On first impression, Holly Golightly seems shallow and scatterbrained. While she says things that are sharp, intelligent, and full of life, they don’t seem to follow any expected or logical pattern. She lives in a brownstone apartment in Manhattan, on East 70th Street by Lexington Avenue, and her main antagonist and foil is the unnamed first-person narrator who lives in the apartment above her. Capote presents an idyllic ambiance of 1940s New York–Tiffany’s, landmark hotels, spacious apartments, and upscale neighborhood bars with the characters speaking in the euphemisms and vernacular of the period.
Holly is 19 and comes from a broken family in Arkansas. At fourteen, she married a widower, a middle-aged veterinarian from Texas, but ran away. The beautiful Holly connects with well-off or influential men from every walk of life, age, and country of origin, but she always does something to make them flee. But even after condemning and rejecting her, some part of each man still loves her and will help her if needed.
For a while, the narrator takes Holly and her antics at face value, that is, without judgment or emotional reaction, until he gets fed up, snaps, and decides she is “a crude exhibitionist, a time waster, an utter fake: someone never to be spoken to again.” Of course, like all the others. When he eventually gets over it, he too realizes he loves her.
Holly dreams of marrying a wealthy man with whom she will have many children. In describing how she copes with romantic failures, she says: “Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!”
She knows or quickly learns who and what she does not want in life; however, she isn’t stable or unconflicted enough to constructively pursue what she does want. Having been on her own since childhood has forced her to develop a creative wit and certain behaviors as survival skills, but the same behaviors ruin every relationship.
In the narrative, note the recurrence of the image of a cage. To one suitor, she says: “You mustn't give your heart to a wild thing. The more you do, the stronger they get, until they're strong enough to run into the woods or fly into a tree. And then to a higher tree and then to the sky.” Despite being desired by wealthy or powerful men, Holly does not want to be put in a cage. Near the end, one of her male acquaintances, the mobster Sally Tomato opines, “Yes, she was a phony but a real phony.” She is real for sure but destined to repeat the same behaviors over and over again.
Capote’s light and easy style, plus endearing imagery, made this an enjoyable read. The novel is a character study supported by a great setting, storyline, and narrative voice. Holly’s dialogue made it the perfect subject for the movie and stage adaptations. Knowing it was famous, I tried to watch the movie once but found it boring and couldn’t follow it. However, now that I have read the book, I will try it again.
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