534. Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Truman Capote
1958
Around 180 pages

Another crossover episode! Obviously, this Audrey Hepburn film is on the 1001 movie list. Holly Golightly was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl before we had a term for such a creature. This novella is significantly less rosy and upbeat than the Hollywood adaptation. And you don't have to endure Mickey Rooney portraying Holly's Japanese neighbor. 

Our unnamed narrator befriends his neighbor, Holly Golightly, who was what Capote dubbed "an American geisha." My generation would call her a sugar baby (wouldn't we youngsters?). It's implied that our narrator is gay, but in typical fashion, Hollywood transformed him into a white knight for our damsel in distress.

Capote's Holly is much more layered and real than Hepburn's glamorous portrayal. She's also racist, but I guess the film had that area covered already with Rooney. The novella was the perfect length. Just like Holly, the story is fleeting and hard to lock down. And even though the aesthetic ends up being much less shiny than its film counterpart, the novella still possesses its own unique and alluring charm, due in large part to Holly's personality.

Welcome to the party Truman!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The novella prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation," adding that he "would not have changed two words in Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Capote envisioned Marilyn Monroe for the main role in the movie, but she was unavailable due to studio contracts.

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