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c_dmckinney's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Technically the book is well written and Michael C Hall's narration is perfect for the nameless narrator. I just hated the story the whole way through.
Holly Golightly is something like a proto-Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl. She's flighty and traumatized and profoundly unwell and all the men in her life are obsessed with her and using her for various purposes all their own. I have a lot of pity and empathy for her and a lot of frustration and what is probably disdain for most of the men in her life.
I definitely understand that a major issue I have with this is that I am a woman in the year 2024 with a history of trauma of my own and a background in mental healthcare education and I am unable to fully remove my context from this story from 1958.
Holly Golightly is something like a proto-Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl. She's flighty and traumatized and profoundly unwell and all the men in her life are obsessed with her and using her for various purposes all their own. I have a lot of pity and empathy for her and a lot of frustration and what is probably disdain for most of the men in her life.
I definitely understand that a major issue I have with this is that I am a woman in the year 2024 with a history of trauma of my own and a background in mental healthcare education and I am unable to fully remove my context from this story from 1958.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Racism
henrygravesprince's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Truman was an incredible writer, and I think overall the prose here is as masterful as his tends to be, but it’s worth noting that this book has a lot of depictions of people having deeply entrenched biases and using very derogatory language. Personally, I find the “historical accuracy”/“it’s of its times” argument complicated at best when it is employed: to be clear, I’m willing to approach a work where it’s at, but if I think the bigoted sentiments being depicted are being endorsed within the narrative or by the author, the time and place in which it was written doesn’t make a difference in my judgment of something. Ultimately, I don’t think Capote was agreeing with the characters in this work (or in much any of his work, really), so much as showing us a lense into the world he saw around him. That being said, I still wouldn’t be able to in good conscience recommend this to people as an “entertainment” read, especially without huge caveats for period-typical language and depictions of various kinds of bigotry.
Something I find interesting about Holly Golightly in the book, as opposed to the film, is that she is far more overtly flawed and ergo more human—I know a lot of people say she’s the manic pixie dream girl prototype, but to me, the film embodies that much more than the book. The book contains fragments of that, for sure, but it feels more like a story about people perceiving someone in that way than a story pushing the concept; Holly’s presence is ephemeral, fleeting, but also incredibly sharp and sometimes callous, and in her, I can’t help but see Nina Capote (or Lillie Mae Faulk), Truman’s mother. I think that in itself is a big part of why she’s seen in such a glittering way despite being a relatively bad friend and person, not to mention the animosity broiling beneath the narrator’s surface towards her just as much as his affection for her. Glamorous, hell-bent on becoming part of a particular upper echelon of society, and ultimately, as cruel beneath the surface as they are enthralling: these words describe Holly, Truman, and Nina each in their own right.
At its core, this is a story of home, of belonging, of identity, and of the search for that: but central to that, too, is both hopefulness and uncertainty. The characters are play, obviously save for the cat, are generally not very likeable. The facts about Holly Golightly are on unstable ground, and how accurate the narrator’s interpretation of her is, as well; as for the narrator, his identity in the story is built up entirely around his connection to Holly, and despite us knowing his life extends beyond her, he does not share it with us. Their characters are reflected in the cat, who ultimately may have found a name of his own, but as he doesn’t belong to Holly or to the narrator in the end, we never learn it; he is ultimately both a symbol of freedom and of belonging, and in the end, it seems he may be the only one who has settled into a home. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a dreamlike snapshot of New York café society from its fringes, transient and grimy, longing for home and leaving us wondering if the narrator or the central heroine ever found it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, Ableism, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Miscarriage, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, and Drug use
mermaidsherbet's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Stalking
Minor: Death, War, Violence, Racism, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Blood, Cursing, and Xenophobia
burnyayhayley's review against another edition
challenging
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
I don't really know what I expected, though I was unfortunately not surprised by the problematic, outdated language.
This story is so odd, but I have to admit that the character of Holly is fascinating— in the way that compulsive liars who are friends with everyone are often fascinating.
I found the reveals to be quite effective, I was taken aback several times, which I should credit to the pace and tone of the book being so light and airy that when something surprising happens it falls like a ton of bricks. There is clearly skill in the writing, but for the first third of the book at least, I really was questioning why this was a beloved classic.
And why is it that SO MANY AUTHORS write from the perspective of a useless male narrator who doesn't even get a story that has any closure? What is the attraction to that perspective?
Anyway, it was okay, and I do like it when classics are weirder than I expect.
This story is so odd, but I have to admit that the character of Holly is fascinating— in the way that compulsive liars who are friends with everyone are often fascinating.
I found the reveals to be quite effective, I was taken aback several times, which I should credit to the pace and tone of the book being so light and airy that when something surprising happens it falls like a ton of bricks. There is clearly skill in the writing, but for the first third of the book at least, I really was questioning why this was a beloved classic.
And why is it that SO MANY AUTHORS write from the perspective of a useless male narrator who doesn't even get a story that has any closure? What is the attraction to that perspective?
Anyway, it was okay, and I do like it when classics are weirder than I expect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Sexism
Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and War
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