Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote, USA, 1958

There is a film based on the book, but I am dubious that a Hollywood interpretation of this novella could possibly compete with Capote’s remarkable story.

Set in the 1940s the story has at its centre Holly Golightly, who is 19 years old and who is described thus: ‘the ragbag colors of her boy’s hair, tawny streaks, strands of albino-blond and yellow, caught the hall light. (…) she wore a slim cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker. For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap and lemon cleanness, a rough pink darkening in the cheeks. Her mouth was large, her nose upturned. A pair of dark glasses blotted out her eyes. It was a face beyond childhood, yet this side of belonging to a woman.’ (p.12)

Eccentric, vulnerable, naïve yet sophisticated, Holly is the fulcrum of this delightful book narrated by an anonymous ‘I’ who is occasionally called ‘Fred’ by Holly. They both live in the same brownstone in New York, and while Holly hopes to rise beyond the fact that she was born in Texas, ‘Fred’, as an author, is hoping for the break that will eventually make him famous. Everyone falls in love with Holly, each in a different way, while Holly, almost obliviously, continues on a twisted, illogical path in pursuit of something that even she can probably not explain.

The constant trail of hopeful, young (and old) men, a husband (who appears out of the blue), Holly’s weekly visits to the mafia boss Sally Tomato, resident of Sing Sing, and the Brazilian diplomat who wants to be husband number two, together with Holly’s somewhat superficial confidence provide the story with humour but more importantly with depth and insight. Capote’s writing is marvellous as is his acute observation of people.

Holly tells ‘Fred’ that Tiffany’s makes her feel safe. This feeling has nothing to do with the jewels themselves, but everything to do with the men who work there and the subtle smells that permeate the building. As she says, when she has the ‘reds’, which in contrast to having the ‘blues’ (because you are getting too fat, or it is raining) are actually ‘horrible (..) you’re afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don’t know what you’re afraid of’’. At such times she takes a taxi to Tiffany’s: ‘It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; 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’ (p.40)

This is a novella about a woman who is basically a thing of the wild. She can’t be caged; she has to be able to do her ‘own thing’ even if what she is doing can seem illogical and detrimental. We may occasionally feel sorry for Holly, but at the same time we admire and respect her. In a world where everyone is expected to conform, it is possible that Holly did manage to do things her way, inspiring ‘Fred’ to muse at the end of the book that he hoped that Holly finally arrived somewhere where she belonged. African hut or wherever.

(The quotes are from the Vintage 50th Anniversary Edition from 2008)