"We read to know that we are not alone."- C.S. Lewis

Published 1993. First Vintage International Edition.

A real nostalgic, classic story.   A book to read that takes us back in time and bring many memories! I’m thrill with the story and captivate it by the personality of the characters that seem still so full of life.  The story written in 1958, presents flashbacks to postwar America while introducing vivid images of Manhattan, New York landmarks in the early 1960s. The book is only 160 pages long, a novella that took not too long finish reading but totally worth time spend in this book.

Summary

The story start with the narrator, who is a writer and one of the main protagonist of the story.   While, he doesn’t tells his name, recounts the events of his life on his first apartment, in Brownstone New York and how that lead him to meet Holly Golightly.  She is his next door neighbor and as he gets to know her better, he finds out about her strange past, quirky personality and particular  lifestyle in New York.  Meanwhile, he can’t help falling in love with her.

Holly Golightly lives a busy life, mainly surrounded by wealthy friends, mainly men, that offer her expensive gifts and fall in love with her.  She lives in an apartment almost without furniture and a cat with no name.  As she says that the cat will have a name when he finds his home.   In her apartment, she host parties until late with her high society friends and get visitors any time of the day but she seem that is not attached to any of them. She does favours and get paid by them, like visiting her friend in Sing Sing every week, who innocently, she thinks he just needs company but later gets her involve in serious legal problems.

She had a difficult childhood until she runaway from home when she was only fourteen years old.  But, as Holly moves on with, her present life is hunt by people that she used to live with.  As Holly continually says that she doesn’t have home, and she miss her brother, who is the army.

Ultimately, her life gets turn around when she finds out that Fred has died in battlefield.  This has an impact on her attitude towards life and decides to get married and live a quite life.   But, as she start making plans, she is found guilty of participating in an illegal plot involving an international drug ring.  Eventually, her wealthy friends help her out of this situation and she is able to flee the country.  From beginning to the end, there is constant reference to freedom in the novel.  Holly feels that she does not belong to any place or anybody, perhaps that’s the reason she has not falling in love.  In addition, the author has added several symbols to reinforce the same theme such is the case of an empty cage, a cat without a name and ultimately at the end of the story where Holly finds freedom again.

I loved reading this story, it brought back many memories. ♣

Favourite Quotes:

…Even so my spirits heightened whenever I felt in my pocket the key to this apartment; the first, and my books were there, and jars of pencils to sharpen, everything I needed, so I felt to become the writer I wanted to be.

She was still hugging the cat. “Poor slob”, she said, tickling his head, “Poor slob without a name.  It’s little inconvenient, his not having a name.  But I haven’t any right to give him one:  he’ll have to wait until he belongs to somebody.  We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don’t belong to each other:  he’s an independent, and so am I.  I don’t want to own anything I know I’ve found the place where me and things belong together.  I’m not quite sure where that is just yet.  But I know what it’s like.”  She smiled, and let the cat drop to the floor.   “It’s like Tiffany’s,” she said.

 

I love New York, even though isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street, or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because it belongs to it. ”  And I said: “Do shut up,” for I felt infuriatingly left out-a tugboat in dry-dock while she, glittery voyager of secure destination, steamed down the harbor with whistles whistling and confetti in the air.  So the day, the last days, blow about in memory, hazy, autumnal, all alike as leaves:  until a day unlike any other I’ve lived.