
I love the film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffanyโs; itโs not just Audrey Hepburnโs style oozing out all over the place but it also has armfuls of charm. I have been told multiple times that the book is so different, which is probably why I put off reading it so long. Faced with choosing this monthโs classic, the song by Deep Blue Something came on the radio and made my decision for me. It helps that itโs a novella (and most editions also include three short stories as well).
Really, the film has so much dialogue lifted from the book I have no idea what all those people have been talking about. OK Holly Golightly is blonde and itโs not a romance, even if all the men around her fall a little bit in love. Sheโs no meaner on the page than on screen (and letโs face it, most people ignore her meanness in the film). Poor Mr Yunioshi however had an appalling adpatation (on the subject this is an interesting opinion piece from an Asian-American), really heโs just the photographer upstairs at the start of the book.
If you arenโt familiar with the story, Holly is a cafรฉ society girl who doesnโt work but lives off dinners and favours from rich men. The unkind among us might call her a prostitute but itโs made clear at some point that in most cases there is no sex involved. She tries very hard to appear not to care but there are glimpses of the fragile young woman underneath when her faรงade slips, especially in regards to her brother Fred.
If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany’s, then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name.
The narrator is a writer who lives in the same brownstone who slowly becomes friends with her, amused by the comings and goings at her door. She mixes with playboys, Hollywood agents, foreign dignitaries, gangstersโฆ and has a half blind cat with no name, not that she owns him of course. The cat’s quite symbolic, Holly is as much a stray as he is, neither of them belonging to anyone.
Itโs bizarre that itโs introduced as wartime and this really highlights the difference between Britain and America at the time. Thereโs a small reference to not being able to bake as normal due to rations, but Hollyโs life is untouched by the events in Europe.
The ending may differ a little from the film, but thereโs still an emotional scene involving the cat and the very last page made me smile.
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Book Source: Purchased
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I haven't read the book OR seen the movie in years (I think I did both as a mid-teen?) but I barely remember a thing from the book and I think I'm still traumatised by the cat/rain scene in the movie. I sobbed! I have my copies still, so I should definitely revisit them sometime soon! I loved In Cold Blood so much, there's really no excuse for not getting back to his fiction in the near future. ๐