Rating: 
Summary: Wondering why it gets rave reviews?
Review: I just read "The Hours" right after reading two otherbest-sellers. Frankly, I don't understand why this book received thePulitzer Prize! Perhaps it's due to the socially timely topic. The overabundance of details in the book did NOT make it come alive for me - in fact I started skipping these paragraphs. The unnecessary details remind me of an over-decorated Christmas tree, with every possible color, shape, and size of decoration thrown on. I also found the main characters boring. The only (intellectually) pleasing aspect of the book was the last chapter - it gave the book a surprising twist.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: I really loved this book..I had just finished reading two very disappointing books and to read such a treasure was wonderful...I went out and bought Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe as well as Mr. Cunningham's two other Novels and am looking forward to reading them all...I plan on reading The Hours again.
Rating:
Summary: morbid introspection of the middle class
Review: Michael Cunningham details his characters' neuroses with faultless observation, this much is true. That they should have been created when their pitiful self-loathing is detailed at such tedious length and with such loving skill is altogether another matter. Many people have praised this book judging by the reviews but I found it's characters' total lack of redeeming qualities nauseating and predictable over and again. The lack of plot was forgiveable as I had read one of his previous books. I imagine I would have avoided this book like the plague had the cover hinted, not so much at it's prizewinning genius, but more accurately at it's narcissistic 'hipper than thou' self hating monotony. Next.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect writing
Review: Cunninham's writing in 'the Hours' is thoroughly satisfying to read -- spare, evocative, seamless. The characters and plot are finely, carefully conveyed without heavy-handedness; reading this book feels like meditation -- full and empty at the same time. Much like his characters' lives.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a suprise
Review: In this novel I found, as I delved deeper into its pages, the appreciation for beautiful prose- writing that ebbs with spirit, passion, and the intricacies of our deepest thoughts as we live day to day. The last chapters were an amazing suprise as I discovered the relation between Mrs. Brown and Ms. Dalloway. The "moral" of this story is a strong point well worth being more cognizant of. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: The Shock of Recognition
Review: Since I have loved Mrs. Dalloway since I first read it at 16, I was not sure I was going to like a book using her working title for it, The Hours. And it is written by a man, no less. But I found it nearly perfect in conception and execution and tremendously engrossing and moving. The imaginative recreation of Virgina Wolfe's possible thoughts and style as revealed in her books is unerringly perceptive and probable. Vanessa Bell and Leonard Wolfe arise from the implications in their biographies and autobiographies as rounded characters. Amazing. Many intelligent women, no matter how well-adjusted and active, have moments, hours even, when they feel as the characters in this book. Few of us act on them as drastically as these women and men, but these hours need to be accepted, understood and acted on in the smaller ways of which most of us are capable.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful prose but stifling and morose
Review: I found myself a little disappointed with this widely acclaimed piece of literature. There is no doubt in my mind that the writing style and meticulous detailed writing of Mr. Cunningham is exquisite, but as far as the plot was concerned, I was left wanting much more than what was given. Having read virtually everything by Virginia Woolf, I was impressed by his portrayal of her character, but the intertwining of the others that was so strongly applauded by critics did not entirely put me in a state of awe. The novel, as many of the reviewers pointed out, presented the flaws of humankind, but it did not make me care one ounce about the outcome of any of the people involved. I was left with a lackluster feeling of something that was unfinished, when I had anticipated some sort of epiphany, judging by the acclaim the book has received.
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: An exquisitely written gem of a novel. Cunningham has the rare talent of taking the most simple of words and images and making from them pure magic. Not as dense and (in my opinion) impenetrable as "Mrs. Dalloway," its model. It is, by the way, almost a prerequisite to have read that Woolf book if you are to appreciate "The Hours" to its fullest. Rarely have I been as satisfied so thoroughly with a novel from beginning to end. And speaking of the end, if it doesn't startle, amaze and move you, I want to know what will. For once the Pulitzer committee was right in awarding its prize.
Rating:
Summary: How to unravel it all
Review: If for every mood, there is a book (I'm not saying there is, but just suppose), then this is an ideal book for people who are deeply conscious of their shortcomings by nature of being human. This book is a beauty on so many levels. The details that most enchanted enchanted me about this book was time (there is so much of it, dragging on and on, each moment an opportunity for perfection failed at by the three well-intentioned women) and perfection (each woman believes deep down she is a failure, fights her inner conscious to be content with what she has, talks herself continually off from the precipisce of realizing how inadequate she is, as if it were ever possible to be adequate...). Overall a lovely book I deeply identified with though I can't say I'm either shocked or deserving of that affiliation. If you're in for a philosophic, emotional expose, you will likely fall into the infinitely nesting emotions mastered in this book and come through it amazed as well.
Rating:
Summary: Ode to Narcissism
Review: Life is hard. People make bad choices. Beauty can be found, if you look hard enough, but rarely. Suck in your gut; shoulder on; things might, but probably won't, get better. I gave this book a 3 - 5 for writing style. Cunningham's a master. And a 1 for message. Average? 3. I kept on reading hoping that I would begin to care about these women. In the end, I just couldn't and didn't. Maybe it's considered unsophisticated not to be moved by all this narcissm. If so, I plead guilty.
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