The Hours by Michael Cunningham Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
(Click here)
Book Reviews of The Hours
Book Review: Beautifully Written and Conceived
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an exceptionally well crafted and well written novel, deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. The author ties together the stories of three very different women living in three very different time periods, but who share a common lineage. And, more importantly, the women share the ultimate quandary of the human condition: getting through the hours of the day in some meaningful way.
Suicide pervades all three stories. I don't agree that the book is ultimately a downer, especially given the affirming character of Clarissa, who seems to get through the hours in a positive and admirable way.
The most haunting story is that of Lara -- the 1950's housewife with the "perfect" husband and home who is deeply dissatisfied and alienated. Is the author holding her up as what-not-to-do, as a negative foil to Clarissa's more positive approach to life? Perhaps, though I find Lara somehow attractive and wish her story were more developed in the novel. Ms. Moore's performance of the character in the movie, which is largely faithful to the book, perhaps also influences me and makes the character more intriguing.
A first rate novel. The movie is also first rate. I recommend both.
Book Review: The Hours Review
Summary: 4 Stars
Good book but in bad condition. They definitely did not take care of this one whereever it was storedBook Review: At Woolf's Door?
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a downer of a book. Though it is beautifully written and the concept of using "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf as the template for the novel is a brilliant idea, the novel is depressing and deeply upsetting to read. Two suicides and a wannabe suicide are not what you want to encounter when you are depressed. What could have been a life-affirming book was doomed from the start. It's a lesson in how to squeeze the joy out of life and living, although the author would argue otherwise.
The three main characters inhabit three parallel stories in different eras: Clarissa Vaughan who is giving a party for her writer friend, Virginia Woolf who is in the midst of writing "Mrs. Dalloway" while trying to fend off her mental anguish, and Laura Brown who is fighting to retain her sanity while preparing a birthday party for her husband. Cunningham, like Woolf, is obsessed by the passage of time and time's inner and external adumbrations.
The highlight of Woolf's novel is the party Clarissa Dalloway has been preparing for all day. In "The Hours" it is the aftermath of the aborted party for Richard that Cunningham highlights. Is the lesson of "The Hours" that a poet has to die so we, the living, value our own lives more?
The only character who is appealing in the book is Julia, Clarissa's lover. Most of the characters are selfish, self-absorbed, desperate people. Some of them fear the hours going by out of their own mental instability. It's almost a casebook in various types of insanity. We read about exasperating, annoying people teetering on the edge of mental instability. Sexual ambiguity is a constant theme in the book. Two events in the novel have great impact and make Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Brown really perk up--when they kiss another woman. And, of course, Clarissa is in a long-time relationship with her lover Julia. Two sexually equivocal women are toppling out of their nests (homes) like birds falling out of their nests. Paradoxically, Cunningham has created real, three-dimensional characters.
Writing about ravaged people is almost as bad as reading about them. Like Hickey in "The Iceman Cometh" Cunningham has taken the kick out of the booze. Where is redemption in the book? We can wallow in the mental states of the deranged only so long before we slip into an abyss of melancholy ourselves.
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead
Book Review: The Hours - A Great Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Hours is a great read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys well-written dramas that involve multilayered characters. Cunningham does a masterful job building the pace while loading every sentence with superb descriptions and insights.
This book earned every star on Amazon's list.
-Vince
www.constellationchronicles.com
Book Review: A gem!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book makes it clear that perfect execution is not required in order to win a Pulitzer Prize. The editor in me cringed at all the parentheticals and head hopping, but the story-teller in me rejoiced at the vivid imagery and intricate, interwoven plot lines. It's an easy one-day read and well worth the investment regardless of familiarity with Virginia Woolf.