Rating: 
Summary: Fresh, Open Writing
Review: I enjoyed every minute of reading this book. Cunningham's writing style is very easy on the eyes, and brain. The imagery of Manhattan really hit home. I've only been there 3 times, but every time he went to paint that picture, I felt like he was describing home. The other 2 or 3 scenarios were similarly enjoyable. All the characters were created and shaped with just as much attention to making this book a personal experience for the reader. HOWEVER, the cheesey plot culmination at the end, I could have done without. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read the book, but I spotted the end at about halfway through the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Sad, thought provoking & beautifully written
Review: It's hard to do The Hours justice in a review. Imagine a multi generation human drama of John Irving, but flawless and without contradictions in just over 200 pages. Reading this meticulously researched and well-contrived novel, you get the distinct impression that Michael Cunningham had the whole concept laid out in front of him, before he started writing. It hangs together so well, in a way too perfect at times and in the process it lacks the free flowing feel of the likes of Annie Proulx and Barbara Kingslover.The main story in the Hours is that of Clarissa and Richard, who were close friends and lovers in their youth and remained best friends to the present day when we see them in New York city in their early fifties. They are now both gay, and nearly all the characters that we come across in the present day part of the novel are gay and lesbian. Intertwined with the present day Clarissa are the lives of Laura Brown in post WWII Los Angeles suburb and Virginia Wolf in England in the early 20's. Laura and Virginia are both suffocating in their ordinary comfortable lives, trapped in straight marriages. They both love and care for their husbands and families but so yearn to free themselves from their ordinary lives. Both are obsessed with the passing of the hours, time and death, both see secret pleasurable attraction in other women. Cunningham language and style are very enjoyable. He takes a small object and describes in great detail, "Virginia can see that the bird is laid on the grass compactly, its wings folded up against its body. She knows it has died already in Quentin's palms. It seems to have wanted to make the smallest possible package of itself. Its eye, a perfect black bead is open and its gray feet, larger than you'd expect them to be, are curled in on themselves. It could be a kind of a hat, it could be the missing link between millinery and death." Cunningham gets you to visualize and sense a scenery or a situation, then moves takes you inside his characters " She (Virginia) would like to lie down in its place. No denying it she would like that. Vanessa and Julian can go on about their business, their tea and travels, while she Virginia, a bird sized Virginia, lets herself metamorphose from an angular difficult woman into an ornament on a hat, foolish, uncaring thing." Of the four primary relationships in The Hours, Virginia & Leonard, Laura & Dan, Clarissa & Richard and Clarissa & Sally, we only get a 2 sided view once. We enter Sally's mind and witness her true care and affection for Clarissa. With all of the other "couples" we come across, primary or secondary, gay or straight, the relationships are unhappy and unfulfilled. We are never really clear on Clarissa, would she have wanted Richard more had he not been gay, is she as devoted to Sally, many questions remain unanswered, she remains a bit of a mystery, like the original Mrs. Dalloway. You don't have to read Virginia Wolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" to appreciate this book fully. You don't even need to have read any work by Virginia Wolf to enjoy, get into and be touched by The Hours. The Hours will make you want to read Virginia Wolf and the best place to start is The Voyage Out, her first book. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece
Review: I'm not going to go on and on about this book. I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of hosannas being sung to Michael Cunningham and this unforgettable book. I very rarely find myself in tears as I read the first chapter of a book and yet that is exactly what happened. The ironic thing is that this happened the SECOND time I read it; I already knew what was waiting for me around each corner. The characters are drawn with an exquisite attention to detail. The scholarship which has allowed the author to bring "Mrs. Dalloway" so lovingly to life for us is beyond impressive. If they had never come up with Pulitzer Prizes before this volume was published, they would have had to invent them. I place this little gem alongside Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day" and Ondaatje's "The English Patient" and claim it as one of the finest works of fiction published in the past decade.
Rating:
Summary: Keep Reading!
Review: The Hours, Michael Cunningham's fourth book, is an amazing read. Through the tales of four women - three "real", and one fictional - Cunningham has showed us the interrelationships of life, and how experiences stay the same, even while changing, from generation to generation. The book centers around the stories of three women: Virginia Woolf, an author writing a story about Mrs. Dalloway; Mrs. Brown, a housewife in California in 1949, and Clarissa "Dalloway," a writer caring for a close friend suffering from AIDS. These women seem to live separate lives; yet at the end their experiences intersect profoundly and in an important way. I had never read Virginia Woolf, and it did not diminish my enjoyment of the story itself. However, I do think that I perhaps missed some of the literary foreshadowing early in the book. When I began reading this story, I admit I didn't understand it. The stories seemed disjointed, and I didn't "get" where the author was going. But by the end, I was struck by the beauty of the book and the author's masterful revealing of his concept.
Rating:
Summary: A book as lovely as it is true.
Review: It's not necessary to read Mrs. Dalloway before reading this, but it helps. Mrs. Dalloway inspires and informs The Hours, and Michael Cunningham references that book in such a way that he reminds you of certain feelings and events without rehashing them. This book was such a joy to read, I inhaled it. And there were so many truths about life and human nature, and not to be trite, but there seemed such wisdom in the storytelling. I am eager to read more by Michael Cunningham.
