Rating: 
Summary: Exquisite, just exquisite
Review: "The Hours" shows even more than "Mrs. Dalloway" does how very, very precious life is, and contrasts so well the ordinariness of life against its most precious, exquisite moments, those moments that we hold on to. A beautiful and highly recommended read. Don't give up before the end; don't get lulled by what may seem to be predictable and quaint. Cunningham provides a very, very powerful ending to his masterful reworking of "Mrs. Dalloway."
Rating: 
Summary: Inspired by MRS. DALLOWAY - but all Cunningham
Review: I can't believe I put off reading Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS for this long. This spectacularly written novel resonates with emotion and insight as it follows the relatively ordinary details of the lives of three women separated by decades. Each woman lives a single day here, each is haunted by the novel MRS. DALLOWAY. Virginia Woolf is preparing to write the novel in the midst of unsettling thoughts and surroundings. 50's housewife Laura Brown finds refuge in the book as she prepares for her husband's birthday and finds herself tempted by thoughts of death. Clarissa Vaughan has been nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway by her closest friend, the dying poet Richard, for whom she is about to throw a party. The three stories converge thematically; two are brought together by a shared character.You don't need to read Woolf's MRS. DALLOWAY to appreciate this book because Cunningham has constructed a moving tale that stands on its own. Although a knowledge of Woolf's novel reveals the layers the author has carefully constructed, there is much here to enjoy without that frame of reference. The language is stunning, and the sentiments even more so. Surprisingly, Virginia Woolf is the strongest character despite her iconic place in literature, with Clarissa almost as well drawn. Laura is less memorable. Some of the minor characters appear with clarity while others seem tacked on, there only to support the ties to Woolf's novel. The homosexual characters (most notably Clarissa and Richard, with fleeting impulses from Laura and Virginia) are treated with affection and respect. THE HOURS is a short, easily readable book, although you shouldn't - and most won't want to - breeze through it. I recommend this book for a general readership.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Virginia Woolf's writing style...
Review: Michael Cunningham's literary idol and muse was Virginia Woolf. Taking her writing style he brings her back to life as one of the characters in "The Hours" and places her in 1923 London writing her novel "Mrs. Dalloway". Spanning across time and space the other primary characters are Laura Brown in Los Angeles in 1940s and Clarissa Vaughn in Greenwich Village in the 1950's. Clarissa Vaughn is planning a party for Richard, a poet dying of Aids and her oldest love. Many years before he had nicknamed Clarissa "Mrs. Dalloway" after the character in the novel and indeed she parallels the Mrs. Dalloway character in many respects. The Laura Brown character is also introduced while preparing a party. Her party is for her husband's birthday. Laura is pregnant and looking for more to her life than being the housewife and mother. In her searching she has become fascinated with the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" and reads it fervently to the point that she escapes into the fictional life of "Mrs. Dalloway". Michael Cunningham does a great job of producing a highly readable text that intertwines the lives of the three women. A recommended read for anyone who enjoys Virginia Woolf's style of writing.
Rating: 
Summary: A gift for language lovers.
Review: THE HOURS is beautifully written. Its seamless prose is a gift for language lovers. I read several passages over and over for the sheer joy of the taste of the words. It's really three tales of the joy and sadness of the timeless human condition, about finding out how wonderful life can be, and it offers an amazing insight into the thoughts and feelings of women.
--M.L. Playfair
Rating:
Summary: 3 novellas, none outstanding.
Review: This is a book comprised of 3 novellas, each linked in some way to the novel Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. In fact, one of the novellas is an account of the novelist herself at the time she is writing Mrs. Dalloway. This novella has the greatest potential, since the relationship between protagonist and novelist runs in both directions: the protagonist reflects the novelist's current circumstances and emotional life, but also acts on Woolf's emotions and decision making. The three novellas are structurally interwoven with alternating chapters. Like some TV shows, however, this structure seems more useful in hiding the weakness of each novella than in elucidating meanings and insights. The novella about the novelist is not cohesive, although it has some strong imagery; the novella about an unhappy reader of the novel has little to it, and the novella about an editor with the nickname Dalloway is touching at times, but exploitive. Perhaps my problem is that I never read the Woolf novel. The book is short enough and interesting enough that you may want to read it before seeing the film, which is supposed to be good.
Rating: 
Summary: Dense, discombobulated tale of self-absorbed, whiny people.
Review: I had to re-read entire sections of this book in order to figure out what was going on---I'm still not sure. After speaking to several fellow readers, I know I'm not alone. And I'm flabbergasted by all the praise. Is this writer so brilliant that we mere mortals are unable to decipher his meaning? Or is this just a very bad book that somehow caught the interest of the literary elite, (intellectual snobs)---it won the Pulitzer. Guess it's over my head.
