Rating: 
Summary: Why?
Review: Mrs. Dalloway is an experimental, modernist novel that is very much of its time (think Gertrude Stein, James Joyce) -- no one would publish it today. Its chronology bounces around freely, and it tells two stories at once that never intersect (the other being about Septimus, the shell-shocked vet who is being taken to the doctor by his Italian wife), with the exception of one brief moment where both characters observe the same airplane passing overhead. It's not an easy novel to read, but it is a rewarding one. Cunningham's novel The Hours IS the kind of novel that can get published today -- it references the more interesting original, but isn't remotely as challenging, or engaging. The whole thing struck me as an academic exercise, and written in present tense with a dying-of-AIDS poet, well, it's just a little too calculated. It's depressing to see art eat its own head this way -- movies are all remakes of other movies, or make fun of other movies (Austin Powers), music recycles styles every couple of years, and now books are following suit. I'm not sure why no one was outraged -- remember The Wind Done Gone? What's the difference? He's just piggybacking on an already successful title. Cunningham is a good writer, but he certainly gets no points from me for originality with this one. Too easy. And when he includes actual excerpts from Woolf's prose, it's like parking a beautiful old Jaguar next to a Ford Focus.
Rating:
Summary: Admirable intentions, but part of the book is too derivative
Review: Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS has been much adored as an homage to Virginia Wolf's MRS. DALLOWAY. The novel, of course, tells three interlocking stories, after first beginning with the narrative of Woolf's suicide in 1941. It tells of Woolf's attempts at starting the novel in 1923, while in enforced isolation with her husband at Hogarth House in Richmond; of Laura Brown, a post-war Los Angeles suburban housewife's unravelling on a day when she read the novel for the first time; and of "Clarissa Vaughn," a contemporary woman much like Clarissa Dalloway herself who prepares a party to honor her dearest friend who is dying of AIDS on the day he is to win a major literary award.The first and second strands of Cunningham's novel are lovely. Cunningham admirably brings something new to our conception of Virginia Woolf and her complicated relations with her sister, husband and servants. His second strand, "Mrs. Brown" (a tribute, of course, to Woolf's famous essay "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown" and its conception of what 20th-century authors owe to their characters), is the most beautiful and original section of the book: Laura Brown does seem to carry out luminously Woolf's exhortation for contemporary authors to represent faithfully the inner life. But it is in the third strand, the contemporary story, that the book doesn't come off at all. rather than as a postmodern homage, the section reads as a simultaneously bad and derivative imitative of MRS. DALLOWAY: I found myself cringing in these sections at Cunningham's weak imitations of Woolf's plot and prose. Despite its ingenious and noble intentions, this sequence prevents the novel, in the end, from fully deserving the praise it has garnered.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and boring
Review: I finally finished reading this book after putting in down at least a dozen times. I finished it only because of the overwhelming hype surrounding it, aided by its brevity. Dull, dull, dull. I haven't seen the movie, but the previews for it look quite interesting. I would love to have been the screenwriter for the movie. I would have been able to flesh out and develop the characters in ways the author does not. From what little I've seen of the movie trailers, they have done just that. I kept at it, hoping something would happen. Here's a clue... almost nothing does. Oh, and there's no grand message either. The written story is dull and depressing; the movie previews appear to have more vitality. My recommendation would be to see the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Left disappointed
Review: I enjoyed the author's method of writing, and his vivid descriptions were wonderful. I was somewhat satisfied with the book until the last few chapters when things just got, well...stupid. I think each character was beautifully written, but the way they were brought together was uncreative. I was appalled with the simple ending to this book. I fumbled throught the entire book hoping for a decent amount of closure, but was left disappointed. In all I applaud the author for his characterization and style, but I would ask him to sit a little longer next time thinking of a more solid plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Cherish the Hours
Review: This was a marvelous novel! Michael Cunningham is a true master of prose, a master at weaving a wonderful story. The Hours is the story of three women, living out one day in their particular time line. Virginia Woolf is struggling with a new story, what will become Mrs. Dalloway. Laura Brown, living in Los Angeles in 1949, is immersed in her reading of Mrs. Dalloway, and struggling with her feelings toward her husband, her son, and her life in general. Clarissa Vaughn, living in present day Greenwich Village, is occupied with a party she is giving for her dearest friend, a writer who has AIDS. The author weaves the stories of these three women together with grace and affection. Although they all live at different times, their stories resonate, and at the end, they come together in unexpected ways. These women are very real, and their struggles, their loves, and their lives are very realistic. I don't think you can read this novel and not be changed in some way. I don't think you can read this novel and not look at life differently when you are finished with it. Only one suggestion: read Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, first, before reading The Hours. It will enrich your reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: "Unstuck in time"
