Breakfast at Tiffany's

Rating:
Summary: WOW, WHAT A BOOK!
Review: Breakfast at Tiffany's is a perfect novel. It should be studied by creative writing classes in order to observe the best ways to use humor, wit, tragedy, and freedom in their work. This is the story of Holly Golightly, a young 19 year old who is simply searching for a place that feels like home which she has never discovered. So she is always moving, always kinetically charged for the next big love affair, the next big happening in her life. Surrounded by men who fawn all over her, it is amazing to witness the kindness she exhibits to them. Capote does a marvelous job of showing that it is Holly who is being exploited in her relationships, even though her only income is from the men she picks up. She encounters a young writer named Fred who develops a platonic relationship with her and it is he who narrates the novel. She is looking for shelter and the only place she finds that is at Tiffany's. Something in the ambience of the place makes her feel secure and that nothing bad could happen. So she's always looking for that place. The novel is about her search. Along the way, the truth about her past is revealed and you admire her even more. She's probably one of the most memorable female characters I've ever encountered. The only complaint I have about it is that it was too short. At the end you feel like you were left hanging and that it should have continued.

Also in this edition there are 3 short stories and the quality of them decreases in the order of their inclusion. The first story, "House of Flowers", is great. It's about a Port-au-Prince prostitute searching for true love and finding it. Don't worry, it's not Pretty Woman. This story carries a very dark humor involving voodoo and a haunting from beyond the grave. "A Diamond Guitar" is about a prison camp and the relationship between an old con and a new arrival who dreams only of escape. "A Christmas Memory" is a boring and slight story involving childhood memories and is not even worth reading.

I loved this book. I cannot sing the praise of Breakfast enough. If you want a novel to be efficent, precise, funny, and beautiful, read this work.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I read this book because I absolutely LOVE the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn. The book is excellent and there are distinct differences between the book and the movie, of course, but neither the book or the movie is harmed by these differences. Audrey Hepburn was a brilliant Holly Golightly! The story, Breakfast at Tiffany's is very interesting and very well written. (of course, Hollywood had to change the ending!!)

Also in this book are three short stories that are very interesting and a bonus to the reader.

I highly recommend this book. It is excellent!

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to BE Holly Golightly
Review: I first read this book in college, when a roommate recommended it to me. I instantly fell in love with and wanted to BE Holly Golightly. She is such an intense, strong, beautiful (inside and out) character who lived life on her own terms, no matter what was thrown her way. Every man who came into contact with her fell in love, not because she was beautiful but because she was a free creature that they wanted to tame, even though they knew she should not and could not be. The events of Holly's life are mostly her own making. And when they aren't, she makes the best of a bad situation. She is an inspiration to all who read her story. Mr. Capote has created a character for the ages; one who can and should inspire one to live life on their own terms, no matter what.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and entertaining read
Review: As soon as this book begins, you fall in love with it. Holly Golightly, the main female character,is described so well, and it made me wish that I knew her! Capote writes an entertaining and riviting story, highly worthwhile book.

Rating:
Summary: Walking Into Their World
Review: The reason I chose this book is because the word "Tiffany". We all know "Tiffany & Co.", the most famous jewelry store in America. I though this book was talking about female's favor, diamond, but there is nothing about diamond after I finished reading the first short story. Basically, the novel is dividing into three short stories. This book was very easy to understand, was described within the modern words and the issue that we face in today's life. The main character, Holly Golightly, is a brilliantly and charming woman. She makes you feel like she lives in the same house as you do. Everyone came in contact with her falls in love with her. As I kept reading the book, I loved the way it described Holly's appearance, feelings, lifestyles, and actions. Trying to find yourself from your life is the theory or model in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I feel it was a great theory because it dealt with something everyone will face sooner or later. Not everything went perfectly. I found it somewhat boring to just read the conversations between the characters, in which some had no point. Generally, the book is fun because when I read it, I could compare later and now and realized the change in our society.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Charming
Review: I love this story. The story, as well as the style. It moves so quickly, it's a shock when you get to the end (a sad shock). Gives you a warm feeling, even though the story has a lot of sorrow. You have to laugh at how naive Holly is, especially when she seems to consider herself so worldly. In a word: Charming.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone knows a Holly Golightly
Review: I think everyone will find something in this Capote masterpiece that they can reflect on their own lives. She is a brilliantly described character that you feel like she lives downstairs from you. Everyone that comes in contact with her, indeed falls in love. Capote and Joe Bell are no different. She realizes this but is so hard to get close too. She is like the cat, set out alone in the world. She didn't even want to be personal with the cat by not naming him, no attachments. I think everyone would like to be carefree like Holly but just can't. Capote loved her but just being around her was like oxygen, he didn't want to push the relationship and not have her around. I could go on and on.......must read!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: I first picked up this book at about age 10( after seeing the movie a while back) and couldnt grasp it, now at 13 i read and loved this book. I love the way capote writes, and Holy is an amzing character, who has woderful development during the story. If u have seen the movie, and other old ones by hepburn u can see her playing holly perfectly.

Rating:
Summary: Fun loving book!
Review: In every book their is a moral. Something the reader continues to think about long after the novel is read. This book deals with one specific issue we all face today. Trying to find one's self is the moral in Breakfast at Tiffany's. The main character, Holly Golightly, a bright, charming woman, was trying to do just that.

