A review by samarakroeger
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

oops, didn't like this one!  there was a LOT of offensive language (racist, homophobic, ableist, etc.) that I was not expecting.  Holly Golightly is an overtly racist, mildly sociopathic fraudster and "American geisha" who does have an interesting backstory as a child bride.  I've never seen the movie, but I'm pretty sure that Audrey Hepburn's Holly bears little to no resemblance to Capote's Holly.

Honestly, the writing was pretty good.  Capote does have a way with words (if you ignore the slurs), but to me it felt like a pale imitation of Fitzgerald.  Really, a lot of the aspects of Breakfast at Tiffany's feel like they were heavily lifted from other works, including from Isherwood and Fitzgerald (who I both consider to be far superior writers).  How did this novella come to be considered an American classic ... I think it was purely because of the association with the (incredibly loose) movie adaptation.

overall, just kinda bleh.  it needed to actually say something, but it really didn't.  Michael C. Hall did a great job narrating the audiobook, though.
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