New York and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (1958)

Tiffany & Co's flagship store on 5th Avenue

Holly Golightly, the main focus of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, lives in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the most affluent area of New York City in "a brownstone in the East Seventies" (a brownstone being a terraced apartment building built in brown sandstone) around the corner from a bar on Lexington Avenue, one of the north-south streets that runs through the centre of the Upper East Side from 21st Street to 131st Street. Holly does not have a job and when we meet her she lives alone, but she pays her rent through keeping an array of various rich male suitors, one of whom pays her $100 a week simply to visit him in prison. Holly Golightly is a compound of several genre-types long associated in film and literature with the big city and New York especially – the boy/girl of humble origins seeking fame/fortune or a new life in the big city (The Jazz Singer, Funny Girl, Midnight Cowboy), the socialite (The Flapper, Dinner at Eight, Dark Victory), and the gold-digger (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, Bonfire of the Vanities). With its awe-inspiring skyscrapers, iconic landmarks, and with its historic status as a gateway to the country for immigrants, New York City has long been seen as a beacon to those seeking the American dream. Capote's own mother left the husband she married as a teenager and abandoned relatives to move to New York City seeking a wealthier life (and husband) when he was just a child.

The brownstone on East 71st St featured in the 1961 film

I have already made no secret of the fact that I am not a fan of the 1961 film version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The main problem I have with it is that the story pivots around this central character of Holly Golightly who is portrayed by Audrey Hepburn as adorably charming - deeply naïve, but at no great harm to herself or others. She is an extroverted girl of extravagant wants who at the end of the picture realises all she really needs is the love of a good man. In other words it's a Hollywood fairytale romance. The Holly Golightly of Capote’s novella is an infinitely more complex character who is by turns a prostitute in all but name (she casually boasts, whether honestly or falsely is never made explicit, of the numerous rich men she beds as an escort), a kleptomaniac, staggeringly materialistic, and at best (in her defence) someone who may have undiagnosed mental health problems. She even tells a cat to “f*ck off” – I don’t remember Audrey Hepburn doing that! In the end if there is one thing that everyone agrees on, it’s not that she needs love, she needs psychiatric help, or at least protecting from herself. And yet somehow she still manages to make even our level-headed narrator fall for her (although no romantic relationship blossoms between the two as it does in the film). Capote's character feels much more believable - everyone knows or has met a Holly Golightly - and Capote was himself unhappy with the many changes to the film adaptation and stated that Paramount had double-crossed him in every way. It’s a shame, because it’s a great book, and one that can be read in a few hours at that. So why bother watching the film?

Next: New Jersey

Week 7: State - New York

To summarise the state of New York without stating the obvious is no easy task, and so it goes without saying that New York State is of course synonymous with New York City, the most populous city in the United States (over 8 million people), home to the largest central business district in the United States (Midtown Manhattan), the largest stock exchange in the world (The New York Stock Exchange), the most visited tourist attraction in the United States (Time Square), and more high-rise buildings and skyscrapers than any other city in the country (and second in the world behind Hong Kong), including most famously the Empire State Building. Between 1892 and 1954 more than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island, the main entrypoint to the country, just north of Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty stands (a gift from France to mark the Centennial of the American Declaration of Independence), and today New York is home to the largest African American population and the second largest Asian American population in the United States. Most recently the city was the main site of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when nearly 3,000 people died in the destruction of the World Trade Center. The state itself is the nation's third most populous state with over 19 million people, though in contrast with New York City the vast majority of the state is dominated by a rural landscape, with the first state park in the United States established at Niagara Falls in 1885. New York State is known as The Empire State, and the state capital is Albany.

There have been more films set in New York than possibly any other city in the United States (at least outside of California), and as result there are far too many to list here, but to break it down by area we've seen films set in The Bronx (Marty, A Bronx Tale, Summer of Sam), Brooklyn (Saturday Night Fever, Do The Right Thing, Dog Day Afternoon), Manhattan (Wall Street, The Apartment, Manhattan, Taxi Driver, West Side Story, Gangs of New York), Queens (Coming to America, Spider-Man), and outside of the city Long Island (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Amityville Horror) and Buffalo (Buffalo '66, Bruce Almighty) amongst many others. The majority of the films of Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Spike Lee and the late Sidney Lumet have been set in the city of New York. The sitcom Friends, which followed a group of six Manhattan-ites, was one of the most popular TV shows of the 1990s.

Books set in New York not eligible as I've already read them include The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and American Psycho by Bret Eaton Ellis. Other famous books set in New York include The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, and The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe amongst many others I don't have the space to list. But once again, rather predictably, I've gone for the shortest option.

Yes I am aware that Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote is technically a novella, but I never ruled out inclusion of this shorter form of fiction. First published in 1958 and set in the early 1940s in Manhattan’s upper east side, the book was famously adapted into a 1961 film adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn, which updates the setting to the present. I only watched the film for the first time last year and found it to be horribly dated, especially in Mickey Rooney’s painfully racist portrayal of Holly Golightly’s Japanese landlord Mr Yunioshi. I’m hoping the book will have more of a timeless quality to it.

