First Thougts
I bought this book in Paris when I was browsing at Shakespeare and Company. I found it right at the entrance, where there is a shelf with a lot of classics and pocket editions. I don’t know if it was because I was fascinated with the allure of Paris, or because of the movie that it resonated with me, but as soon as I saw it, I picked it up. Despite having no intention to buy this book, it really surprised me for how much I liked it. And if you watched the movie and liked it, believe me, the book is way better.
Review
The book tells the story of Holly Golightly, a young, attractive woman of unusual character and a mysterious past, from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who meets her when he moves into the same apartment building as her in 1940s Manhattan.
Holly, a wild free-spirited woman who has an unconventional lifestyle for her time, uses her charm and looks to support herself from the wealthy men she socializes with. In a certain way, she has managed to achieve a certain level of independence and freedom, which is what she seems to care about the most. However, her constant search for freedom and independence contrasts with her pursuit of a rich husband.
As soon as you meet Holly, you know she is trouble, yet she is like a magnet that draws you in, making it impossible to keep away from her.
Although the book has no chapters and it is written as one chunk of text, the scenes felt written like a theater play, with great dialogues driving the action. In each scene there is a lot happening on the surface but with some elements having a deeper meaning, for example, the bird cage, the masks, the horse race or the cat.
Holly’s opinions, her story, the symbolism of certain elements in different scenes, and the stories around them, give the reader a lot of room for interpretation. There are plenty of thought-provoking themes hiding in plain sight, yet at the same time, perfectly intertwined within the story.
For example, The Cat, a character that appears repeatedly throughout the story, could represent Holly—wild, independent, and free. Like all cats, Holly gets close to whom she wants when she wants or needs something, not the other way around. It analyzes everyone from a distance, planning its next move strategically, just as Holly does when navigating society. But who knows? It could be the narrator, since neither has a name, or it could be just a cat and we are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Holly’s character is a nuanced and complex one, especially because of how the novel is written, where nothing about her is really clear. Sometimes, she can look like a gold digger, but on the other hand, she seems to genuinely care for the men who are in her life one way or another. At times, she seems like a strong independent woman, but then she acts naive and vulnerable. With her unreliable and chaotic lifestyle, there is always something going on with her.
I struggled a bit while reading it with some of the references to the 1940s, brands like the Picayunes Holly smokes, have not been made for decades, so to imagine how some things were or looked takes a bit. I was sometimes lost with some cultural references, but it is nothing you cannot quickly look up.
Recommendation
I would highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys character-driven rom-coms that also give you some food for thought and let you come up with your own answers. It is superbly written, and the dialogues are, as Holly says, top banana in the shock department. Do not let appearances deceive you; this little book is a bit more challenging than you might realize at first glance. It explores different themes such as loneliness, the search for freedom, and what it really means to be in love, among others. It also uses harsh language at times about certain topics, which fully matches the unapologetic character of Holly, her views of societal norms, and the time period the story is set in.
Final thoughts
As I mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed reading Holly’s story and It read super quick. However, The ending felt a bit rushed. It left me wanting a few more pages to develop and unravel a bit more the final moments of the relationship betwen Holly and the narrator.
The only thing I would change from the book, is that I would have liked it for Holly to clearly fall in love with the narrator, whether they ended up together or not. However, that is just how I would like Holly to be and not how she is, and that is probably part of the point of the story.
This is not a book about great people with perfect lives, but about complex individuals with their nuances, opinions, and difficulties, who make choices that might not align with what we think they should do. And that’s fine.
