Rating: 
Summary: Woolf and Cunningham a dynamic duo!
Review: MY book group read MRS. DALLOWAY and THE HOURS. We found the combination provided an indeepth discussion of homosexuality, post war London/New York and the richness of an ordinary day. What a lark! What a plunge! Comparing THE HOURS to MRS. DALLOWAY was a puzzle worth completing.
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Summary: this book has a tenacious grip on my mind
Review: This is a book in which each sentence can be savored and mulled over. After finishing The Hours, I immediately reread it, which I've never done before, and discovered new joys in the writing. The detail is so complete and lyrical, and I'm usually a reader who skips over detailed descriptions to get back to the plot. The narrative flows easily and gently propels the reader, but every word demands your complete attention. The way Cunningham inhabits the minds of his three female protagonists is awe-inspiring and thoroughly convincing, at least to this male reader. There are moments and characters' thoughts that ring staggeringly true. Cunningham imparts much power in a simple sentence, "It is enough." I don't know if that is from the original "Mrs. Dalloway." I am compelled now to read Woolf's book and I want to read everything I can about The Hours. How I long for a discussion group! I was impressed by The Hours from the start, then mid-way through reading it, I happened to catch the Vanessa Redgrave movie of Mrs. Dalloway on TV, which increased my enjoyment exponentially. This book is definitely haunting me.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite a Disappointing Award Winner
Review: I expected more brilliance from a Pulitzer prize winner. Although I found the structure of the novel well-crafted, little else impressed me: the prose was flat, totally without poetry or lyricism, and the characters, shallow. They needed to possess "humanity, humour, depth," as Woolf suggests in the diary entry quoted in novel's prelude. She says that structure alone isn't enough. Since he included that quote in his book, Cunningham, surely, understood that, too. He just couldn't pull it off. For its structure alone, I would recommend it to most readers; however, I can't believe it won the Pulitzer prize. It's not that good.
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Summary: One of the Best Books in Five Years
Review: I read a great deal, and this is one of the best books that I can remember. It is simply a beautiful book.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: The best book I have read this year. Touching. Observant. Like an impressionist painting in which all of the brushstrokes don't make sense until you digest the entire painting, stand back, and evaluate it. A memorable reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: lovely and lyrical but nervy in its imitation
Review: I found "The Hours" to be a lovely, lyrical piece of writing, but I found myself wondering from time to time if it isn't presumptuous to insert oneself into the minds of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, to assume that one is in a position to write from their points of view. I found Leonard's character to be slighted here, one-dimensional and without real feeling, which I also found to be true for Vanessa Bell. Cunningham's period dialogue doesn't ring true for me; I much prefer his prose. Film producer Scott Rudin has optioned this book for a film adaptation -- I'm curious what other readers think of this, and if any of you can think of a way to adapt this successfully for film.
Rating:
Summary: Superlative
Review: Best book I read all year. Superbly crafted. Unquestioningly deserved the Pulitzer. Inspired me to read all of Woolf. Extraordinary. It's so tight. So painstakingly honed, that everything I've read since -- and I've read some really wonderful stuff -- has truly paled in comparison.
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Summary: Pulitzer Well Deserved
Review: I read Cunningham's "A Home at the End of the World" in 1992 and was impressed. I read his "Flesh and Blood" a couple years ago. That one I found to be a good, entertaining read, but when I ended it, I shelved it and never thought of it again. But "The Hours"? In my estimation: Brilliant. Poetic. Philosophical. And the ending...powerful. It is one of the most exquisitely written books I have ever read. Fortunately, I read it immediately after reading Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway." While it might have taken me a month to plow through the dense though provocative "Mrs. Dalloway," I am so glad I did as I don't think one could fully appreciate Cunningham's enormous talent without having a fresh recollection of Clarissa and Richard Dalloway, Septimus, Sally, et. al. I think the two books should be sold as a set. In the end, let me add this tidbit: Several days before the Pulitzer Prizes, one of my New York author friends told me Cunningham was a Pulitzer finalist along with Barbara Kingsolver. I am a big fan of Kingsolver, thought highly of her "The Poisonwood Bible," and was hoping she would be recognized. She wasn't. Barbara, next time. Cunningham richly deserved his honors for this outstanding novel, which is one of the all-time beautiful pieces of fiction, superior to Woolf's classic, in my humble opinion. I can't wait to see if he can top it.
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Summary: Echoes of Mrs. Dalloway, but more and less.
Review: I read "The Hours" and "Mrs. Dalloway" back to back and found "Dalloway" breathtaking and "Hours" a great read in its own right. I think it's really unfair to try to compare them, though Cunningham certainly invites the comparison. I found the principal characters of "Hours" quite interesting, the story line(s) fascinating, and the prose very expressive. Although I really love this book, I found one bit of geographic sloppiness very distracting: an early scene (p.50) describes an event occuring in lower Manhattan at the corner of Spring and MacDougal Streets. No such corner exists. I suspect the author had in mind either Prince and MacDougal or Spring and Sullivan.
Rating:
Summary: Better even than his earlier work
Review: This is more than an homage to Virginia Woolf: it is an extension and re-imagining of her subjects and her style. Cunningham surpasses himself in every way over his own earlier work and rises to the level that he can be thought of in the same phrase, the same breath, as Woolf, just as Jean Rhys in Wide Sargasso Sea proved a worthy collaborator with Charlotte Brontë. The book tells us as much about American lives, their hopelessness and their joys, their creative and their commercial potentials, as Mrs. Dalloway does about England in the 1920s. The book stands as a powerful reproach to the sentimental idealization of the post World War II period, just as Virginia Woolf unsettled the complacency of the 1920s. I can hardly imagine what Cunningham will take on next, after this remarkable tour de force, but somehow after reading this book, I bet he knows what he is going to do, and I can hardly wait for it.
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