beira-rio, não pertencemos um ao outro, ele e eu somos independentes».

Uma jovem em viagem à procura da sua casa, aquela onde se sinta em casa.

Audrey Hepburn’s Holly is so fucking adorable. You want to be her friend. You want to help her. You want to hug her. Truman Capote’s Holly is just awful. I hated her so much. And instantly too. I don’t know what the narrator saw in her. She's a world-class whore in more ways than one. Are we supposed to be charmed by her racism and homophobia? Beguiled by her ridiculous, histrionic bullshit?

I enjoyed Capote's In Cold Blood, and found that dark, true-crime telling at odds with what I imagined this book was about (I haven't seen the movie, but am very familiar with the glamourous images of Audrey Hepburn that people immediately associate with this story). When I was considering reading this, I stumbled upon the audiobook, which was, lo and behold, narrated by none other than Michael C. Hall. I had to listen!

First of all, I loved hearing Hall's voice again, after years of no Dexter. He has a wonderful voice. He did a great job narrating, although I have to say I didn't enjoy hearing him read Holly's dialogue in a womanly sounding voice. It sounded weird, and possibly put me off of her as a character a little. Which brings me to what I thought of the book:

I assumed this book was vintage 'chick lit', but it was more than that. I'm willing to bet that the book is deeper and darker than the movie. Holiday Golightly is a mysterious young woman who makes her living off men (she has been described by Capote as a modern day Geisha), who makes quite an impression on the nameless narrator. I think Capote wanted us to like her, see her as a damaged, vulnerable, lost girl who needs saving and a place she can call home. She's beautiful, charming and men flock to her. She's shocking (for the time, and for now, I daresay). She's at times thoughtful. But I found her, amidst her "darlings", pretty unlikeable and completely self absorbed. I tired of her omissions and trying to figure her out, which presents a problem when reading this book.

Capote is a wonderful writer, and I enjoyed listening to his prose. But at the end of it all, I was left a little empty.

n  It may be normal, darling; but I’d rather be natural.
n

کدبانو، خانواده‌دار، محترم، وابسته، معمولی، بدون آرزوهای بزرگ

این تصویر زن ایده‌آل دهه‌ی چهل آمریکاست. تصویری که هالی گولایتلی در ��ون نمی گنجه
هالی جذاب، رها، دیوانه و رام نشدنیه و در یک سفر همیشگی زندگی می کنه. متعلق به هیچکس نیست و هیچکس و هیچ چیز هم متعلق به او نیست. حتی گربه‌ی بی‌اسمش. آپارتمانش جوریه که انگار ساکنش هر لحظه در حال رفتنه، چون هالی هنوز خونه‌ش رو پیدا نکرده

این بخش جالب این کاراکتر فراموش نشدنیه، همون بخشی که هالیوود رو شیفته کرد و توسط آدری هپبورن زیبا به تصویر در اومد

ولی هالی در کتاب ترومن کاپوتی فقط این نیست. بسیار سیاه‌تره. دختری که در چهارده سالگی به خاطر یتیم بودن ازدواج کرده، دختری که هویت و اسمش رو عوض کرده و با اینکه به طور مستقیم گفته نمی‌شه فاحشه‌ست، واضحه که از رفت و آمد با مردان گذران زندگی می‌کنه. هالی دوره‌های افسردگی شدید داره و با اینکه در ظاهر زندگی شلوغ و جذابی داره، در واقع تنهاست. در توهم استقلال زندگی میکنه ولی شاید حتی از زنان دیگه به مردان وابسته تره. معلوم نیست که گاهی خودش رو به حماقت می زنه یا واقعا انقدر سادست که توسط رئیس مافیا به بازی گرفته بشه

ترومن کاپوتی رو از کتاب معروفش "در کمال خونسردی" می‌شناختم. قلمش با وجود جذابیت مخصوص به خودش و آمریکایی بودن، سردی خاصی داره. این سردی اینجا در نگاه راوی داستان حس میشه. یک جور بی‌تفاوتی در عین توجه زیاد. راوی‌ای که اول داستان احتمال مردن یا بستری بودن هالی در یک بیمارستان روانی رو مثل یک حقیقت خیلی معمولی میگه ولی همون فرد ساعت‌ها دنبال گربه‌ی هالی می‌گرده

