[Review] Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories - Truman Capote

Title of Book : Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories
Author : Truman Capote
Publisher : Vintage International

In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Truman Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is part of the literary landscape. Holly Golightly Knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's; her poignancy, wit and naivete continue to charm.

This volume also includes three of Capote's best-known stories: House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar, and A Christmas Memory, a tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.

I wanted to read this book for such a long time. Partly because of Audrey Hepburn and the infamous little black dress. No, I haven’t watched the movie, but that dress has become some kind of fashion signature. That makes me want to know more about this Holly Golightly. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a novella, so it’s quite short. Holly is the centerpiece of this novella. As much as I can see, there’s not really a clear plot. But the reader could get to know more and more about Holly as the story goes. I don’t even know the narrator’s name. Apparently, he was Holly’s neighbor who is also an aspiring writer. Holly is one interesting girl. She’s fun and she knows what she wants. She may look childish, but nobody knows what’s on her mind. It’s funny that I only know her by reading 100-ish pages about her, but I already like her and want to befriend her. 

The next short story is House of Flowers. It’s a story about a girl who falls in love. At the first sight, I would say that this is a simple yet beautiful story. But as I read more, the story and the description become a bit … gory. It’s a scary and creepy story. The ending is weird and I don’t understand why she—the main character—would do what she did in the end.

Then we have A Diamond Guitar. This story doesn’t leave a deep impression on me. I think the diamond guitar is a metaphor of something, but I don’t get it. I just don’t. Sorry. So, I don’t know. The last story is A Christmas Memory. It’s a story about two best friends, a boy and an old woman. The story basically is about a tradition that they do every Christmas. Like House of Flowers (except the gory part), A Christmas Memory is a simple and beautiful story. It’s bittersweet and meaningful.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this book. It’s a pretty quick read but I think I'll reread this book sometime in the future and give more thoughts about some of the stories. Because I'm still curious about them. I gave it three out of five.