Book Club: Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. - A PSS Book Review

Who: Everyone and everything involved in making the film Breakfast at Tiffany's!

By: Sam Wasson

Why: I knew the movie was iconic and made Audrey Hepburn shoot into platinum star status, but reading this book made me realize how much the movie reflected (and even influenced) the changing times of the modern American woman. Raised hemlines, sexual freedom, even the invention of the LBD (Little Black Dress, and yes, it got its start on Breakfast at Tiffany's!) were all in tandem with the birth of this controversial "new" film in its era.

Fun Fact: I had no idea Truman Capote wrote the book the film was based on! Or that he modeled Holly GoLightly after his own flaky mother. Or that Holly was originally much more of a hooker than the movie lets on - in fact the storyline was quite drastically censored and reshaped from the book version in order to be acceptable to audiences--and the censor board. Even still it was met with shock and outrage by most critics!

Another fun fact: George Peppard (you know..."Fred") was nearly universally hated on the set (by actors and crew alike). He was apparently a huge snob, and a total diva.

How It Reads: Surprisingly easy to read, this non-fiction book reads like a novel. Wasson has a great talent for weaving facts and chronological data into a plotline, a story with twists and turns, revealing details incrementally. It's also not a terribly long book, so it's nothing to wade through for weeks (unless you read a page a day).

Here's a link to it on Amazon. If you are going to read it or already have, leave a comment letting us know!