برای خواننده‌ی قرن بیست و یک مزه‌پرانی‌های نژادپرستانه و دید تحقیر آمیز نسبت به هم جنس‌گرایان به شدت توی چشم می‌زنه و نمی‌تونم فکر نکنم که شاید گاهی از قصد این کار رو می‌کنه. با توجه به اینکه خود کاپوتی آشکارا همجنس‌گرا بوده، در مورد گرایش جنسی راوی داستان که نویسنده هم هست، حدث و گمان و تحلیل زیاده

هالی گولایتلی تشابهات زیادی با الهه‌ی هالیوود مرلین مونرو داره و اگر بدونید که کاپوتی و مونرو دوستان نزدیکی بودند دلیلش رو می‌فهمید.[کاپوتی حتی یک داستان درباره‌ی پرسه زدن‌هاش در نیویورک با مونرو نوشته] هر دو زن، گمشده، تحسین‌شده و تنها هستند و دنیا تصمیم گرفته فقط بخشی از وجودشون رو ببینه. با دونستن این قضیه شاید بهتر بشه داینامیک عجیب بین هالی و همسایه‌ی نویسنده‌اش رو درک کرد. شیفتگی‌ای که جنسی نیست، و بیشتر تمایل به بودن در کنارشه، نه باهاش. چیزی شبیه به رابطه‌ی کاپوتی و مونرو.

و در نهایت این جمله، که همه‌ی "هالی"ها رو خلاصه می کنه

Never love a wild thing … 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.

کتاب و صوتیش رو می‌تونید از اینجا دانلود کنید
Maede's Books

۱۳۹۹/۴/۸

I listened to this on audio with Michael C Hall as the narrator. He did a great job even though I had to get past Dexter reading the book to me -ha.

However, I didn't connect to the story at all. I thought it a very mediocre story and Holly Golightly a crude opportunist. After reading it I have no idea why Audrey Hepburn was cast in the movie role. In the words of Capote himself Holly was an "American Geisha" girl looking for wealthy men to support her in a high-class lifestyle. Maybe it had meaning for the times in which it was written but I found nothing appealing or informative about the story. No one in my book club liked it.

This is a rare case where I'd recommend the movie over the book. It's vastly different than the book - in a good way.

Delicious.

Upon finishing Truman Capote’s 1958 brilliant short novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s my first thought was that Capote had been influenced heavily by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 Jazz Age masterpiece The Great Gatsby. I was intrigued further to find that several other reviewers had noticed the same similarities. Both involve and are centrally concerned with a charismatic and alluring socialite with humble beginnings and sketchy personal details and with a subtle naiveté hidden under a mask of societal cunning bordering on the streetwise.

I would also draw a comparison between Holly and Vladimir Nabokov’s Dolores from his 1955 work Lolita. Both heroines exhibit a frank and earthy, almost playful sexuality that is intoxicating to the male characters, who pine and lust with barely contained libido.

Finally, I see similarities between Capote’s themes and settings and Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, especially between the tense platonic relationship concerning Holly and the narrator and Hemingway’s Lady Brett and Jake. Both male narrators are sad caricatures of voyeuristic and doomed love, both pale also-rans to the Latin rivals.

In Holly Golightly, Capote has created an archetypal American woman of the twentieth century, at once sexual and material, yet in a playful, teasing and fun way. He could have written another hundred pages of scenes with her and I would have been as captivated as the unnamed (except casually by Holly) narrator. Of course, Audrey Hepburn’s 1961 portrayal was so intoxicating as to become one with Capote’s vision.

Capote has penned a dandy and, like the best chocolate, it is a guilty delight.

As many here, I am a person who grew up hearing the name “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” so it’s no surprise that i Iooked it up the moment I learned how to watch movies on my own. And as my obsession went, I loved the adaptation. There was something soothing the way Hepburn’s Holly Golightly spoke, at times I was so addicted to the character, I watched the story to watch Hepburn across the screen rather than for the plot. It’s no surprise once again I’ve watched many times rather than just once. It is something like a guilty pleasure for me, along with 10 things I hate about you. Despite all of this I had never read the book. I got it down many years ago but never got around to read it. But in my recent challenge to myself of reading books that I’ve put off for a while, I planned to tackle this next.