T
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing look at the way lives intersect
Review: Although it took me awhile to get into this book, I ultimately found it to be a rewarding read. For me this book was all about longing, longing for love (lost and current), longing for identity and self, and longing for solace. Each of the three characters brings to the story similar and unique perspectives on these needs. Although I felt for the characters (especially Virginia Woolf), there is a strong sense of aloofness and detachment with these individuals. We are never fully allowed into their worlds, (especially with Mrs Brown) and we are given only minimal insight into the motivations for their actions. This distance can leave the reader feeling somewhat unsatisfied (Why are these people doing what they're doing?). But I think that's the point, it's up to the reader to make up their own mind as to what is going on here. "The Hours" is thoughtful, pensive and open to a variety of interpretations. A quick read but certainly not a "light" one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: The way the stories of the three women mirror one another, then intersect, is fascinating. I stayed up late one night determined to finish it once I realized that not only are these women connected by MRS. DALLOWAY and thematically through the search for meaning in their lives, they're perhaps connected physically as well. But that's giving too much away. Clarissa Vaughn is getting flowers for a party honoring her friend Richard, who was once her lover but is now dying of AIDS. In going through her day, she wonders if her life, in the long run, has really mattered much to anyone. Her daughter seems embarassed by her. Young, politically-minded lesbians look at her calm, tension-free relationship with a woman somewhat derisively. She spent her life living for others, and now they're dying on her or departing. Laura Brown, a '50s housewife, is coping with depression that seems to mount as she's attempting to make the perfect cake for her husband's birthday. What Laura really wants to do is withdraw from the world and read her copy of "Mrs. Dalloway," but convention is dictating what her life is supposed to mean to her. She's supposed to love the baby growing inside her, though she doesn't. She's supposed to love her marriage and son, but they are alien to her. She wants to be normal - yet she also wants the world to swallow her whole. She doesn't have a place where she feels she can be herself and belong. Virginia Woolf, the writer of "Mrs. Dalloway," is going over plot points in her head while also trying to cope with the small choices she's made in her life. She's going slowly insane, as she has before, but, in her quest to hide it, she finds that she can't just be alone with her thoughts. Something is always expected of her, even by well-meaning friends. Michael Cunningham's "The Hours" is a book that draws parallel from "Mrs. Dalloway" but also delves into the questions surrounding what it means to be an individual and what it means to be alive. Through the different settings and times, he shows that, though many opportunities are afforded to the women as time passes, the key questions and issues remain constant.
Rating:
Summary: The Finest Hours
Review: I had some trepidation about reading this novel. First, it was a Pulitzer Prize winner. And while that is supposed to be a badge of honor, often it only seems to work against a novel by setting up overly high expectations. Second, knowing "The Hours" was a homage to Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" I read that classic work beforehand but found it nearly unbearable. Despite having these two early strikes, Michael Cunningham's novel hits one out of the proverbial literary ballpark. It flawlessly weaves three narratives - Clarissa Vaughn (nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway), a 50-something editor living in present day New York City - Laura Brown, a troubled housewife reading "Mrs. Dalloway" in 1950s Los Angeles - and a fictionalized account of Virgina Woolf herself as she prepares to write "Mrs. Dalloway." One review blurb on the book's cover says this is a "tour de force" and it is certainly a fitting description. The allusions between the fictional character of Mrs. Dalloway and the three women (as well as amongst the three themselves) are truly wonderful. Perhaps, the only complaint is that the book is TOO well-crafted or gimmicky. Despite not very much liking it, I must reluctantly recommend that one reads (or attempts to read!) "Mrs. Dalloway" before reading this novel as it will make for a much complete and rich reading experience. I can not imagine I would have "got" this novel having not worked my way through Woolf's work (which, by the way, is relatively short). On the heels of this book's transition to the silver screen, there is no better time to read "The Hours." It is certainly a daunting task as much of the book explores the fragile (and often unspoken) emotional state of the three women. But in the hands of its stellar cast (including Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore) at least the chances of success appear to be good. By far this was one of my best reads of the year.
Rating:
Summary: Nice enough
Review: An impressive exercise, but an exercise nonetheless, this short novel never quite manages to stake its own artistic territory. Cunningham has beautifully pared his prose, but the effect remains one of effort rather than inspiration. Stylistically, it's intense but rather sterile, and the characters' alienation, without compelling narrative as its backdrop, lacks larger resonance--the story which Cunningham does supply, of lost love and longing, is anodyne in the extreme, and ultimately unnecessary.
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