Hours, The (Picador Modern Classics, 1)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that became a motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare.
In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Samuel, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family.
Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, this is Cunningham's most remarkable achievement to date.
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Community Reviews
I was openly shocked to find myself so in love with this book. I have read many Pulitzer Prize novels and always found them lacking in both literary style and characterization; long and plodding as they often are. (Except Empire Falls by Richard Russo - top notch!) Yet, this one is not. I would recommend this as a must read to anyone for the very portrait of intertwined lives and lessons embedded in the well-written pages.
In the novel, Cunningham draws upon the real life of Virginia Woolf, and intertwines her destiny to write Mrs. Dalloway within two other characters, both more modern than she: Clarissa Vaughn, whom has been nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway by her dear friend poetic friend in the 1990s, and Lauren Brown, a housewife post WWII. The two women could not live a more different life than Woolf, but their stories of hope, love, and tenderness span decades and decades of time. What I loved so much was the way Cunningham moved from 1920s London, to post WWII, to the 1990s without ever capitalizing on such an obvious time-hop. The women meet in a way that is unexpected and quite surreal - and not what you assume when I say "meet."
This novel impacted me in two ways: 1) Need to read Mrs. Dalloway now. That must happen. 2) Less is sometimes more, especially on the literary page. Cunningham packs a lot into a short 228 pages, and said more than many tomes I've read.
I give this novel a well deserved ☕☕☕☕☕ and put it on a clear favorites list. Give this a read, it won't take you long and it won't be disappointing.
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