Rating: 
Summary: Pulitzer puzzler-
Review: I decided to read this because it had won the Pulitzer and the write up looked interesting..I was disappointed by this book. While the style was interesting, the story line never really made me care about these women. They were so self absorbed that they oberved the good things in life but never appreciated them, like a botanist examining a rose for form, color and category of scent and never enjoying the rose itself. After finishing this book I even called several friends to see if I had missed something major in my reading. The idea of weaving three characters lives together sounds like a good premise, I never wondered or worried what each character was going to do. I just didn't care.
Rating:
Summary: post-modern pastiche
Review: despite its lyrical phrasing. this work remains a success only if post-modernism is your thing. surely, the pulitzer prize committee must be composed of all post-modern worshipers. the almost continuous emphasis on perceived self vs inherent self ( the women are constantly outside themselves observing themselves) finally becomes laughable. and the adoration and contemplation of death are finally so unsubtle as to be comic. Read it only to see how literature can become the servant of current philosophical and critical trends.
Rating:
Summary: Pulitzer-Schmulitzer...
Review: Okay.. I have to admit that the only reason I bought this book was because it had been so highly reviewed and of course the Pulitzer didn't hurt either.. I thought, hey, I'm hip. I read relevant books and literature. Unfortunately, I really didn't feel this book packed the powerful punch I was hoping for. The characters were caricatures. Not even inventive ones. The twist at the end was okay, but by then I felt a bit cheated. I'll admit, Cunningham's prose was stylish and well designed, but a pretty package is only good if you don't open it. So, buyer beware. I'm a bit too jaded to fall for some romantic notion of running from my life because the world is spinning too fast. This book might well have been a breakthrough had it been written forty years ago. We're all too clever by now to get swept up by lesbians and suicide.. Still, any finished book is worth something to somebody...
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste the hours it will take to get through each page
Review: I know little about Virginia Woolf and less about Michael Cunningham however, I do not feel that I needed to know about either to state that this was the most boring book I have ever read. I felt that the characters were undeveloped and uninteresting. The plot lacks the 'spice' that makes you want to rush home to read more. It was interesting to see how the characters lives were going to come toghether but the book was so slow moving I ended up not caring as much. The only thing positive that I can say was that Cunningham writes well, I just wish he had written something else.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautifully Overrated Gem
Review: Perhaps if the book had not received the prize and so much praise I would have been pleasantly surprised, but after all the hype I would tend to agree with the dissenters here below, that The Hours, although superbly crafted and elegantly written, is a hollow and ultimately disappointing reference to Virginia Woolf's masterpiece. Cunningham's prose moved me, but his invented characters did not. (Of course Virginia herself is untouchable.) I am puzzled, still, at my disappointment; have I missed something, or am I merely more discerning, wary of the aura of prize-winning?
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommend (especially for Virginia Woolf fans!)
Review: I enjoyed this book very much ...clever and well-written. I have read many of Virginia Woolf's novels, some of her diaries, and a few of her biographies. I thought that Michael Cunningham cleverly converged the characters of Virginia Woolf's 1925 Novel Mrs. Dalloway with Virginia Woolf herself, as well as had an interesting interplay with "time". Cunnigham's novel also forces one to reflect on how one defines oneself amidst the pressures and expectations of others. Virginia Woolf's writing is still my favorite, but I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Cunningham's Novel.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid.
Review: This book reaffirms our faith in modern literature. Cunningham's eloquent integration of the lives of these three women is only topped by the last chapter. As I read each page, I was upset that I was getting closer to the end because I didn't want it to be over.
Rating:
Summary: Woolf Nut A-Go-Go
Review: This fine book from this fine man has turned me into a mighty fine Woolf nut. I was a milder variety nut before this. Liked Woolf but yada-yada. I have now gone on a veritable Woolf bender. So this is another result of Cunningham. His book is the powerful type that sets its readers on lovely, unplanned discovery tours of great literature. Uh-huh! Go baby!
Rating:
Summary: I will read this book again.
Review: I have never read Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". I had never heard of Michael Cunningham. Because of this I had no preconcieved ideas or high expectations. I could not put this book down. The eloquent writing style and interwoven stories held me entranced until the last word. I will read this book again and recommend it to my friends.
Rating:
Summary: the hours
Review: This was an exceptional work of fiction. while the style paralleled that of V. Wolfe, Cunningham enriches the text with his unique perspective of life in the early 20th Century.
| 
