Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of Truman Capote’s most famous works of literature; according to established literary critics, second only to his non-fictional novel In Cold Blood.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s tells the story of Holly Golightly. It is told through the narrator, who is a nameless character, and supposedly Truman Capote himself.
The narrator lives in an apartment block in New York, and right under him, lives Holly. Holly’s name greatly chracterises her personality; her life is a holiday, and she walks through it with light steps, not caring too much about what her next day will be like. She is the kind of beautiful young woman, that men find it difficult to resist; our narrator, too, falls in love with her, during the short period of time that she gets to know her.
The story starts out in something like the late 1950’s, fifteen years after the narrator last saw Holly. In Joe Bell’s bar, the narrator is reminded of Holly who he hasn’t seen for so long, and from thereon, a dreamlike account for his story commences; how they first met by random chance, Holly having climbed up from her room up to his, via a fire ladder, and how they get to know each other better. The narrator, a young and aspiring writer, is bewildered and enchanted by Holly’s extravagant life style, the dubious way through which she makes a living, and the many men who plays a role in her life.
Though Holly makes a joke out of life, being as she says herself, a kind of wild and free animal, her person is nevertheless coloured by sadness and gloom; she reveals little about herself, but it is obvious that she is running away from her past. This becomes clear and evident late on in the book, when Holly’s older husband suddenly appears, having travelled to New York from the south to find her.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is written in a style and manner that is exceptional. Norman Mailer is known to have said, that he wouldn’t have changed a single word in the entire text, and with this, I am willing to agree. Truman Capote meant that if a story is told in a way that the reader would not be able to conjure up any better way of telling it, or if he couldn’t imagine how the story could possibly look differently, it would be a success. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is very much a story just like that; it is accessible for all readers, it is captivating and most of all, it is brilliantly tied together. The story says everything it wants to say, and nothing else; there are no red herrings, nothing excessive, no psychological meditations that doesn’t contribute to the story. It tells the tale of a next door young girl in New York, living just after the second World War: Holly, a relentless force that never ceases to surprise, to spellbind and charm, but who is perhaps, to herself, a no-one, an angsty young girl without a spiritual home and direction, and who is ready to live today, and die tomorrow.
Contrary to what it may seem, given that you’ve read and understood the above, Breakfast at Tiffany’s fails to be an interesting story. It was to me all what I have mentioned above, for sure; but given that one isn’t reading this story for mere literary inspiration, for having a manual in how to write a perfect story – brilliant structure, adequate and stylish character descriptions, overall elegant narration and so on – the story avoids to enchant on more levels. It is made what it is because of Capote being an excellent writer – that is to say, a beautiful piece of text; perhaps, the way I see it, what would happen if you’d take Dylan’s ‘Like a rolling stone’, and make a lenghty extension out of it.
