Book :: Breakfast at Tiffany’s Review

Lost original source, if it’s your’s please let me know!

I finished this book last night, and while it’s not a super long book, it’s definitely very intense and full of so much information and it’s just extremely well done. It’s no wonder that it’s a classic.

This is my first step into Truman Capote’s works, and I definitely did see the movie first. I’m actually torn on whether seeing the movie first had a good or bad impact on my interpretation of the book.

On one hand, the movie is just as great a classic as the book, but on the other, I felt like the movie definitely “Hollywood-ized” it. They did actually change quite a bit of the book to suit the movie, and while I will always love the movie, it definitely is not the book. While reading, I noticed that I was continually looking for things that were in the movie and I was very much coloured by the movie. In the book there are quite a lot of scenes that didn’t happen, and a lot of information that they changed.

Holly Golightly still, and probably will always be a favourite character of mine. The classic story of less than favourable roots and making it in the big bad city of New York. While she does some unfavourable things, she always maintains that air of mystery, that class and poise. Plus, a lady who wear little black dresses and pearls for every occasion, even eating breakfast in front of Tiffany’s, can’t go wrong.

One word of caution [?]: This is very much written in the time and uses words that definitely didn’t make it into the movie. Plus I thought it was interesting how much more Capote hinted that Holly was actually a high-class call girl, and not so much just one who larks about on the men’s dime, actually referencing how many lovers she’s had.

I’m still undecided on whether I like the book’s ending or the movie’s ending. I’ll get back to you on that one. But in this case it’s definitely one where the book and the movie should be taken separately and appreciated on their own merit.

Have you read the book? What did you think of it?
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