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First, I have to admit that I'm one of the few who don't particularly like the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. While the two lead actors, Audrey Hepburn in particular, are wonderful, I've always found their characters rather boring and emotionally unattractive, and I've never been able to get past the really offensive stereotyped character played by Mickey Rooney.

But I've been watching a documentary on one of Britain's theaters, and part of it is a play based on the original novella, so I became curious. And (I think as I expected), I found the novella much more interesting than the film. It is indeed darker -- or, perhaps, simply more honest about who the main characters are and their attitudes toward life.

And it is skillfully written, which is what kept me with the story; although I found Holly rather unpleasant and not charming (the low point of that when she becomes jealous that a friend is getting more male attention than she is, and so drops hints that the friend has VD), Capote slowly lets us know why she is what she is, and so it becomes an interesting character study rather than (as in the movie) a story about a girl that you are presumably supposed to admire, or at least love.

And the end, where Holly lets her cat loose in a tough neighborhood in order to prove her own heartlessness to herself, and then desperately tries to find it moments later, is an excellent capper to the story and offers a fine insight to Holly's character.