Breakfast with Tiffany: A Memoir

by Edwin John Wintle

Book Overview

Ed Wintle was a successful, urbane professional whose life, at forty, was very comfortable. He had reached the point when he looked around at his well-ordered, unfettered single existence and wonderedGs Is this all there is After a desperate call from his sister at her wits end, his street-wise thirteen-year-old niece Tiffany-a writhing ball of adolescent anger-comes to live with him. If he felt he needed a shot in the arm, what he got proved more...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401352243
• ISBN13: 9781401352240
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Miramax Books
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A delightful, cheering, profound story of family love

I had the great pleasure of reading this book after it was recommended by a friend, and now I wish to return the favor and recommend it myself. Wintle writes with an easy grace, and fills the story with rich moments of life with a teenage girl -- chapters turn on a dime from comic to poignant to tragic and back again -- just as a teenage girl's emotions can turn. Tiffany is one of the most compelling and engaging charcters I've ever read -- read it for the true insight you will gain into the mind of a young woman full of talent and promise and, yes, a few problems -- she is as lovely and complex as only the best young women are.

Still Reading & Loving It...

Long car rides seem to consume any free time my husband & I have these days, but we've been passing the time by reading Wintle's most awesome memoir-- both my husband & I (avid readers) are loving it. Though we're only halfway through, my husband has banned me from reading ahead. He wants me to continue reading aloud during our next car ride this Friday. I cannot believe 1) I was able to read aloud for three hours straight & 2) I didn't want to sleep as I usually do on long car rides! What a great book-- I know this will help my teaching & how I deal with teenagers this year.

At the absolute top of my long list of favorites! I love this book!

It has been a long time since I have felt so passionate about a book. I could not put it down, every time I tried, I kept thinking about Uncle Eddy and Tiffany; I wanted to know what was happening. The anecdotes Wintle shares during his first year living with his 13 year old niece is written with brave, yet painful honesty, as they forge new territory as "parent and child". Wintle brings to light the immense love and frustration one endures when dealing with struggling teenagers. Sadly, the difficulties and life circumstances experienced by Tiffany are very realistic, and yet the sincerity with which they are shared will provide a cathartic connection for others coming of age today. I highly recommended this Breakfast With Tiffany to parents, teenagers teachers, and anyone else who appreciates a good read. I will be using this book in my high school reading class this fall. I wish I had, had an Uncle Eddy in my life, willing to embrace me during my not so finest hours. This is the kind of book that turns reluctant readers into lovers of reading.

Such an endearing and clever read!

This is something I've never done before. I actually don't read all that much, and most of what I've read has been in the "classic novel" category. However, I read the article in People Magazine about this book, and went and got it that very evening, (Tuesday, to be exact.) I'm a teacher and so I don't get much down time during the year, but in the summers, I love to stay up late, reading in bed. I can't believe how incapable I was of putting this book down. This is the third night in a row I've been up past 2am reading, and I just finished. I'm no literary critic, or anyone important in that world, but I loved this book! It's so witty and I thought it so fitting that just at the end; in the last 4 lines, I was tearing up because I knew it was ending and I was half-expecting some heart-wrenching last line from Uncle Eddie or "Tiffany" and there was that charming wit again, with a line just as hysterical as the one that begins the book. Perfect! One of the reviews on your back cover says that teenagers will want their own "Uncle Eddy" after reading this book, but I'm 7 years removed from my teens, and I want one! I teach a freshman mentoring class to my high school kids, and now I'm hoping I can somehow fit reading this book into the curriculum. God bless Edwin Wintle for writing this!

A great new memoirist

This book has it all--a true story that grabs you by the gut, plenty of comic moments, and emotional high points that give you a lump in your throat. Wintle tells this compelling tale with wit, insight and a great sense of pacing. I'm recommending this book to everyone, because everyone who's ever been part of a family (I guess that includes all of us) will be able to relate to it. Forget the force-fed Augusten Burroughs/David Sedaris comparisons on the jacket--Wintle's talent need not be clumsily compared to either; it stands on its own.