Capote by Gerald Clarke

Author:Gerald Clarke [Clarke, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7953-3116-9
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2013-12-05T23:00:00+00:00

37

WHEN he docked in New York, in late October, 1958, Breakfast at Tiffany’s was in the bookstores, and Holly Golightly had already taken her place in America’s fictional Hall of Fame. Of all his characters, Truman later said, Holly was his favorite, and it is easy to see why. She lives the Capote philosophy that Randolph and Judge Cool only talked about in Other Voices and The Grass Harp; her whole life is an expression of freedom and an acceptance of human irregularities, her own as well as everybody else’s. The only sin she recognizes is hypocrisy. In an early version, Truman gave her the curiously inappropriate name of Connie Gustafson; he later thought better and christened her with one, Holiday Golightly, that precisely symbolizes her personality: she is a woman who makes a holiday of life, through which she walks lightly.

Almost all of the scatty young women he had known and admired sat for her portrait: Carol Marcus, Doris Lilly, Phoebe Pierce, Oona Chaplin and Gloria Vanderbilt. In many ways she is also like the young Nina Capote, as seen through the blinders of childhood. Both Nina and Holly grew up in the rural South and longed for the glitter and glamour of New York, and they both changed their hillbilly names, Lillie Mae and Lulamae, to those they considered more sophisticated. But the one Holly most resembles, in spirit if not in body, is her creator. She not only shares his philosophy, but his fears and anxieties as well—“the mean reds” she calls them. “You’re afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don’t know what you’re afraid of,” she says by way of explanation. For her the cure is to jump into a taxi and head for Tiffany’s; nothing bad could happen, she says, amid “that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets,” and her dream is to have breakfast in that soothing setting. Her wish—the title of his story—is also borrowed. Truman had once heard an anecdote and filed it away, waiting for the time he could use it. During World War II a man of middle age entertained a Marine one Saturday night. The man enjoyed himself so much in the Marine’s muscular embrace that he felt he should buy him something to show his gratitude; but since it was Sunday when they woke up, and the stores were closed, the best he could offer was breakfast.

“Where would you like to go?” he asked. “Pick the fanciest, most expensive place in town.”

The Marine, who was not a native, had heard of only one fancy and expensive place in New York, and he said: “Let’s have breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

With publication came what Truman called the Holly Golightly Sweepstakes: half the women he knew, and a few he did not, claimed to be the model for his wacky heroine. Shortly after it appeared, Doris Lilly telephoned Andrew. “Have you read Truman’s new book?” she asked excitedly.

“Why, yes,” said Andrew, who knew what she was really asking, but pretended to be ignorant.

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