I never imagined finding myself facing a story turned upside down, full of adventure and mystery.

Reading note

Breakfast at Tiffany's

by Truman Capote — read in April 2026

Finally, I confront this classic of the first half of the 20th century. I tend to avoid what's too famous. If a book, a film, a story are already commonplaces, there's a part of me that forces me to stay away. Obviously, this has kept me away from enjoying and understanding the world we live in. I arrived at Capote thanks to a book on the vice of writing about Piperno. I arrived without prejudice because this Breakfast was so much a commonplace, so much Audrey Hepburn in the black dress, so much out of my world of metal and pataphysics, that it left me untouched, unknown.

I never imagined finding myself facing a story turned upside down, full of adventure and mystery. Facing a young woman so contemporary to us, living almost a century, a world war and a digital revolution away.

The first time "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is mentioned in the novel is an epiphany. The young Holiday (one should also explore the fact that the girl was named vacanza), she is basically explaining why she didn't show up for a film audition. She knows she won't be chosen, or maybe she doesn't want to be chosen. She says that to be a diva you need to have no ego. She says, and here I understood a lot of myself and a lot of what doesn't fit with what is said about egocentric people, I said, that when I am rich and famous, I want to still be me waking up a nice morning to go have breakfast at Tiffany's.

Bam! Suddenly Breakfast at Tiffany's becomes non ci averte mai, come volete voi of the 99 Posse.

Capote returns from another angle in Musica per camaleonti.