Friday Reads: Fifth Avenue, 5am by Sam Wasson

When JS and I flew to Vancouver last spring, she was reading this one and with Audrey Hepburn on the cover, I knew it was destined to end up on my reading list as well (I'm kind of a huge fan).  So, when my flight to Florida called for me to pack an extra paper book along for those times I couldn't have my Kobo...this one went into the bag.

This book combined so many of my favourite things into one cover that I found myself captivated from the first page.   Audrey Hepburn.  Breakfast at Tiffany's. Cultural revolutions.  Quirky writers.  Biographical renderings of all of the above.

In a nutshell - the book covers how Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany's revolutionized the ways that society defined what was "sexy".  The movie was released at a time of awakening in the world and simply by casting an atypical female lead in the role of a high class call girl - not only were the movie makers walking a fine line with movie goers - they were also playing an interesting little game with the censors.

Wasson walks us through the lives of each of the major players and we see how it went from being a much different story in the Capote novela to how the script came about to how Hepburn ended up in the role instead of Capote's wish to have Marilyn Monroe play Holly Golightly.  We also get to meet some of the real-life characters in Capote's life of whom a sum of their parts became Holly's essence.

While I have read many books over the years that have told each of the stories in this one - it was lovely to see them all under one roof and tied together beautifully.

This is an entertaining and interesting book about a movie that started the shift in Hollywood away from the typical sexy female lead stereotypes and opened doors for women everywhere.

Highly recommended.