Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was just going through my read list on Goodreads and was shocked to see I hadn't reviewed Breakfast at Tiffany's ! How is that even possible? It's a crime not to have read it forget not to have reviewed it! So, I turned on Moon River, put it on repeat, and here I am typing the review.

The first question to be addressed before I move on with the review is: The book? Or the movie?

Wow! I never thought the opinion I held for three years would just change! The 3 years older Shriya will go for the book, thank you very much! Why? you ask. Why not the movie? Well, because Holly doesn't stay in the book! She goes on and does the very Holly thing to do-she moves on! That's the beauty of Holly Golightly! She's like the wind, you can't tame or control her! She is (taking a little help from the song How to Solve a problem like Maria? from The Sound of Music ) 'unpredictable as weather...flighty as a feather.' That is what makes her stop being Lulamae and become Holly. In the movie, she loses that vagabond quality that's so unique to her and decides to stay and be with Paul, becoming just any other girl, who falls in love and so, that's the end of eveything. In the book, however, she's one of those 'two drifters off to see the world' and continues to be that till the very end and so, excuse me if I sound like the unromantic, unconventional person here but the book for me any day because Holly stays Holly until the very end in it!

Some of you will try to tell me I am trying to find feminism in this, too, but well, isn't there a slight feminist tinge in a pretty little doll like Holly? Agreed, she's all about clothes and jewels and pretty things but think: she's not looking for a happy ending. She's just a normal girl looking for herself, trying to discover who she really is. Not a pretty little fool exactly, but a flighty little vagabond who is neither mellowed down nor tamed by the restrictions of society. She doesn't care what they think of her. She's charming, she's witty, she's pretty and though she's a little naïve at times, at the end of the day, she is who she wants to be. She has the liberty to be whoever she wants everyday and no matter what anyone says, she always has the last laugh because she isn't accountable to anybody for anything. Her actions, their consequences are hers alone to bear and not once in the novella did I see her complaining.

In the movie, Paul asks her to evaluate her life and she realises she has nothing to hold on to. But then, didn't she kick that sort of life, of being a good wife and mother just for that?


So, coming back to the point: the book, please! The book with the original,unafraid Holly shouting, "Carpe Diem!"


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