Author: Michael Cunningham
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction
Blurb: In 1920s 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 1940s 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 1990s New York to buy flowers for a party she is hosting for a dying friend.
The Hours recasts the classic story of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway in a startling new light. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, this exquisite novel intertwines the worlds of three unforgettable women.
Me: After reading Mrs. Dalloway for the second time and being even more blown away, I decided to pick up The Hours and see how Cunningham's interpretation/inspiration from the book would be. For what initially seemed like a glorified fanfiction, it was the closest to a real homage to Woolf I think anyone could have written. But nothing comes close to the real thing.
The Ups: For me, the most fun part was seeing the small hidden clues and references to Mrs. Dalloway throughout the book. From Clarissa herself buying flowers to throwing parties to a kiss that shapes everything - there were so many small but crucial connections in the lives of the three women that all came back to the book. The commitment that Cunningham had in honoring the original book in these subtle hints was pretty amazing. (Not to mention, even the character Mrs. Brown comes from an essay that Woolf wrote about writing in general.)
The book's discussion of "the hours" and the small things that fill and define our lives was beautiful, but for me I think the book stood as as a proof of what literature and specifically, one book by Virginia Woolf, could do in our lives. It was the ideas and attention of Mrs. Dalloway that affirmed that even if it felt futile and difficult and incomprehensible, there was something glorious in every moment. For Laura Brown, the book was the first time she felt seen. For Clarissa, it unknowingly defined her to her closest friend. This book seemed like the ultimate proof of how timeless one book could be.
Another small thing that was unfortunately surprising was how well Cunningham writes female characters. All three are women and the book truly deals with really deep dives into their psyches, trying to understand their fears and desires on another level. I was really impressed by his ability to bring these characters to life- not something you see very often with female characters written by men.
The Downs: I think the main thing that dulled the book for me was just that it was attempting something frankly impossible- to recreate and amplify what Virginia Woolf had already done. Mrs. Dalloway is one of those books that shuts everything else down, blows everything else out of the water, and at best, it seemed like what The Hours was doing was bringing it back into the cultural limelight. I really enjoyed it, but as much as I would enjoy spending more time with any fictional world that I loved.
I have yet to see the film and think that might be really interesting- obviously an entirely different medium and might be even cooler to see Woolf's ideas and world, combined with Cunningham's, come to life on screen.
Rating: 3 kisses!
The Ups: For me, the most fun part was seeing the small hidden clues and references to Mrs. Dalloway throughout the book. From Clarissa herself buying flowers to throwing parties to a kiss that shapes everything - there were so many small but crucial connections in the lives of the three women that all came back to the book. The commitment that Cunningham had in honoring the original book in these subtle hints was pretty amazing. (Not to mention, even the character Mrs. Brown comes from an essay that Woolf wrote about writing in general.)
The book's discussion of "the hours" and the small things that fill and define our lives was beautiful, but for me I think the book stood as as a proof of what literature and specifically, one book by Virginia Woolf, could do in our lives. It was the ideas and attention of Mrs. Dalloway that affirmed that even if it felt futile and difficult and incomprehensible, there was something glorious in every moment. For Laura Brown, the book was the first time she felt seen. For Clarissa, it unknowingly defined her to her closest friend. This book seemed like the ultimate proof of how timeless one book could be.
Another small thing that was unfortunately surprising was how well Cunningham writes female characters. All three are women and the book truly deals with really deep dives into their psyches, trying to understand their fears and desires on another level. I was really impressed by his ability to bring these characters to life- not something you see very often with female characters written by men.
The Downs: I think the main thing that dulled the book for me was just that it was attempting something frankly impossible- to recreate and amplify what Virginia Woolf had already done. Mrs. Dalloway is one of those books that shuts everything else down, blows everything else out of the water, and at best, it seemed like what The Hours was doing was bringing it back into the cultural limelight. I really enjoyed it, but as much as I would enjoy spending more time with any fictional world that I loved.
I have yet to see the film and think that might be really interesting- obviously an entirely different medium and might be even cooler to see Woolf's ideas and world, combined with Cunningham's, come to life on screen.
Rating: 3 kisses!
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