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Breakfast at Tiffany’s is best known as the movie which made Audrey Hepburn an icon. In it, she is the epitome of quirky elegance. She does whatever she wants, and she does it with panache. This movie was based on a short story by Truman Capote. 

The two stories are VASTLY different. The cast of characters is the same, but everything is darker, grittier. Holly Golightly isn’t the same Manic Pixie Dream Girl that we have come to know and love through the movie interpretation. She drinks heavily, dabbles in marijuana use, swears freely, uses racial epithets, and chooses in the end to be a lost soul forever. No wonder Truman Capote hated the movie so much. 

The unnamed narrator’s voice in this story is simply delicious. I loved the honest descriptions of Miss Golightly and the strange world she lives in. It is funny to be able to see lines in the novella that were lifted directly into the movie, but in a different context. As I was reading other comparisons of the movie and the novella, I came across this post stating, “It’s like having two witnesses discuss the same person and the same events.”

You could analyze Holly’s character all day. You could build an entire college course around her. Reading the novel, I aspire to be her, yet at the same time I’m repulsed by her. But why?

I highly recommend lovers of the film to read this story. It is a highbrow read, and you could finish it in one sitting.

The rest of my summer reading list can be found here.