Rating:
Summary: More Poetry Than Prose
Review: THE HOURS is a remarkable book, not for its plot or action (although there are some surprising twists and turns) but rather for its masterful writing. Michael Cunningham is such a wonderful wordsmith; you get the feeling that he could make stereo instructions sound mesmerizing. Every sentance, every paragraph of this book is a poem in its own right...try reading it aloud to see what I mean. The characterizations are also highly memorable...this is a book that will leave you musing on its inhabitants for a long time to come. This collection of three "days in the life" of three different women, all intertwined in mysterious and unexpected ways, will find a permanent place in your consciousness. Incidentally, I know nothing about Virginia Wolff before reading THE HOURS, and my enjoyment wasn't negatively affected in any way.
Rating:
Summary: A Song Disguised as Prose
Review: Cunningham has done what regretfully few writers are able to do: written a thoughtful, interesting, deep, easy-to-read masterpiece that is enjoyable on multiple levels. He writes as if he is singing, or writing poetry; on almost every page, there is a gem of a sentence which is just food for thought for hours. For example: "Then the feeling moves on. It does not collapse; it is not whisked away. It simply moves on, like a train that stops at a small country station, stands for a while, and then continues out of sight." Or: "If they both survive long enough, if they stay together, they will watch each other fade." Wonderful. You do not need to know Virginia's Woolf generally, or her novel "Mrs. Dalloway" in particular, to appeciate this book. I've been assured, however, that reading Mrs. Dalloway only enhances the experience. There are multiple parallels between the two books. This book examines -as did "Mrs. Dalloway" - one day in the life of three characters. Each one's day, as it unfolds before us, could easily be its own short story. Cunningham's genius, however, is the way in which he ties together the three individuals into one novel. Watch for the Hitchcock-like ending. I don't want to say what it is (it would be like telling the end of a movie to someone about to enter the theater) but read the last chapter carefully. If you want to discuss the ending, or what the Hitchcock piece is, drop me an e-mail. (I missed it the first time around until someone pointed it out to me). All in all, this novel examines, in strikingly beautiful language - love, and life, and fear, and insecurity, and sanity, and marriage, and parenthood, and relationships. There is something in this deeply textured novel for everyone. It follows three women at three different times - the 1930s, the 1950s, and modern day - as they seek to understand their lives, their futures, and themselves. The manner in which these women react to life is truly extraordinary.
Rating:
Summary: Magic to be savored
Review: When The Hours won the Pulitzer Prize, I shouted out a hoot of joy. I don't usually hoot for Pulitzer winners -- usually, I quibble with them, since it's always fun to quibble with the taste of judges and the idea of giving an award to just one novel in a year generally seems absurd -- but I read The Hours when it first came out and was blown away. Few works of literature have ever affected me so deeply. The Hours is directly related to, and intertwined with, the life and work of Virginia Woolf, so the big question is, do you have to love Virginia Woolf to love The Hours? The answer will probably be different for different people. Cunningham does not write like Woolf, nor does he attempt to. He's just riffing on some of her themes and characters, as well as moments in her life. (I happen to find her life far more interesting than most of her novels, though I am more fond of Mrs. Dalloway than the others.) I expect you could get as much from The Hours having read nothing by Woolf as you could after having read all of her works, for though Cunningham's novel is a sort of homage, it is also a whole lot more than that. It is a meditation on art and life, on time and death, on fame and reality. The prose is so perfectly written (there is truly not a single unnecessary sentence in the whole book), the observations so acute and eloquent, that you could read this book simply for the wonder of its words. A warning, though. If you are looking for a plot, this is not your novel. The story is about the relationships between the parts, the harmony and counterpoint of images and settings and characters and ideas -- it is not so much about any great event. You do have to read carefully. However, compared to Woolf's own work, The Hours is a model of clarity and suspense. A bigger warning: don't read the book too quickly. It's short, and the pages may breeze by if you're not careful. If you read it too quickly, it will feel thin and inconsequential. It is not. You need to let the words drift into you. Read as slowly as possible. Few novels of the last decade, and perhaps even the last half century, are so full of beauty, wonder, and life.
Rating:
Summary: Time Well Spent
Review: This is one of the most well written novels I've read to date. The Hours examines the pathos of three women through a stream of conscious narrative rendering of their lives and the various relationships within it. Although separated by time and space, the characters are connected via common uncertainties about life, relationships and their role in them. This novel literally transcends time and space, merging circumstances (both fictional and biographical) introduced in 1941 London, with fictional characters set in 1949 Los Angles, with relevant current day social situations set in New York City. This is no small task for Cunningham but he does a superb job of keeping the novel on track and not losing the reader in an overly complex and interwoven plot (everything comes together perfectly in end). The novel motivated me to do a little reading on Virginia Woolf as I am not very familiar with her life/work. Although not necessary for the enjoyment of this novel, the research on Woolf did provide this reader with a broader understanding of the context within which Cunningham operated, and a greater appreciation for his writing abilities. Definitely award winning material.
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Summary: My Favorite Contemporary Author
Review: In my book, Michael Cunningham can do no wrong. "The Hours" is his most complex work, weaving the stories of different women in different times until their stories combine to create a perfect tapestry. Virginia Woolf fans will appreciate Cunningham's tribute to the great, troubled author, and those who have not read Woolf may be inspired by this book to explore her sumptuous works. Do yourself a favor and get to know Michael Cunningham's glorious world of superior fiction.
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