I would not go as far as mentioning that I loved the book but just as Hepburn’s Holly was addictive for me, this had its charm that managed to keep me reading it till the end. It is a novella thus easier to read and finish. There was something to it that felt as if I was sitting alone in a theater and watching a black and white movie in front of me. This from me is a compliment as black and white movies are my favorite. There were times I was confused as to where the story was going but something in it kept me hooked. There were times I was thinking, what really is going on with Ms Holly? Is she truly right in her head? Maybe my analytical skills are not on par with others so I did not comprehend it well. Maybe no one truly is supposed to know the character of Holly.

The ending is not the perfect ending that is wrapped up like you would expect but it stay true to its other counterparts written at that time. An ending that leaves us reader figuring out what truly happened.

Will I ever read it again? Most probably not. It will continue to sit on its previous position collecting dust and maybe just like our narrator once in a while I’ll think back to it and wonder what Ms Holly really is up to and pick it up to go through the same cycle once again.

4.5 estrellas
Me enamoré de la pluma de Capote.
Una novela corta con personajes muy pintorescos y muy muy particulares.
Holly es una chica que a pesar de tener 19 años y una vida aparentemente superficial y libertina, tiene una filosofía de vida tremenda.
Frases que te dejan pensando y sobretodo situaciones que te hacen ver que infancia es destino: inestabilidad , no encontrar tu lugar en el mundo.
¡Me encantaron los diálogos y su narrativa!

4.0**
had to bump this up to 4 stars after rereading. It's a delightful read and Holiday Golightly easily absorbs you into her life.

"You can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get.... if you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky." (Holiday Golightly).

Holiday "Holly" Golightly is pursued by mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires. She is a heart-breaker, a traveller, a perplexer and a tease. She is mean and she is kind, she is naive yet knowledgable, her character is contradictory. She lives in a dream and never settles into one place, ready to take flight. She's unique and she is an enigma, and this is what draws the narrator, "Fred" , in.

This story is told from "Fred's" POV. He is looking at Holly's social circle from the outside in, trying to make way into the circle where martini parties, gramophone music and socialising take place. It follows how he thinks and feels about Holly, her turbulent lifestyle and how him and Holly meet and interact during their time spent together. Largely it faces how he is intrigued by her, and through this curiosity and wonder, he forms a love for her.

Through their interactions together, "Fred" also meets a number of interesting characters intertwined with Holly's life. Truman Capote does a brilliant job of writing and describing these characters and their settings, that it is easy to imagine the scenes of the book.

Through these interactions and the revealing and unravelling of characters, you begin to understand that Holly's life has had some very dark moments, despite her usual put-together appearances and fun lifestyle.

Holly's character is definitely a tease and her life-style sounds so interesting. There's constant socialising, propositions and scandal- she never has a dull moment. Her life is especially interesting to imagine through the time period of 1940s New York. Her character is definitely the opposite to most people and this is what draws you in to her. She is an enigma and she is fascinating.

This book also contained 3 short stories: "House of Flowers", "A diamond guitar" and "A Christmas Memory." All were very well written and lyrical in their prose. My favourite was "A Christmas Memory" which examines an important friendship between a young boy and his older cousin. It explores loneliness and friendship and you develop empathy for these characters. It was a short story and gripped me from the start.

Overall a rather good modern classic and a very easy read ! ☺️

Για μένα πατρίδα είναι εκεί που αισθάνεσαι οτι βρίσκεσαι στο σπίτι σου. Και γώ το μέρος αυτό το ψάχνω ακόμα.

Απο τους πιο ζωντανούς χαρακτήρες που πέρασαν ποτέ απο το χαρτί. Άψογα σκιαγραφημένη, αλλοπρόσαλλα ρομαντική χωρίς όμως ποτέ να μπορούμε να την προσεγγίσουμε πλήρως και να την αποκρυπτογραφήσουμε. Εξου και η γοητεία της. Και το οτι βρίζει σαν νταλικέρης αλλα δυστυχώς δεν το γευτήκαμε σε όλο του το μεγαλείο αυτό το χάρισμα.