Sundays at Tiffany’s

James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
Little, Brown and Company (2008)
ISBN 9780316014779
Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (3/08)


The title of “Sundays at Tiffany’s” recalls “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” but the comparisons end there, other than it being a love story, and its main characters are actually somewhat more bizarre than Holly Golightly. The story begins with Jane, about to have her ninth birthday, and her imaginary friend, Michael, a handsome adult male. Jane lives with her mother, a famous Broadway producer and distant parent, whose only quality time with her daughter is on Sundays when they go to Tiffany’s to look at jewelry. Jane has almost no relationship with her father, which implies she created Michael as her imaginary friend to replace her absent father.

On Jane’s ninth birthday, Michael tells her she is now old enough that he must leave her. Jane is heartbroken by his departure. Michael tells her she will forget him, but she never does. The story then flashes forward to Jane as an adult, living with her mother, trying to turn the play she wrote about her relationship with Michael into a film, and having to fight with her mother and her handsome but obnoxious boyfriend, Hugh, about whether Hugh will get the lead role in the film.

And then, Jane and Michael spot each other. Actually, Michael sees Jane first and follows her around for a few days, fascinated that she is the first child he has served as an imaginary friend whom he has encountered as an adult. Michael turns out not to be imaginary at all, but rather like an invisible Mary Poppins, who helps children gain self-reliance, and then leaves them, apparently also making them forget him. When Jane also sees and recognizes Michael, Michael cannot understand why, unlike other children, she never forgot him. He soon notices other strange things also happening as he and Jane begin to fall in love, creating several complications in their lives.

“Sundays at Tiffany’s” is the kind of light fare from which romantic comedy films are made. The book is entertaining, but I felt stronger character development was necessary. All the characters save for Jane and Michael are stereotypes. I’m not sure even Jane and Michael aren’t stereotypes. Jane’s journey is one of learning to follow her heart and stand up against her mother, yet when she and her mother come to understand each other, it is more her mother’s doing than her own. I found it hard to admire Jane, although I sympathized with her frustrations. Michael was rather a disappointment to me. The book alternates without any pattern between first person narration told by Jane, and third person from Michael’s viewpoint. Had Michael’s sections also been in first person, it would have made him more real and interesting to the reader. I also thought the authors should have been more specific about Michael’s past and purpose, something even Michael did not understand. I imagine the authors wanted to make Michael’s assignments mysterious, but by more fully realizing what his duties and role were in terms of the bigger picture of his work, he would have been a more fully realized and intriguing character.

“Sundays at Tiffany’s” is the first James Patterson novel I have read, and it does not appear to be typical of his writing. I suspect Gabrielle Charbonnet did most of the writing, although Patterson states the idea originated from something his four-year-old son once said. I doubt this book is what most Patterson fans will expect, but female readers looking for a romantic escape will enjoy “Sundays at Tiffany’s.”

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