The Hours by Michael Cunningham
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Book Reviews of The Hours
Book Review: The hours: bypassing time
Summary: 5 Stars
e-mail:....com.br. Michael Cunninghams book, The Hours, struck me as an extremely clever parody of a masterpiece. When I say parody, I dont mean a humorous imitation of a text, intended to ridicule it, but a re-creation of a previous work of art, especially a canonical one, in a way that helps the parodist deal with that legacy of the past, mainly, when this leagacy seems to be daunting for the new artist. A parody bypasses the gap of time and space between two writers and their work. And this is what, in my opinion, Cunningham does in his book. He weaves his story by mixing up scraps of information on Virginia Woolfs life and suicide, obviously with no intention of writing another biographical book on her (a fact that leaves him plenty of room to revisit or reinvent the events preceding her death), her characters (above all the main character) in the novel Mrs. Dalloway and characters of his own design to address mostly the same topics that pervade Mrs. Dalloway, namely the inexorability of time, the elusiveness of sheer happiness, the futility of life, the fine dividing line between life and death, love and sex, and, especially true love and sexual attraction. These issues have been the concern of philosophers and artists throughout the times and no definite solution has been presented. When re-working the metaphysical dilemmas that affect the characters in Mrs. Dalloway and obviously Mrs. Woolf herself, Cunningham suggests different alternatives and choices. Homosexuality, for instance, is addressed more openly by Cunningham. Whereas Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway remains heterosexual according to most definitions, irrespective of a sudden impulse in her youth that made her kiss her girlfriend once, in the The Hours, Clarissas ever lasting love for Richard and vice-versa is based on the fact that they do not get married and both have homosexual preferences. Even so, Clarissas partnership with Sally works out perhaps precisely because theres no true love between them. There is a certain coherence, and predictability even, in the way both Cunningham and Woolf treat the death drive which Virginia actually gave way to in her life. Madness haunted Virginia and another spell of the illness was foreshadowed by her and she made a choice for self-termination. In The Hours, Richard is the one who is losing his grip and fluctuates between consciousness and fantasy. Richard had written a novel, the character of which is a blatant reference and homage to Clarissa, and it seems, is named after her. Unlike the two other Clarissas, in Richards novel, his protagonist commits suicide. As a matter of fact, almost all characters in both books experience some kind of self-destructive impulse, and they all court life and death. Each one makes a choice, and each choice may be understood. All these characters seek to find a meaning to their lives, and Cunninghams Clarissa realises that the memory of one single elusive moment of sheer happiness makes life worth it.
Book Review: Perfection in triplicate......
Summary: 5 Stars
It took a lot of courage to come here and be the 500th reviewer, especially that of my favorite book. But it is an honor to write about Mr. Cunningham's novel, and if you are, by any chance, reading this with the possible intention of reading The Hours, let me tell you precisely why it is such a great honor to be writing this review...
Getting down to business. The Hours is a novel made up of three different stories about three different women in three different generations. There are some brilliant interwoven moments that really pull the book together, but they reveal too much to be in the review. The main connection between the stories is how they revolve around Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The first story is of Virginia Woolf writing the book in the 1920's/30's. The second story is a depressed suburban mother reading the book in the 1950's. The third story is set in modern times, and is probably my favorite, where the characters and events are actually echos of the characters and events of Mrs. Dalloway. This whole crazy woven plot is what really makes The Hours so dynamic.
What tops of the plot to make the book truly extraordinary is the characters and the actual writing. Some people say that Michael Cunningham is cheating, because most of the characters and events in his book are either historical or from Mrs. Dalloway. Whoever says this is wrong, to be straightforward about it. Cunningham takes this things and paints a beautiful world out of it. The characters are so beautiful in so many ways, often troubled and unstable, but between the craziness, there are glimpses of such pure humanity. Beyond the incredible three women who lead each story, there is one of the most spectacular characters in all of literature, Richard, the poet with AIDS, who, in all of his Martin Eden-esque Bohemian splendor, made me really feel so alive, and added The Hours to the very short list of books that made me cry. Cunningham's talent with his pen is evident in his descriptions,imagery, and the natural and moving dialogue.
I have read many books in my day, and The Hours is probably the best. I stood in line for a VERY long time, and had a choice of getting a book signed by the very talented Ms. Jumpha Lahiri or Michael Cunningham. There was not even a tiny question in my mind about who to chose. Please pick this book up. The Hours is fairly short, and in its pages, you are bound to discover humanity.
PS. A very funny tidbit. The main woman in the modern day story is walking around New York City to buy flowers. On the way, she catches sight of a movie star who she thinks is Meryl Streep. In the film version, the character is actually played by Meryl Streep. It made me giggle for a little bit....
Book Review: The Hours Is Worth The Time
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this like-new book hidden between the beaten-up volumes of a rummage sale. I didn't know at the time that The Hours would be released as a hyped-up movie. With performances by Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore, the film has been nominated for eleven Oscars.The novel takes its roots from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, a 1925 novel that recently hit the best-seller lists again. Woolf chronicles a single day in the life of the title character. That's exactly what the author of The Hours does, times three: He recounts a day in the lives of three women.
Strangely, the Michael Cunningham (who won the Pulitzer Prize for this work) dedicates 226 pages solely to women. Anyone who reads this book should run through the extra couple hundred pages of Mrs. Dalloway, because Woolf's work forms the basis of The Hours. At first I questioned the merit of a novel that takes its inspiration from another, but Cunnigham's colorful prose and masterful plot converted me.