With the title in tact, Holly thought nothing bad could ever happen to her at Tiffany's. She would eat breakfast there, while staring at the fine jewlery. Shorty into the book she got to know her neighbor (the narrator). They instanly became friends. Holly would always be with different men and she loved having parties in her apartment. One day she got a telegram saying her brother had died overseas. She became depressed and her appearance started changing. Later on an article came out about her being involved with a drug smuggling case. She never talked about it with anyone. She was going to marry a man named Rusty although he married her good friend. With nothing going for her, she leaves for Brazil in search of a new life.

This book was very easy to understand. I loved how modern it was and the way it described Holly's appearance, feelings, moods, and actions. It was great how it dealt with something everyone faces sooner or later; fitting in and finding your place.

I didn't like how sometimes there was nothing going on in the book. I found it somewhat boring to just read the narrator and Holly's conversations, in which some had no point. Other than that, it was a great story!

I believe this book is great for adolescent and twenty year old women. They can really relate to a lot of issues discussed within it. Men could even enjoy Breakfast at Tiffany's because Holly deals with everyday issues. It should be read when someone is feeling down and know they are not alone with stresses they have in their life.

There is one quote that sticks out in my mind. This took place when Holly was describing her love for Tiffany's. "...get into a taxi and go to Tiffany's...nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets." This just shows how empty Holly's life seems because a jewlery store can give her the most pleasure.

Go out and buy this book today!!

Rating:
Summary: Four Tales of Belonging
Review: The well-known short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and three of Truman Capote's most famous short stories make for a continually fresh and exciting look at how human beings successfully connect with one another. No matter how many times you read these stories, you will be moved by Mr. Capote's marvelous sense of and appreciation for the specialness of each life and the ways we belong to each other. Having not read Breakfast at Tiffany's for about 30 years, I came away much more impressed with the novel than I was the last time I read it. Perhaps you will have the same reaction upon rereading it as well. If you are reading it for the first time, you have a very nice surprise ahead of you!

Breakfast at Tiffany's revolves around Holly Golightly, the former starlet and cafe society item, who floats lightly through life (like cotton fibers in the wind) looking for where she belongs. Ms. Golightly is and will remain one of the most original and intriguing characters in American fiction. Like a magician, she is both more and less than she seems. But she has an appreciation for people and animals that goes to the core of her soul that will touch you (if you are like me), especially in her desire that they and she be free.

The novel has a harder edge and is more revealing about human nature than the movie is. Of the two, I suggest you start with the novel and graduate to the movie. You will appreciate the portrayal by Audrey Hepburn of the inner Holly more that way. The same humor is in both the novel and the movie, as well as the innocent look at life for what it can be, believing in the potential of things to work out for the best.

Despite that upbeat note, her weakness is that for all of her ability to understand what motivates other people she does not understand herself well enough to know when she does belong with and to others. This is symbolized by her abandonment of her unnamed cat, and quick realization that they do belong together. As for the friends she leaves behind, she never seems to appreciate how much they love her and want to be with her. As a result, she abandons them as well . . . leaving them with memories to warm their winter nights.

Mr. Capote is now realized to have been a more autobiographical writer than was appreciated when he first published his fiction. Your understanding of Breakfast at Tiffany's will grow if you keep in mind that it was modeled in part on his friendship with Marilyn Monroe. If you do not know her history, you will find that it closely paralleled Holly's through age 18.

The same is true of his short story, "A Christmas Memory." I suggest that you read about Mr. Capote's childhood in the recent book, A Southern Haunting of Truman Capote, to fully appreciate the magic of this story. His "friend" in the story was based on a beloved figure in his young life, who endowed him with a special sense of being loved and appreciated that formed an important foundation for his character and his skill as a writer. The beautiful devotion that she showed to him is reflected in the loving descriptions he makes of their experiences during their last Christmas together before he was shipped off to military boarding schools at age 8.

"A Diamond Guitar" is about the Platonic love of an older man for a younger one in prison. Like all unrequited love, the older man eventually finds himself embarrassed and exposed. But the experience remains a touchstone to tender feelings in his heart, and he keeps his young friend's glass-diamond-studded guitar under his bed . . . even though it doesn't sound good when others play it and is becoming shabby with age.

"House of Flowers" is a hard look at the vast differences in the ways that women and men view their relationships with one another. Even when loving, the message seems to be that the men will always take advantage of the women. The women, however, acquire soulful beauty in their ability to overcome that needy exploitation and appreciate belonging to one another and to the men.

This story tells the tale of a young woman who works in a house of ill fame in Haiti, and is charmed into "marrying" a young, poor hill man who is dominated by his spell-casting grandmother. Together, the young couple overcome the challenge, and build on their love for one another.

Budding novelists are sometimes encouraged to study nature closely to draw inspiration. Although I do not know if Mr. Capote ever received or followed that advice, it is very clear that he retained a childlike ability to see the world as fresh and new every time. No detail, no nuance, no quirk was too small or unimportant to pass by him or to fail to cast its charm upon him. Kindly and gently, Mr. Capote takes the reader by the hand and shows what makes these elements so interesting to him. In this way, the reader's world is expanded, enlightened, and improved.

These four stories reverbrate against one another, like the continuing vibrations after a large bell after pealing four times, and create a combined effect beyond what any single story can provide.

After you have finished enjoying these stories and the movie, I suggest that you makes some notes about where you belong, who you belong with and to, and what that says about you. In this way, you can notice important connections that mean a lot to you and others that you may be slighting. Honor those tendrils in the way that Mr. Capote would if he were writing a story about your life.

Notice and touch life intimately and lovingly to find truth and beauty!