Occasionally amusing memoir about an uncle raising his rebellious niece in NYC.

A forty-year-old, gay Manhattanite suddenly becomes the guardian of his troubled 13-year-old niece. It's a very sweet memoir with funny moments and sad moments. As cheesy as it sounds, it reminded me of a group dynamic catch phrase I learned at RA training: forming, storming, norming and performing. You truly see Uncle Eddy and Tiffany go through these stages in the book. Go ahead and read it.

I told myself I would read to page 50 before I stopped if I still didn't like it, but when I started skimming and skipping pages around page 35, I figured I'd just give up.

I know it's a memoir and not a novel, but I just couldn't muster a care for the teenager and the writing was stilted. Kind of like that. I think teenagers who are going through the usual parental angst might enjoy the book, at least to live vicariously through the teenage girl who gets to go live in NYC with her gay uncle.

I like the relationship between Tiffany and his uncle. It's very real and cute. Hahaha..

Si bien la relación entre tío y sobrina me pareció interesante, siento que el fondo de la historia no te lleva a nada.
Se entiende que una adolescente pueda pasar por muchas tribulaciones y que ello, pueda afectar en su día a día pero, no encontré nada relevante.
Sí me pareció cliché que ser el tío gay conlleva a que tenga una enfermedad. Eso me pareció muy meeeee

I found this book to be very funny and heartwarming although I will admit I didn't like the parts that alluded to the authors sex life but I adored the way he spoke of his niece even during her bad moments,his love for her was so apparent. I laughed out loud genuinely many times and thought Tiffany was exactly what her uncle believed she was and that is a brilliant,spunky,talented young woman who just needed to be believed in. I'm happy I read this book.

Fresh and frank memoir of a New York gay man suddenly parenting his teen-aged niece. I wish I'd had this to recommend to people when I was working as a child-and-youth worker with parents of teenagers. It doesn't aim to be a how-to book at all- which is why it works as one.

Interesting story and I enjoyed the writing style. I found this book on a top 100 list of books from 2005 and thought I'd give it a try as I like bios. I'd recommend it!

Title: Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle’s Memoir
Author: Edwin John Wintle
Pages: 352
Publisher: 140135999X (ISBN13: 9781401359997)

Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle’s Memoir is a story about a gay forty-year old uncle becomes the guardian of his niece, a thirteen year old girl named Tiffany. The story started out very interesting with the rebellious experiences of Tiffany from Connecticut. As soon as the story unfolds, I found the tone of the novel dull and drowning. I gave up reading before half way through the book.
At thirteen, Tiffany drinks and smoke and rarely goes to school. The plot seems a little unrealistic from my perspective. I did find motives to continue to read this book at the beginning. However, as the story continues itself, I can easily predict what is going to happen in the next few chapters since it is a memoir: Tiffany moves to New York City to live with his uncle, Tiffany do not like being in New York City, Tiffany slowly adopts to her new environment, and Tiffany gets to know her uncle and they learn from each other so on.
I would recommend this book to people who likes memoirs and people who are undergoing teenager issues such as moving to a new place, and dealing with new relatives and environments. This book is for teenagers, and adults who are trying to get along with each other. People can really get a lot out of Tiffany and her uncle through this book.

Ed is middle-aged single gay man living in New York. His life is pretty cool - nice NY apartment, good job in the movie business - and then he offers to take in his troubled 13-year-old niece, Tiffany. This book chronicles one year of Ed and Tiffany living together. It's based on a true story, although Ed admits that some parts are fictionalized. Perhaps one such part is the fact that his 13-year-old niece is a freshman in high school. I'm not sure how the East Coast school system works, but when I was 13, I was in 7th grade. I turned 15 when I was a freshman in high school. For a kid who apparently is a terrible student, I doubt that "Tiffany" skipped a few grades. But whatever. Nitpicky comments aside, this is a pretty fast-paced story about Ed becoming an overnight father and realizing that taking care of a child is difficult and that teenage girls are scary.

Love love love!

Razoavelzinho
Embora este livro não vá entrar na lista dos meus livros favoritos, eu não me arrependo de ter lido porque trouxe umas mensagens importantes sobre família, respeito e adolescência. Além de ter adorado a abordagem da homossexualidade.

Quando comprei esse livro - nem me lembro quando -, não fazia ideia de que se tratava das memórias do escritor sobre os dois anos em que ele foi o responsável pela sua sobrinha mais velha. Aliás, mesmo depois de ter começado a ler o livro, eu não me atentei a isso. Apenas quando terminei e li o resumo do autor na orelha do livro que cai em mim. Ou seja, esse livro não é um romance de ficção, então não espere um enredo eletrizante e um final em que tudo acaba bem e todo mundo se entende. Mas não desanime porque até que a vida de Edwin tem suas reviravoltas, com a chegada de Tiffany, ganhou mais emoção.

Mas o livro carece de umas edições porque sempre que o escritor queria inserir uma informação nova, por exemplo, que ele tem medo de sapo porque foi mordido por um quando criança, ao invés de apenas colocar essa informação, ele resolvia voltar no passado e relatar todo o dia que viveu até o momento em que foi mordido pelo sapo (eu inventei esse exemplo, não tem nada disso na história rs). Não me incomodou na primeira vez, não atrapalhou na segunda, mas lá pela quinta vez, eu já estava aborrecida de ler isso. Principalmente quando a informação não servia de nada para a história. Talvez a editora tenha pedido um número mínimo de páginas e por isso ele precisou enrolar...

No livro temos outros personagens além de Edwin e Tiffany. E algo que me agradou muito foi ver que a legião de amigos de Edwin era constantemente mencionada ao longo de sua saga para criar a sobrinha.

Não preciso nem dizer que gostei de Edwin. Gostei da relação que ele tinha com a sobrinha. A maioria dos escritores - normalmente héteros - quando escrevem um livro sobre uma relação paternal entre um personagem gay e outro adolescente, tende a adicionar um crush entre o adolescente e o adulto dando a impressão de que homossexuais são tarados. Aqui, como não se tratava apenas de um personagem, pudemos ver a rotina de Edwin, seus rolos, namoros e relações familiares, amorosas e de amizade. E pudemos ver como gays são tchan, tchan, tchan, pessoas normais.

Já a Tiffany... eu tinha uma relação de ódio com ela. Realmente me falta paciência para adolescentes rebeldes e eu só queria que ela amadurecesse um pouco, mas ela me deixava orgulhosa uma hora e me irritava em outra. Além de ser ingrata em alguns trechos do livros. Mas também conseguia enxergar seu lado - e, felizmente, seu tio nunca se esqueceu da razão dela ter tão problemática.

A história acabou abruptamente e espero que Tiffany tenha se emendado um pouco para sua família ter um pouco de paz.