Review to follow this week...

New England - A Summary

Okay, first leg of the trip complete and only a couple days behind schedule. Here's a summary of what I've read so far:

Week 1

The State: Maine

The Book: Carrie by Stephen King (1974)









Week 2

The State: New Hampshire

The Book: Peyton Place by Grace Metalious (1956)









Week 3

The State: Vermont

The Book: All That I Have by Castle Freeman (2009)









Week 4

The State: Massachusetts

The Book: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)








Week 5

The State: Rhode Island

The Book: The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike (1984)








Week 6

The State: Connecticut

The Book: The Ice Storm by Rick Moody (1994)









I should also point out that all but one of the above books I managed to find in my local library, so hurrah for libraries (especially Hornsey library)!

So far we've had more adulterous affairs than I care to count, numerous illegitimate children, and the Devil tormenting everyone from Carrie White to Hester Prynne. Hmm, maybe these are just the kind of books I'm more inclined to read rather than a reflection on the region. But anyway, after that WASP overload I'm looking forward to moving swiftly on to New York and civilisation (just kidding any New Englanders!).

Connecticut and The Ice Storm by Rick Moody (1994)

The Ice Storm by Rick Moody is set in the real town of New Canaan in Fairfield County, Connecticut. A popular home for wealthy commuting New Yorkers since the advent of the railroad in 1868, its population more than doubled between 1950 and 1970 (from 8,001 to 17,451) as a result of its position at the centre of the modern architectural design movement from the late 1940s to the 1960s when a group of Havard students moved to the town and built around 80 to 100 modern homes. Other famous architects including Frank Lloyd Wright also built houses in the town. The Ice Storm is set following that population boom in 1973 and focuses on two suburban middle-class families typical of the time and place, with lengthy descriptions of their New Canaan modern homes replete with cornerless plastic furniture, high fidelity sound systems and water-beds. Today the town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States (in 2008 New Canaan was ranked first in the nation with the highest median family income). The town has also served as a popular shooting location for New England-set films, with the adaptations of Revolutionary Road, Stepford Wives (2004) and The Ice Storm (which shows several of the modern homes of the period inside and out) all being at least partly shot in New Canaan.

The Spotts House (built 1972), one of the modern homes in New Canaan to feature in the film version of The Ice Storm.

The Ice Storm was adapted into a 1997 film by Ang Lee starring, amongst others, Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. I haven't seen the film in a long while and whilst I remember admiring it I can definitely say I enjoyed the book more. For one there is a lot more dark humour in the novel, especially in the way the comically inappropriate thoughts of the characters contrast with the seriousness of the situations they are in (I especially enjoyed the son Paul Hood's comparing his family’s problems with those of The Fantastic Four). This is obviously something that would have been very hard to transfer to film, not being able to enter the thoughts of the characters (though some voice-over narration is used), and as a result Ang Lee clearly decided to play up the more sombre, melodramatic and tragic elements of the plot. Also many of the more risqué sexual scenes in the book were excised - the black humour with which they are treated on the page being more in line with the films of Todd Solondz, and evidently would not have fitted with the tone of Ang Lee’s adaptation (one plot strand in the book involves a parent who brings his teenage son to a wife-swapping "key party" to be sexually initiated, with what could have been a borderline tasteless outcome were it not so wickedly funny). In all I’d say The Ice Storm is the book I’ve taken the most pleasure from on this challenge so far, and I’d recommend it to anyone with a slightly twisted sense of humour.

Next: New York!

Week 6: State - Connecticut

Connecticut is the last state on the New England leg of this reading trip. Known as the Constitution State for being, somewhat debatably, the first state to have a written constitution (the Fundamental Orders of 1638-9), Connecticut is today known primarily for its wealth. The per capita income for 2007 was $54,117, ranking first among the states, though this does often overshadow the poorer regions of the state, mostly in the east (the state capital Hartford is one of the ten poorest cities in America). The western and southern area (part of the New York Tri-State area) is the most affluent and populous region of the state. Many music stars, radio and television personalities, and athletes have made temporary homes in the wealthy suburbs of Fairfield County. Connecticut is also home to the oldest public library in America (The Scoville Memorial Library founded 1771), New England's largest Protestant Church (The First Cathedral in Bloomfield), and Yale University, established in 1701, one of the most academically renowned and selective universities in the United States. The largest city is Bridgeport and Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County.

Films set in Connecticut tend to focus on the wealthier side of life in the state: see the big country houses in Bringing Up Baby, Beetlejuice, Christmas in Connecticut, and Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House. While in the east side of the state the 1988 film Mystic Pizza was set in the real seaside village of Mystic in New London County.

