Breakfast at Tiffany's: House of Flowers; A Diamond Guitar; A Christmas Memory (Penguin Modern Classics)
2 journalers for this copy...
From the back:
It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the schock department', and one of the shining flowers of Amerian fiction.
This edition also contains three stories: 'House of Flowers', 'A Diamond Guitar' and 'A Christmas Memory'.
I've always heard about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and I was curious to know what it was about and why it had such a big impact on literature. I was pleasantly surprised by the story, even though I could not sympathize with the character of Holly. She was supposed to be such a mondain person, but yet she's very naive in her ways. Surprising read.
It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the schock department', and one of the shining flowers of Amerian fiction.
This edition also contains three stories: 'House of Flowers', 'A Diamond Guitar' and 'A Christmas Memory'.
I've always heard about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and I was curious to know what it was about and why it had such a big impact on literature. I was pleasantly surprised by the story, even though I could not sympathize with the character of Holly. She was supposed to be such a mondain person, but yet she's very naive in her ways. Surprising read.
For parisreader. I'll give it tonight at the 'soirée lecture'.
Thanks E-J-V. I started it today, and I think it may in fact be better than the film. Slightly different, anyway. I've got Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly in my head, but the book's character doesn't *quite* seem to be the same person.
It's rare for me to read a book after having seen the film, and I'm trying to make my own images but not entirely succeeding!
It's rare for me to read a book after having seen the film, and I'm trying to make my own images but not entirely succeeding!
Mmmmm... Very good.
I can see why this is a classic, and why it was made into a film that also became a classic (though that was also largely due to Audrey Hepburn - who I would never have thought of in that role if I'd read the book first!).
The other stories are much shorter and very simple; and, whilst set around very different people, all have a cetain common feel to them.
It seems like Capote has hovering in the background an idea of 'home', and characters who are somehow looking for that, or looking back to when they had it. It's rather hard to put into words exactly my impressions of this, and it's not as though there's a physical place that any of his characters miss or long for; perhaps, like Holly Golightly, they simply have a 'something' lacking in their lives that their souls are unconsciously reaching towards.
In 'A Diamond Guitar' he seems to have found it but is ultimately and inevitably betrayed. In 'House of Flowers' she finds it. In 'A Christmas Memory' he loses it but it will stay in his heart for ever.
These things are so intangible, yet Capote somehow captures the fragile something that if stated outright would be banal but when remaining unsaid can touch the heart.
Am I exaggerating? Maybe such things are merely in the eye of the beholder.
But at any rate, here are 4 excellent stories well told.
I can see why this is a classic, and why it was made into a film that also became a classic (though that was also largely due to Audrey Hepburn - who I would never have thought of in that role if I'd read the book first!).
The other stories are much shorter and very simple; and, whilst set around very different people, all have a cetain common feel to them.
It seems like Capote has hovering in the background an idea of 'home', and characters who are somehow looking for that, or looking back to when they had it. It's rather hard to put into words exactly my impressions of this, and it's not as though there's a physical place that any of his characters miss or long for; perhaps, like Holly Golightly, they simply have a 'something' lacking in their lives that their souls are unconsciously reaching towards.
In 'A Diamond Guitar' he seems to have found it but is ultimately and inevitably betrayed. In 'House of Flowers' she finds it. In 'A Christmas Memory' he loses it but it will stay in his heart for ever.
These things are so intangible, yet Capote somehow captures the fragile something that if stated outright would be banal but when remaining unsaid can touch the heart.
Am I exaggerating? Maybe such things are merely in the eye of the beholder.
But at any rate, here are 4 excellent stories well told.
