The other day, I received a question on facebook "Which scene do you like the best in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's ?" At that time, I felt the desire to see this movie again shooting through my body. So I went to see it. The temptation to compare the movie to the original book entered my mind. So I read it in Japanese again too. It was an amazingly translated one by a famous university professor. Eventually, the desire to read the original book in English drove me to buy this book from Amazon.com.
This book throws deep questions to me about freedom. Holly Golightly's cat had no name. It was only called "cat". To have a name means to be identified; defined and stipulated as one concrete existence. It means to lose one's freedom in a sense. Holly avoided being restricted by something. So she printed on her card: Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling. I could discovered a part of a song from the musical Oklahoma! which Holly sang on the fire escape.
Don't wanna sleep,
Don't wanna die,
Just wanna go a-travelin'
Through the pastures of the sky
Holly brings me an enigmatic expression: reds. Judging from the conversation with Fred at her home party, the reds mean the horrible mental status different from the blues. She says "No, the blues are because you're getting fat or maybe it's been raining too long. You're sad, that's all. But the mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of. Except something bad is going happen, only you don't know what it is. You've had that feeling?" Of course I don't know the expression "reds". I have never had the opportunity to feel the "reds". And this is why I have felt so extremely interested in this novel and its movie.
As for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, I admire the work of its production staff. They portray the important scenes and phrases of this original novel accurately and honestly. I heard that turmoil occurred after Audrey Hepburn was appointed to the lead role Holly instead of Marilyn Monroe.
Though the scenario was rewritten in a short time, I recall the circumstances of the birth of the Magic Flute by Mozart, the movie conserves author's idea and wears sophisticated atmosphere. The song Moon River is just in the movie and a song from the "Oklahoma!" is more befitting to this novel.
My family loves this movie and my mother loved the Holly's hair style at the Forty-second Street public library and she delighted in adopting the same hair style for herself which she wore for her children.
I praise the genius of Truman Capote, I admire the work of its movie production staff and I express my thanks to Ms. Betsy Lewis of BOOK RESCUE LLC who searched this one for me running frantically to and fro between her book barns and gave me the opportunity to read this original novel.
Victor Truemann, Japanese
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Reviews with images
Well-Written As Always From Capote
Like a good majority of those who read this book, I did so due to my knowledge of the film of the same name. Although it turned out that the book and movie are completely different, this was certainly worth reading in the end. Truman Capote is first and foremost, a great writer. Every time I read his work, the beauty that he puts into his wording is so elegant that it always kept me invested into the story regardless of what was going on. The plot of this book is actually incredibly short and I wouldn't say it's going to excite those hoping for something amazing but it is intriguing by the depiction of Capote's most famous character, Holly Golightly. The whole story is centered on Holly's life and what adventure she'll take on next and what the narrator character's thoughts are on it. If you're looking for something short and sweet to read, then here you go.
Top reviews from other countries
Jeffrey
A wonderful story of 1960's New York
Reviewed in Germany on November 6, 2023Sushma Saxena
Capote just takes us to a world where you have memories calling....
Reviewed in India on April 3, 2021
Sushma Saxena
Reviewed in India on April 3, 2021
Author:Truman Capote
(Suddenly becomes my favourite author.I have read all his stories and also the sensational non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.Seems I will soon devour rest of his writings...) His story 'One Christmas Memory'...almost a non-fiction again...has carved a permanent place in my heart...One of the most poignant I have ever read...And, please, don't take it lightly...I have been reading Hemingway side by side.
I wish Capote would have lived longer and would have written more..And more people knew about his writings.
A 98 pages one breath long story .The central character of this book is Holly Golightly..a girl who hates the thought of any living being kept in cages..who advises against falling in love with wild beings...hawks..crows..or women...
Who doesn't think that a person can ever belong to any other person and most importantly, she has her concept of what a place with complete bliss would be like...it would be like Breakfast at Tiffany's....where the confidence,elegance and comfort arising out of affluence permeates the ambience...and nothing can go wrong at such places. Everything in a calm control.
All women have a Holly in them..and all have their own imagination of their personal breakfasts at Tiffany's.
(About the movie:May be later....someday we will talk about that....
There is a wonderful movie with the same name based on this book. A beautiful movie with Audrey Hepburn as Holly....
Well, I don't ever get into the debate of the book or the movie.They are two separate media..asking for different sets of methods and treatments...in different types of hands......)
This is not a review.This is an attempt to capture my own awe in words...and to share something that is much more than a joy of reading!
Reviewing Truman Capote is almost blasphemous.One has to just read him and enter the solitude where he takes us..a world where he has observed everything..
The rain..the mist..the whiff...and even the skidding of wet leaves..
Capote was king of observations.The reader inside us starts looking at all those things and sentiments which one might not have cared to register till now. Capote just conquers your heart and keeps it in his hands to take us to a world you know you have not seen, but you feel that you have travelled there again...you have memories calling....
Capote is wistful always..in all his writings..always longing for some feeling of the past..missing something which he doesn't seem to put in a concrete shape...a loss which he cannot put his finger on..doesn't know whether it existed.
And when you read Capote, you see everything he has seen and noted.
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