I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s weird to me to find books that I could swear I’d read. In the case of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve seen the movie or loved other Capote books or just heard that Deep Blue Something song so many times (as if I wouldn’t make that reference), but it surprised me to realize I hadn’t read the book considering it hits so many enjoyment points for me.
I liked the book as a whole but I couldn’t get invested in it as easily as my past few books, and certainly not as much as some of Capote’s other work. If you want something totally engrossing, check out In Cold Blood. I really wanted a book to disappear into this week, so I guess it was a little disappointing- more a reflection of my mindset than the book itself, I suppose, but not my best choice.
The characters were so frustrating. While Audrey Hepburn is absolutely adorable and iconic in this role, it’s easy to get annoyed with Holly Golightly. She goes through life with no sense of her impact on others…or finds a way to justify it to herself. To borrow the most awful phrase, the “manic-pixie-dream girl” thing is particularly uncompelling in a book that could benefit from a single strong character. (Fun fact: one of the first characters assigned this classification was Natalie Portman’s Sam in Garden State, which really only shows that I can make virtually anything come back to Zach Braff.)
And speaking of weak characters, the narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany’s reminded me of the most unsympathetic, pathetic and whiniest narrator of all time, Nick Carraway. (And to Tobey Maguire: you did no favors to him/yourself in that movie.)
If you’re looking for a Capote book about a girl who has her own mind and does whatever she wants, I’m more drawn to Grady in Summer Crossing than Holly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but they’re good enough in their own ways.
You’ll like this if: you like flaky and whiny people, maybe? Holly certainly is the former; the unnamed narrator is the latter.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 