Rating: 
Summary: A Modern Classic!
Review: I don't think I have ever read anything quite like The Hours by Michael Cunningham before. It is a modern classic. I know that they will be reading Michael Cunningham many years after he dies. I read the book only because it won the Pulitzer prize. I had not heard of the writer before, but someone reccomended it to me so I desided to read it. Reading just the first few pages I realized it was differant. Among other things, Cunningham's style is differant. It is like three stories in one, but not really. I cannot really compare him to anyone because of this. But if someone put a gun to my head and told me to compare him to another writer (which is very unlikly) I would say Ayn Rand. Simply because his writing is very complex, but at the same time extreamly intruiging. It is something you seldom find in writers today. Most writers are all action, no great theme. We have become so used to reading this writing that now, when a book like this comes out, people don't understand the theme of the novel, they read the book just for the story, and that is why when I asked people who had read the book, they did not understand what Cunningham was trying to say! Please read this book carefully. Another thing I noticed when I read the book was a lot of...odd...things were happening. I took these things with an open mind though. And it did not disrupt this near perfect novel. Cunningham was very deserving of the Pulitzer prize, and I would not be surprised if he picks up the Nobel soon. I am going to read his other books soon. I really cannot see how you CANT like this book. Now that I am done praising it, I will tell you what it is about.
You probably already know that the book has a lot to do with Virginia Woolf, and that is very true. I reccomend reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf before you read this book, just because it is easier to see what is going on then. There are several chapters in the book, but only three differant names. Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Dalloway, and Mrs. Woolf. It goes into Mrs. Browns life, then Mrs. Dalloway, then Mrs. Woolf, then back to Mrs. Brown. They all meet up in the end, but it is a little confuesing at times. This is a book to read carefully, but to read quickly, if you are a reader who reads one page a day and reads one day a month, I do not reccomend this book to you, because you will become very confused. But if you are an average reader who reads one book in a month, then I highly reccomend this book. I don't want to give a lot of the plot away because it is a very entertaining story (And I am not just saying that, it is very entertaining, some people call reading a dictionary entertaining, but thats not me, this book is really interesting and entertaing). Don't pass up the chance to read this book. HINT : get the first edition of this book, Many years from now that will be worth a lot. Michael Cunningham has created an orginal masterwork with this one!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! Couldn't put it down...
Review: My husband, also a writer, urged me to read this. I put it off for a while. We're big readers and fans of James Salter, who I compare Cunningham to. Like Salter (Light Years was my favorite of his), his use of language is poetry, his characters so fully developed that they seamlessly become part of your psyche. He brought together in a profound way three wonderful women (tragic, self-effacing and just plain damaged) that I feel have become part of my life; enriching it, making me think and feel like I didn't know I could. I can't wait to see Cunningham read and when I do, I intend to tell him The Hours is on my top ten of all-time favorite books.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this book!!!
Review: Michael Cunningham is nothing short of a genius. I devoured "The Hours" in record time, despite having to put it down several times to reflect on some of the most beautifully written, simple and eloquent passages I have ever read. I have read almost every book of fiction to have won the Pulitzer, and I can say without hesitation that this book is the at the top of that elite list.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Better Pulitzer Prize Winners
Review: Since the fall of 2001, I have been reading my way through the Pulitzer Prize winning novels and so far this is the best of the lot. At the end of chapter 3, which are short, I was a little confused but stick with it. Certainly provides some insights and food for thought. Not however for someone who is suffering from depression !
Rating:
Summary: Worth All the Time You Spend With It
Review: In 1925, Virginia Woolf published her masterful novel, "Mrs. Dalloway". Set during a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, Woolf brilliantly used techniques which became hallmarks of the modern novel--interior monologue, first person narrative and a stunning, albeit unrelentingly difficult, stream-of-consciousness rendering--to produce one of the masterpieces of twentieth century English literature. Nearly seventy-five years later, Michael Cunningham has used many of these same techniques to write "The Hours", a fitting homage to Woolf and a novel which deservedly won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. "The Hours" tells the story of a bright June day in the lives of three different women living in three different times and places. The first story is that of Virginia Woolf during a day in 1923, when she is writing "Mrs. Dalloway". The second is the story of Laura Brown, a thirtyish, bookish married woman living in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Laura has a four-year-old son and is pregnant with another child as she plans a birthday dinner for her husband on a day in 1949. The third story is that of Clarissa Vaughn, a fifty-two year old, slightly bohemian, literary agent who is planning a party for Richard, her long-time friend and one-time lover, a prominent writer dying of AIDS. "The Hours" is, among other things, a nuanced and sensitive picture of middle age in the lives of its characters. Like the novel to which it pays tribute, "The Hours" relies heavily on interior monologue-on thoughts, memories and perceptions-to drive the narrative and to establish a powerful bond between the reader and each of the female protagonists. The reader feels the psychic pain of the aging Virginia Woolf as she contemplates suicide in the Prologue. The reader has an almost tactile sense of Laura Brown's claustrophobia, of her feeling that life is closing in around her, as she flees to a hotel for two hours in the middle of the day simply to spend time reading ("Mrs. Dalloway", of course). And the reader can identify with the yearning, the melancholy, that is suggested when Clarissa Vaughn thinks back to the time when she was young, when her life's choices had not yet been made. "The Hours" is written, in short, like all great fiction--with deep feeling and love for its characters-and it stands as one of the outstanding American novels of the past decade. While resonating with the themes, techniques and characters of Woolf's difficult modern masterpiece, "The Hours" is masterful and original in its own right, an accessible and engaging work that is worth all the time you spend with it.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but something lacking for me
Review: Michael Cunningham should be a Pullitzer Prize winner for the stunning words in this novel. Scenery, dialogue and inner thoughts are so aptly described. I was drawn to the prose. My friends all loved the book. They recommended it so many times, I purchased a copy and dug in. I'm sorry to say I had to force myself through the stories, though. Each woman in the book was an interesting person unto herself, but goodness, I just couldn't love them. Tying them together at the end seemed trite. I would have been satisfied with the three different stories that only linked with the Virginia Woolf book. I wanted to love it. I loved the prose, but just didn't love the story. I'm still giving it four stars for the writing, but the missing star is reserved for my personal satisfaction with the story. Sorry.
