Name: Claudia Ganea's review of The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Item: The Hours
Rating: 5
Author: Claudia Ganea

Michael Cunningham

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel becomes a motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare The Hours tells the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway as she recuperates in a London suburb with her husband in 1923; Clarissa Vaughan, beloved friend of an acclaimed poet dying from AIDS, who in modern-day New York is planning a party in his honor; and Laura Brown, in a 1949 Los Angeles suburb, who slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home. By the end of the novel, these three stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace. The Hours is the winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

A Novel

The Hours

Ghazal

Exiled in Richmond in the 1920s, Virginia Woolf struggles to tame her rebellious mind and make a start on her new novel. In 1990s New York, Clarissa Vaughan goes shopping for flowers for a party for her AIDS-suffering poet-friend. This novel meditates on artistic behaviour, love and madness.

Claudia Ganea

In short - absolutely beautiful.

The intertwining of three destinies, this triptych of days, lives, hours, this inner look into humanity and what it means was lovely to read. I haven't been this excited about a book in a long, long time!

Virginia Woolf's books were pretty much the only ones that haven't felt like a chore this past year and a half of my university career. In reading, I identified - and it kept me sane, wanting to read more, wanting to understand. And 'The Hours' provides just that - a deeper (very thoroughly researched) understanding not only of Woolf herself, of the characters, of how the both the original and the 'new' mrs. Dalloway work - but of yourself, too (a vital component).

One read done out of what I hope will be many more. So excited to work on this for my BA thesis.

Victoria P

i loved the writing but i found myself somewhat lost in the way the three stories intertwine. but nonetheless its a good book and its description of mental health was really relatable for me because i’m just beginning to deal with my own mental health problems; its really nice finding in words what i’m struggling to say i’m feeling. this book is very very beautifully written

Mary Rose Luksha

This is the first book I've given 5 stars to in a while. I picked tit up on a whim, and was instantly drawn in. I have to confess I haven't read much Virginia Woolf, and I haven't read Mrs. Dalloway, but that didn't detract from the meaning at all; if anything, it added mystery to everything, and has made me want to get my hands on a copy of Mrs. Dalloway. 

I was so impressed that Michael Cunningham was able to write women so well. The quiet desperation of the characters rang so true, perhaps all humans suffer the same way, but I felt such kinship with the feelings of the characters I thought it must be uniquely for women, though maybe not (I'm not a guy I don't know). 

And there was a little sort of twist at the end that maybe if I focused on drawing more clues from each character's story I might have gotten, but didn't and absolutely loved it. 

This is one of those books that just makes you go, "Man I wish I wrote this."

Emily Morgan

This book made me cry twice. The first was reading this line: 

"Virginia imagines someone else, yes, someone strong of body but frail-minded; someone with a touch of genius, of poetry, ground under by the wheels of the world, by war and government, by doctors; someone who is, technically speaking, insane, because that person sees meaning everywhere, knows that trees are sentient beings and sparrows sing in Greek." 

Years ago I had the exact thought that the trees around me were sentient, were moving, were absorbing and responding to my emotions. It was surprising and warming to see it written in a book, uttered by my favourite author. The second time I cried was on the second last page when I got that end-of-book-feeling of all things coming to a close and the universe temporarily aligning: 

"We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep - it's as simple and as ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills...there's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more."  

Ugh.

Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer and Pen/Faulkner prizes, THE HOURS is a daring and deeply affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. Now a major motion picture, directed by Stephen Daldry (BILLY ELLIOT) and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Clare Danes and Ed Harris. In 1920's London, Virginia Woolf is fighting against her rebellious spirit as she attempts to make a start on her new novel. A young wife and mother, broiling in a suburb of 1940's Los Angeles, yearns to escape and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich village apartment in 1990's New York to buy flowers for a party she is hosting for a dying friend. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, this exquisite novel intertwines the stories of three unforgettable women.

Sarah Escorsa

As much as I love Virginia Woolf (she’s the main reason I chose to read this book), I have to say I really struggled to finish The Hours. It was mostly a tedious, uninteresting read. I wasn’t aware that this was actually some kind of mix between Mrs Dalloway and imagined elements of Woolf’s life but it just doesn’t work. The connection between the three women in the book is anything but smooth and the writing feels forced. My advice: skip The Hours and read Mrs Dalloway.

Eugenia Andino

The world did not need a cheap imitation of the interior monologue novels of the 1920's, which has, oh! ah! the great originality of having three protagonists, and ooohhh! aaaaahhh! many gay and lesbian characters. This is a watered down, easy version of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway". 

But watch the movie, for once it is better than the book.

Ghazal &
The Hours by Michael Cunningham

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Ghazal &The Hours by Michael Cunningham

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Ghazal &
The Hours by Michael Cunningham