Breakfast at Tiffany's

There's a new book out called Holly Golightly: Breaking the Rules in a Little Black Dress. I heard about it on NPR, and it sounded so interesting I read Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's again. Paramount Studios made a Hollywood romance from this story about an 18 year old hillbilly call girl and a struggling gay writer in New York during WW II. Capote was already famous when he wrote it in 1958, but the story was so shocking that it couldn't even be published in a serial magazine.

Audrey Hepburn's Holly comes across as adorable, slightly naughty and saccharine sweet. The ambiguous sexuality of the main characters and how Holly makes her living is glossed over. $50 for the ladies room? Everyone remembers that line. This was right before the sexual revolution of the 1960's, and much of the story could only be implied. Or changed completely.

If you like the 1961 Blake Edwards movie, you owe it to yourself to read the original story. Capote's Holly was a complex character who could be mean, bigoted and egotistical along with generous, witty and very, very funny. And the ending? I won't spoil it for you, but it's nothing like the happy taxi cab scene with George Peppard, Audrey Hepburn and "Cat."

But Capote was an incredible writer. Norman Mailer (no slouch himself) said "Capote is the most perfect writer of my generation, and he writes the best sentences word for word, rhythm upon rhythm. I would not have changed two words in Breakfast at Tiffany's."

I think you will agree if you read it.