Rating:
Summary: An atmospheric, involving and unique novel
Review: If you love complex, atmospheric, and literary stories that avoid pretentiousness,"The Hours" is a good bet for you. Michael Cunningham weaves three related stories set in three time periods together in a very interesting and rather unexpected way. The seed story of the novel involves an "imagining" of Virginia Wolfe's life during her last days as she conceives of her novel "Mrs. Dalloway" and then writes the novel which would become her most famous work. Cunningham continues from that idea and alternates between two additional story lines that are related to the first in unusual ways and allows all three to unfold concurrently. That alone could be a very difficult task for an author to pull off without literary trickery. The novel, "Mrs. Dalloway", which is being written in the first story line is Wolfe's real novel about a single day in the life of a woman called Mrs. Dalloway who is planning a party for her first love. The novel describes her activities in planning the party and also the recollections it triggers of her youth and the choices that she's made. The two other story lines are closely related to the plot of the book "Mrs. Dalloway" that is being written in the first story. The second tale involves a clinically depressed, suicidal 1950's housewife who is reading Wolfe's novel "Mrs. Dalloway" while she is preparing a birthday party for her husband and caring for her very young son. The final story weaves aspects of both of the first two stories together in a story that takes place in the early 2000s. It involves a woman, nicknamed "Mrs. Dalloway" by her best friend and one time lover, who is preparing a party for him because of an award he's received. She also is caring for him as he is gradually dying of Aids. In essence, these characters modern lives mirror the major aspects of Wolf's characters in her novel "Mrs. Dalloway". The modern woman essentially IS the Mrs. Dalloway character from the novel. To simplify, the first story is ABOUT the author conceiving and writing the novel "Mrs. Dalloway", the second involves a woman in the 1950's who is READING the novel "Mrs. Dalloway", and the third story is about modern people whose lives mirror those in the novel "Mrs. Dalloway". Is this confusing? Perhaps a little at first. As you read "The Hours" all of it comes together for you beautifully though. There are no showy literary tricks like time travel, or stagey situations created to explain the relationships between the three stories. The relationships are revealed gradually and naturally through the three independent tales woven together to form a beautiful tapestry of a novel. I have to say that "The Hours" is an unusually memorable novel. I highly recommend both "The Hours" and Mr. Cunninghams novel "A Home at the End of the World".
Rating:
Summary: a novel within a novel within a novel
Review: I can only comment on "The Hours" in its own right, not having read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, but in a sense this might allow me to judge the work more objectively. Whilst I undoubtedly overlook certain intricacies in the plot it is very important to mention that my enjoyment was definitely not limited by not having read "Mrs Dalloway" previously. In my humble opinion, the novel is extremely cleverly constructed and appears to be the work of an utter perfectionist. Cunningham demonstrates such incredible understanding of the life, time and mind of Virginina Woolf that his historical research was clearly scrupulous. He delves into the very depths of the minds of his female characters in particular; notably those who most seem to mirror Virginia Woolf. He shows an exquisite and very delicate sensitivity to his characters, and you truly sense that he is totally at one with them all, as well as with their differing fictional worlds, each of which seems to be tainted with Virginia's sadness, isolation and reflection, despite the fact that the characters' world seems to overflow with love as well as material comforts. I found the book a great pleasure to read. It really is a novel within a novel within a novel, and the three parralel plots blur around the edges. The book is all fictional, if based on reality, and yet this is three-level fiction, leading the reader to question who is whose fiction and where the lines between fiction and reality can really be drawn? We are also lead to ponder on when fiction is fantasy and when it is an outsourcing of real anguish, fear and frustration, for Virginia, and even, through Virginia and the other protaganists, for Cunningham himself? It is a multi-layered and highly thought-provoking masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: I wish it was much longer
Review: The revelations in this book, combined with a comforting empathy and confident prose, combine to make "The Hours" into an eye-clearing experience. I've just finished it, and can't imagine concentrating on other works of fiction. A truly seminal experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever, not insightful
Review: I agree completely with Michelle McSweeney's review -- Cunningham has simply imitated Woolf's great novel in some chapters and, although he writes well, has failed to give us anything extraordinary in the other chapters, although they are intermittently engaging. The book contains no insights that Woolf had not already provided 75 years ago, and it certainly achieves nothing new. I found the "Mrs. Dalloway" chapters, which just replicate the original with different names and places, plain irritating. Also irritating was the heavy-handedness of such events as Laura Brown's afternoon in a room of her own . . . Just read Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" and call it a day!
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