It sounds like a sitcom: "troublemaking teenage girl from the sticks moves in with gay uncle in the city." It's a true story and both uncle and niece learn about each other and themselves -- without the story ever degenerating into cliches or sappiness. An honest, amusing, and sometimes poignant memoir. Recommended by Ruth, who has always read something worthwhile for her bookclub!

Nice book about a gay uncle taking on the responsibility of caring for his "growing-too-quickly" niece. Cute stories and lots of realistic moments. But read the credits and discover the nieces actual name is Brittany, not Tiffany.

Not a great read.

Maybe he's not a great writer; but he surely is a great uncle. He's a 40 year old gay man (a self-confessed "drama queen") who takes in his 13 year old neice. She is having some issues with her mother, her sister, school, discipline, drugs, unsavory friends, etc. He is trying to steer her in the right direction and decides to bring her to New York City where she will live with him and go to school. I can't resist a good book about New York City.

Throughout this book I rooted for Tiffany and her uncle to make things work, to save Tiffany from falling in with juvenile delinquents, to give her hope for her future, and at the same time I was a little disappointed in the memoirist. He's more self-centered than I could sympathize with, even after learning what he'd been through in his own life from adolescence onwards. At times he was just as much a teenager as his niece, and that was his downfall in his conflicts with her. I suspect he at least had some internal acknowledgment of his failure to be the mature adult in their relationship, but sometimes I wanted him to admit it to his readers, too. Still, this book inclues a refreshingly honest take on American urban teenage life, as well as dysfunctional family issues like alcoholism, domestic violence, and general irresponsibility and selfishness.

I accidentally bought this book when I meant to buy "Breakfast at Sally's." I mistook it because they're both memoirs and both have the word "breakfast" in the title. It was a good mistake to make...I loved this book. Not because it was so incredibly well written, because it wasn't. But the story was beautiful and completely poignant for me.

If you have ever had, have or are about to have a teenage daughter read this book. End of.

Best book ever written (besides the Bible)

My teacher gave me a small stack of books to read upon hearing how much I love reading, and claimed that this was her all-time favourite. Honestly, the title is what really appealed to me - clearly, it wasn't anything to do with Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I appreciated the reference.

This novel, this memoir, is a truthful, brutally honest book about life. I can't say I know what it's like to be in the author's place - I'm not a man, I'm not gay, I am not the guardian of my niece and I don't even live in America - but the little things are just so real.

Tiffany's home life isn't great, and one day her uncle volunteers to take her in. Never did he anticipate so much drama and pain from such a small girl. She's thirteen when she first moves in with her Uncle Eddy, and despite being a nice girl she is known to hang around with the wrong crowd. No matter how hard he tries, Eddy cannot prevent her from finding similar friends at her new school.

The pair really go through their ups and downs, and Ed himself talks a lot about personal thoughts and issues. He'd tested HIV-positive many years ago, and was also an unsuccessful actor. He broke up with his boyfriend relatively recently, and suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. Basically, life just has not turned out the way he'd planned.

Living with a teenager teaches him a lot of things. He is reminded of his own youth, and has to get on with his life all while keeping Tiffany going too. It's not easy. Things do get rough, and he does find himself wondering why he ever got himself into this. But in the end their relationship is good, and they have a lot of fun together.

I did find this book great. It has hints of humour, conveys the bitter truth, and even gave me a taste of what it's like to be a guardian of a teenage girl. There are definitely references I would have appreciated more had I been older than sixteen, and many of Ed's problems, thoughts or situations may have been more interesting or important to an older generation.

That being said, I actually kind of loved this book. It isn't quite in my favourites - but who knows, maybe in thirty years time it will be. I think I can easily give Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle's Memoir 4.5 stars out of the full five.

Very enjoyable book, some parts were a bit disturbing but that comes from living a fairly sheltered life!

My dad's cousin wrote this!!!!!!!

Jeden z ciekawszych pamiętników jakie było mi dane napotkać