Okay, I wrote the damn thing.

What a wonderful read. An uncle has his niece move to New York to live with him and get away from a difficult home situation. As they both learn about each other they learn about themselves and mutual respect develops. It made me laugh and even get teary at times. I'd love the chance to meet them both.

Beginning with a very clever word play title - author Ed Wintle takes us along an amazing nine-month memoir whereby he agrees to foster-parent his thirteen year old ‘problem-chile, too-intelligent-for-her-own-good’ niece before his sister ends up doing-in either her daughter or herself. Let me say right away that I take my hat off to Mr Wintle for his brave and, dare-I-say foolhardy, venture. I'm admit I’ve never been a parent, and after getting through to the end of this book - I'm quite certain I would not voluntarily throw myself into parenting a teenager - and especially not when the teenager is street-smart, creative, sassy, drawn to other troubled youth for company and seemingly a trouble magnet.

Wintle writes with a warm and humorous voice, quickly engaging my attention with the details of his family members, his circle of Big Apple friends, his candid flashbacks to his lost loves, heart-breaking family tragedies and unfulfilled ambitions and dreams. This is definitely not a Disney-production storyline – some very explosive and confrontations between uncle and niece are outlined … but Wintle skilfully weaves enough warm fuzzy connection moments into the book to avoid the whole thing sinking into a sturm und drang pit.

Given the age of the niece, I as an avid reader-observer got to experience the almost to be expected battles with an early teenager over internet and mobile phone use, curfews, drug use, appropriate clothing choices, staying over at friends, allowance limits, safe sex, body image issues and best friend woes. Given Wintle’s age bracket, I was also privy to a range of financial, career, health, dating and mid-life transitional issues facing a stressed forty-something, good-looking film agent. It would seem the dynamic power in their uncle-niece relationship forces each to look honestly at themselves, their motives and needs and subsequent emotional and personal growth is achieved.

Without giving away anything too much, two thirds of the way into the book, Wintle throws up a curve-ball that I wasn’t quite prepared for and it took me the rest of the book to get over this shocking reveal. And so whilst the book ends on a good note for me – there’s some sobering elements which stops the final scenes ending with an all-out song and dance sequence through Central Park.

Throughout the book, I laughed, I cried, I rejoiced, I was outraged … and since I was so thoroughly moved – I can only recommend others read this book to discover what it is like to have breakfast with a Tiffany. Wintle does leave the ending open for some kind of a sequel but I’m not sure he’s working on such at present.

"Uncle Eddy" becomes "Uncle Mame" when he opens his home and heart to his niece in hopes of helping her navigate the stormy adolescence in which she is engaged.

unique memoir of an uncle and niece.

Wintle, a 40-year-old, gay, obsessive-compulsive New Yorker, takes in his 13-year-old niece, Tiffany. Tiffany is being *saved* from her life in Connecticut, where she fought with her recovering alcoholic mother, associated with delinquents and feared her mother's violent boyfriend. Wintle portrays Tiffany as a complex teenager. She drinks, smokes and dabbles in drugs yet sings beautifully, writes poetry and excels in school when she tries. Throughout all the events in Tiffany’s life, Wintle struggles with his responsibilities as a guardian while trying to maintain his own life and career. A good read about love, compromise and trust. Love the playful title. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this as a movie soon, as Wintle negotiates deals between authors and movie studios. Is Dakota Fanning 13 yet? Book #11 of my 2006 Book List, finished reading it on 2-25-06.

This was an unexpected delight of a memoir.

Very New York City, ultraliberal, amoral propaganda that is supposedly a "real story" but ends up reading like a ready-for-Hollywood novel and at best is creative non-fiction. We know up front that "the names and other identifying characteristics of the persons included in this memoir have been changed," so there really isn't a "Tiffany" and the specifics aren't accurate. That's why it's all a bit difficult to believe.

Supposedly a gay film agent with HIV suddenly is asked to take in a wild-child 13-year-old niece and a week later his life is transformed. This is about their year together. "Tiffany" is a caricature that is abandoned by her uncaring parents, swears like a sailor, and thinks she know everything but is allowed to get away with things that are beyond reasonable.

It is filled with all sorts of asides that make the book more about the author's political/social agenda than about any secrets in dealing with an offensive child. Gay dating, anti-war protesting, normalizing trashy NYC, Hollywood politics, literature, health care, mental health therapy, etc. None of it is that interesting unless you're a New York or entertainment industry snob that doesn't understand how the rest of the world operates.

And it's all written very poorly. Almost at a level that makes it read like simplistic teen fiction.

The book culminates in a totally impossible-to-believe scene where the two walk together along the river and he starts singing Moon River to her from Breakfast at Tiffany's! She asks him what a huckleberry friend is and they walk off hand-in-hand together for the first time since she lived there. This imagined movie scene lacks any credibility since we know her name isn't "Tiffany!"

It also leaves us wondering what happened to "Tiffany" since it ends in spring of 2003 and the book was published in 2005.

In those final pages the author admits, "I knew my desire to inspire admiration, even envy, in strangers was nothing to be proud of, but I couldn't help it." Sorry, Wintle, there's little that's inspirational here and to be honest nothing to really be proud of.

This is probably the 4th or 5th time I've read this book. I can't remember why I bought it, or when I got it, but I've always really enjoyed it, and I can't even tell you why exactly. Maybe, being a well behaved A student, having grown up in a middle class suburb, I find it intoxicating to live through Tiffany's not so normal upbringing? Maybe I just love a good gay uncle? Maybe I love seeing Tiffany succeed with the assistance of Uncle Eddy's love? Who knows? But for whatever reason, I find myself reading Breakfast With Tiffany again and liking just as much as the last time.

i wanted to love this story, but instead it was only okay, i felt it was easy to put down half way through the book because by then i had lost interest in the characters.

This was an "eh" book. Even though it was a memoir, the story felt unauthentic. I felt that there were a lot of loose ends regarding Tiffany. Also, the entire time I was reading it, I felt like the author just wanted us to marvel over what an exceptional, generous human being he was for taking in his troubled niece. I had a difficult time sympathizing with anyone in this story.

Very happy that I did not buy this one at B&N.

seems ok.