Review: The Hours parallels three women's lives-Clarissa Vaughan living in the present, Laura Brown in the 1940s, and author Virginia Woolf in the 1920s-and, thereby, enables readers to become "unstuck in time" (to borrow a phrase from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.). I personally can get "cabin fever" if a book only addresses one time frame, and I like to get outside. The Hours enables me to do that by moving from one woman's story to another while, at the same time, plumbing the universal depths and ranges of human feelings that cross all time and space. The Hours, which is both immediate and sweeping, is wonderfully challenging stylistically, intellectually, and emotionally. Read parts of it out loud for the sheer poetry. -- Kathleen Hawkins, president of WinningSpirit.com and author of Spirit Incorporated: How to Follow Your Spiritual Path from 9 to 5
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed reviews not surprising
Review: I'm not terribly surprised at the wide mix of customer reviews for this book. On the one hand, I loved the writing. Cunningham's style is simply beautiful. As mentioned in other reviews, his transitions are seamless. The parallels and common themes running between the three womens' lives are fascinating. I can't imagine how they were able to make this book into a movie, because I think it's Cunningham's writing style that makes the book worth reading more than the plot itself. On the other hand, I found myself waiting for something to happen as I read the book - more action, I guess, than it provides. That's not to say that nothing happens in this book. Several significant events transpire. Perhaps it's the pace of the narration. It really doesn't change much from chapter to chapter, woman to woman, so much of it feels the "same." When I finished the book, I also had the feeling that I had missed something important the author was trying to say. I found myself wishing I'd read "Mrs. Dalloway" in the hopes that it would provide further illumination of the author's intent. Overall, though, I did enjoy this novel, and was glad I read it. If you're looking for remarkable writing, this book is for you. If you're looking for an exciting plot, you might want to give this one a pass.
Rating:
Summary: Coffee House Blues
Review: When I read, I hear the voice of the narrator in my mind. As I read "The Hours", the voice I heard was that of a "pretentious offbeat hippie", putting on airs in a coffee house of the 60's. My impressions may have been intended by the author, since much of his tale describes characters of the period, who populated the coffee houses of New York's Greenwich Village and the Near North side of Chicago of my own youth. That the author was a Pulitzer Prize winner surprised me. The book dragged initially, and I found myself wondering how one could make a movie of it. It is definitely not my cup of tea.
Rating:
Summary: Transcends being just a good book. It's a work of art!
Review: Woven together with a master's hand, this is the story of three women in three different time periods. One of them is the legendary Virginia Woolf, whose writing style and introspection sets the mood. We learn at the beginning that she takes her own life it 1941, but her story takes place in 1923 as she begins to write "Mrs. Dalloway". The second story is set in the present and features the very modern middle-aged Clarissa Vaughn, who lives in my own familiar neighborhood in New York City. And then there is Laura Brown, living in a California suburb with her husband and young son in 1949. These women have both nothing and everything in common, and, as they go about their lives on one particular June day with the hours stretching in front of them, a mood is created that sets the stage for the very satisfactory surprise ending. The book is a mere 228 pages, and yet I had to read it slowly, putting it down every now and then and letting the images wash over me. The author's words became the echoing chime of a bell, stirring my own memories and introducing a new perspective. When a book can do all that it transcends being just a good story. It is a work of art. It's a troubling book, and not pleasant to read. It deals with life and death and the hours of our lives. And it sheds light upon it all. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: It Takes Your Breath Away
Review: You'll either love this novel so much you'll read passages over and over, or you'll give up after a couple of chapters. I think the reason so many people have problems with "The Hours" is that they don't enjoy reading a novel with such a dark mood. Some people aren't entertained by reading about such tragic loneliness. Cunningham deals with characters who who are depressed to the point of despair even when they are surrounded by people who love them unconditionally. It's probably hard for most people who are reasonably happy to grasp that kind of pain. The author's beautiful and sometimes poetic writing is an amazing work of art; the novel deserved all the praise it received. The way the story parallels Virginia Woolf's masterpiece "Mrs. Dalloway" is inspired. The book truly takes the reader into the world in which Virginia Woolf lived her brilliant and tortured life, and the transitions from Woolf's era to those of Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughn were beautifully done. The best way to read this book is on a rainy day, classical music in the background and a pot of tea on the stove. If only other novels could compare...
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