Genre: Short Stories
Published: 1958
Rank: 510
Rating: 3.86
A writer from New York, whose name is never mentioned, meets a woman named Holly Golightly and endures a lifelong friendship with her. They are both tenants in a Manhattan apartment and meet when he notices she had lost her room key and causes a commotion. She begins frequently ringing him to let her in to the apartment and he becomes infatuated with her. One night, Holly climbs in through the narrator’s window after one of her lover turns aggressive in bed. He reads her one of his short stories and eventually they fall asleep together. This is the beginning to the close friendship that they end up having. In New York, Holly has a lot of lovers, most of which are very wealthy. Holly tells the narrator that all of her “mean reds” can be solved at Tiffany’s.
Throughout the book the narrator learns many secrets about Holly and discovers she has lied about many things. Her past is murky and she doesn’t like to discuss it with the narrator even after they become close friends. However, the narrator learns about Holly's past from her abandoned husband, Doc Golightly. Holly and Fred ran away after their parents died and lived on only what they could find or steal. In the end, Golightly fears that she will never know what is really hers, until after she has thrown it away. She abandons her friend to seek her ever elusive goal of finding both riches and a place to call home.
