David Swinstead reviewed Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Shallow characters and dated themes
2 stars
Content warning Discussion around traits of the main characters and how they relate to the plot
Well, I have a lot of thoughts on this short book. Where to start?
Let's start with Holly. She's a knob really isn't she? I can't quite get my head around the space between the character that this book seems to think it's describing - suave, sophisticated, interesting - vs the character I actually see - false, vacuous, vapid, insincere.
That said, Holly is not without cause for empathy and compassion. Set in the 1940s, this book exists in a space and time that was not kind to women, and here we see the portrait of a young woman trying to find her way to what she perceives to be success in this world. Sadly this was only really possible in this context by attaching herself to a series of men who might choose her as their trophy bride, if she's lucky. It's quite a sad life to hope for.
The way that men in this book seem to fawn over Holly and worship the ground she walks on baffles me. While I'm sure she is very beautiful - we're certainly told that she is - her entire persona is a facade, hiding a well of trauma-riddled chaos.
The language we read in this book around people of colour and people of the LGBTQIA communitiy is hard on the eyes, and bounces loud around my head as I read it. I'm sure that by the standards of the time these terms were mild, but today it has not stood the test of time.
As society progresses further and further from this time period, literature that is built around these themes becomes harder and harder to read.
I wonder if this book would hold such a prominent ongoing place in the zeitgeist if it weren't for the influential movie - despite the fact that the movie is only a very loose adaptation.