Virginia Woolf steps onto the stage first in the act of suicide. This short scene highlights the theme of the novel: the struggle with depression and isolation. One minor character expresses the loneliness of the whole novel in two sentences: "But there are still the hours, aren't there? One and then another, and you get through that one and then, my god, there's another." Perhaps that's why Cunningham (and Woolf) limited their stories to a single day to show how treacherous those hours are.
The reader watches as Woolf (as portrayed by Cunningham in The Hours) agonizes over her work-in-progress, which the reader will soon recognize as Mrs. Dalloway. In the next chapter Cunningham takes us to a woman living in today's bustling mess of New York City; her nickname is "Mrs. Dalloway." Her story turns out to be a contorted version of Woolf's actual book: Names are reused but identities switched.
Next, the author transports the reader back the 1950s American suburbia. Mrs. Brown, a humble housewife who ought to be happy, tries to escape from her insipid life by reading Mrs. Dalloway. Later, she literally does escape from her family, abandoning her son. Cunningham later reveals (in a clever linkage of the past and the present) that the abandoned son is now Mrs. Dalloway's friend who uttered the lines above.
Cunningham fuses distant eras in this conglomeration of concise chapters. His writing kept me reading for hours straight just as The Lovely Bones did, but avoided clichéd phrases and plots. This isn't a morbid account of depression, but a document of a thirst for life, a "new day in which anything might happen, anything at all."
Book Review: Good Movie, Better Book
Summary: 5 Stars
After seeing the movie nearly two years ago, I read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Hours. I was intrigued with the story and eagerly anticipated certain scenes before starting the book. Even with the prior knowledge of the plot, I was not disappointed in the least. Michael Cunningham's sentences flow with ease, gracefully taking the reader through three stories. The set up of the story is simple: a day in the life of three women in three different locations and time periods. No one story or woman is more significant than the others; each is intertwined and dependant to the others.
As an avid fan of Virginia Woolf's work, including Mrs. Dalloway, I have come to love the stream of conscious writing style. Cunningham pays homage to Woolf, her distinct writing style, and, of course, to her seminal work Mrs. Dalloway. Cunningham takes Woolf's style and reinvents it to a modern day version. Unlike the modernist writers that started anew and broke from tradition like Woolf did, Cunningham reuses the famous story of Mrs. Dalloway and Woolf's brilliant writing style in a different and, in some respects, more profound way. I think Cunningham achieved this through the seemingly trivial details and other lesser known characters.
One particular that brought the story together is Lara Brown's son, Richard. Through Richard, Cunningham takes on the contentious Oedipus Complex and unearths the roots of older Richard's psychological instability. Richard's indefatigable desire to be loved by his mom is incredibly poignant and tragic. While I badly want Lara to love Richard back like the way he loves her, I understand Lara's inner dilemma and empathize with her. It's almost magic the way Cunningham makes it easy to sympathize with Lara, a monster of a mother. I know many other writers have accomplished this feat, but it's still amazing to me. Richard is seen as the aftermath, the destruction that is caused by a mother that thinks independently and, at times, selfishly. This is not to say that Cunningham advocates for the antithesis: a mother that avoids her inner voices for independence and freedom. His frequent reference to Woolf's opening line, 'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself', makes that evident; it is a declaration for the rights of women in some sense. Nonetheless, Cunningham presents both sides without taking a stance on either one, leaving it up to the readers to make their own conclusion.
Overall, I'd highly recommend this book even if you've seen the movie. And if you have read The Hours, read Mrs. Dalloway and watch the movie!
Book Review: Interwoven Brilliance
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Hours" is a novel not to be missed. Having seen the film version when it was first released, I enjoyed the story, but was not overwhelmed by it. I thought the plot was interesting - a day in the life of an ordinary woman broken up into three different stories, each with a woman at the height of her mental prowess, discovering and journeying through a typical, usual day. I was struck by the film at the brilliance of how the plots were woven together and how the idea of "Mrs. Dalloway" could make each woman more aware of her own surroundings and ideals. I thought the acting in the film was brilliant, but it lacked something. I filed it away in my thoughts and did not really think about it again for a few years.
I decided to pick up the book of "The Hours" on a whim at the library. The name Michael Cunningham came to mind, and I couldn't really place why. So I strolled over to the fiction section under C, found "The Hours," and checked out. I'm not sorry that I did. Michael Cunningham has a way with words - he has officially brought prose to a new level. The text is so eloquent, so beautifully formed, that I must admit to feeling pangs of envy that I will never be able write in such a fashion. Such feelings were brought home when I read about how each woman felt inferior (doesn't everyone?), and how each felt that they had not made a proper impact with their life.
Of course, this book is a modernization of sorts on "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf. One of the three central characters is Virginia Woolf, with the others being Clarissa Vaughan (a direct "Mrs. Dalloway" transcription - the main character is named Clarissa Dalloway), who is referred to as Mrs. Dalloway, and homemaker Laura Brown. The idea of a loving kiss with another woman is center to each of their stories - another idea directly from "Mrs. Dalloway." It would hinder the proposed reader to learn too much about this book before reading it. Let it suffice that each character is interwoven with the next in the most intriguing way - the ending and how everything comes together was my personal "best part."
I would say that when reading Michael Cunningham's book, I felt that although I just enjoyed the words so much - the way that they flowed together and created an astounding prose, that the brilliance would have been lost if the interweaving stories in the three part narrative had not been so convincing and well done. For these reasons, I believe that Cunningham is one of the few writers today that will last for generations in the cannon. "The Hours" is sheer beauty on every page.