Three popular books which focus on suburban life in Connecticut are Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and The Ice Storm by Rick Moody. I almost wish I hadn't read The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin last year as it would have been the perfect choice for Connecticut. Not only is it very short (I read it in a day), but it's an enjoyable satire of wealthy American suburbs. Having narrowed down that choice though I've opted to go with The Ice Storm.

The Ice Storm was first published in 1994 to wide acclaim and was swiftly adapted into a 1997 film by Ang Lee. The book is set in the real town of New Canaan (currently the wealthiest town in Connecticut with a per capita income of $85,459) in 1973 against the backdrop of the Watergate scandal and the sexual revolution. Yes that's right, more adultery!

Review to follow this/next week...

Rhode Island and The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike (1984)

So far on this trip around New England we have had two appearances of the supernatural (most prominently in Carrie, and with the brief appearance of the real-life executed “witch” Ann Hibbins in The Scarlet Letter), two cases of adultery (Constance Mackenzie and Hester Prynne’s illegitimate daughters in Peyton Place and The Scarlet Letter respectively), and small-town gossiping has been rife (nowhere more so than in Peyton Place). Now with John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick we have all three – a novel about gossiping adulterous witches. It makes sense that we have reached this point – the themes of fear of the supernatural and suspicion of one’s own neighbours are embedded into the roots of New England. The first known person to have been executed as a witch in the region was Alice Young at Hartford, Connecticut in 1647, just 19 years after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A further 11 are recorded as having been executed from 1648 to 1688 (including Ann Hibbins) and from 1692 to 1693 the Salem Witch Trials led to the hanging of fourteen women and five men (more of the accused died from torture and in prison) famously dramatised in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. The episode is one of the darkest in America’s history and understandably the shadow it cast has long resonated in the literature of the region.

“Puritanism had landed smack on that rock and after regaining its strength at the expense of the soft-hearted Indians had thrown its steeples and stone walls all across Connecticut, leaving Rhode Island to the Quakers and Jews and antinomians and women.”

As with Peyton Place any work that features in its title the name of the town or city where the action occurs you would expect the said place to feature as prominently as any character, and in the Witches of Eastwick Updike includes some wonderfully biting passages describing both the fictional town and the state of Rhode Island, especially in the opening chapters. However, I'm disappointed to say the story did not bewitch me at all. Aside from a few key set-pieces (the tennis match, the hot-tub orgy, and a murder/suicide scene that is the main turning point) most of what happens over the course of the novel is related from one character to another after the fact during a series of extended gossip-sessions between the three witches, in a manner that I personally founded extremely tiresome. Even the Darryl Van Horne character appears mostly in the conversations of others, like a mysterious Gatsby-type figure. In the 1987 film Darryl Van Horne, played by Jack Nicholson, turns out to be the devil (cue some quite ridiculous and rather dated 1980s stop-motion). In the book there is barely even the implication, other than that his skin and, erm, bodily fluids are cold to the touch. He is devilish, Machiavellian even, but a man all the same. It is no wonder that fans of the book AND the film are so hard to pin down. I think it's safe to say I'm neither.

Next: Connecticut

Week 5: State - Rhode Island

Rhode Island, or to give it its full title “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” (the longest name of any state), is famously the smallest of all 50 states (but the second highest in population density). Founded in the 17th century by, amongst others, Roger Williams, a theologian who was forced out of the strongly Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony for advocating freedom of religion, separation of church and state, abolition of slavery, and equal treatment to Native Americans, the colony was established on the principles of religious and political tolerance. Over the last century Rhode Island has become one of the most reliable democrat states in the country, having only voted Republican in the Presidential Elections seven times in the last ninety-six years. Rhode Island is known as the Ocean State (in reference to its large bays and inlets) and the capital and largest city is Providence.

In popular culture Rhode Island is best known today as the setting of the animation series Family Guy (set in the fictional town of Quahog) and most of the films by the Farrelly Brothers (who are native to the state), from their debut Dumb and Dumber (which opens in Providence before moving to Aspen, Colorado), though Me, Myself & Irene, to their most recent Hall Pass. The 1956 musical High Society was set around a wedding in Newport, which was also where John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier married three years earlier. However, there have not been a great deal of notable novels set in the state, so picking one was not a difficult task:

John Updike is the first writer chosen on this section of the trip not have been born in the New England region. Updike was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Massachusetts in his late twenties, where he continued to live until his death in 2009 at the age of 76. Updike set numerous novels in the region, most famously Couples, set in the fictional town of Tarbox (which many asserted was based on the town of Ipswich, MA where he lived). Aside from its lesser regarded sequel (The Widows of Eastwick) The Witches of Eastwick was his only novel set in Rhode Island. The reviews on amazon seem to be greatly divided between fans of Updike (4 and 5 stars) and those who have come to the book as fans of the film (1 and 2 stars). I fall into neither category this being my first Updike. I remember seeing the film a long time ago and thinking it a mildly entertaining vehicle for Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows so if anything the prospect that I’m in for something very different is not such a bad thing.

Review to follow this/next week…