I can't remember whether I read Breakfast at Tiffany's because I'd just seen Capote, or because I'd just read A Streetcar Named Desire. Must be the former, because I remember thinking of Audrey while reading Streetcar. I had not seen the film.
It was the sort of love story I could relate to - being in awe of a person, cherishing their friendship, not being able to help but love them but knowing that you don't belong together. An interesting, and relatively light read considering the content of In Cold Blood. I found a lot of parallels between the characters Holly Golightly, Sally Bowles (Cabaret) and Blanche from Streetcar. The latter two caught up in the tragedy of not being able to attain that Golightly presence in the world. There is still something sad about Holly - despite how beautiful she is, she seems to understand that everything's not quite as nice as it should be. The book's ending has her fulfilling the role of the undomesticated cat - far far more appropriate than the "you belong to me" ending sequence of the film. Indeed, the strongest them in the book is perhaps focused on the protagonist's longing for the unobtainable Holly, rather than she herself. In life, you just have to realise that some things must be let go.
The story of Blanche, however is more focused on her. Some people seem to ready to dismiss her credibility, getting caught up in her desperation to make an impression as representing her vanity and childishness. I don't know whether any discussions of this book have interpreted her character as one affected by Bipolar disorder (she exhibits most of the classic symptoms - especially leading up to her madness). Sometimes it feels like the difference between how characters like Sally, Blanche and Holly are perceived, merely depends on their success and apparent attractiveness. A Holly Golightly with a few more setbacks and disappointments could easily wind up like Blanche. In all characters there's a determined independence and a trend of compensating for unfulfilling emotional relationships with economic stability and excess. It's easy to admire and pity them all. For obvious reasons, I pictured Audrey Hepburn while reading Tiffany's - but then in the movie she didn't really seem to deliver with the same grace. And yet the part is her all over - so it's as if she doesn't play Audrey Hepburn as well as she might.
I do particularly like the titles of these books, and the framework they give for interpretation of the characters.
