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3 stars

Cunningham writes lovely prose, and while the story was good I don't think this is book I am going to be talking about and recommending. I also don't think it will be lingering in my thoughts, provoking me to want to reread it. Sometimes when I read books like this: books on the 1001 books list, books that won the Pulitzer - sometimes I wonder what it is I am missing when I read. Obviously readers who are more knowledgeable about literature than I am saw something more. So, I almost feel guilty giving it only 3 stars. But that is the truth of my view so I am sticking with it.

I read Mrs Dalloway last month and was lucky to have my TBR for November be The Hours by Michael Cunningham. This book was very well done and deserving of the Pulitzer. It is the
story of 3 generation of women affected by the novel Mrs Dalloway; Virginia Woolf trying to write Mrs Dalloway and struggling with her mental illness.
Laura Brown; a woman, married with a son named Richie and who is not happy, wants to escape, wishes to be dead.
Clarissa Vaughan who is great friends/lovers with Richard but also living with her partner Sally.
Clarissa is planning a party for her friend Richard who has won a prize for his poetry. Richard has AIDS and is dying, going crazy.
The is themes of mental illness, LGBTQ, and sets of threes.
The ending truly took me by surprise. It probably should not have but it did.
Very interesting book, creative, deserving of the Pulitzer even if the author made a couple of mistakes in writing the story. Such as, milk carton on the table instead of milk bottle. Rating 4.5 stars.

Kristel wrote: "I read Mrs Dalloway last month and was lucky to have my TBR for November be The Hours by Michael Cunningham. This book was very well done and deserving of the Pulitzer. It is the
stor..."

I loved this book too. I am glad you enjoyed it.

My review:
Three storylines somewhat connect as Virginia Woolf contemplates killing off Mrs. Dalloway, Laura Brown considers how a woman like Virginia Woolf could consider suicide let alone actually kill herself, and Clarissa, aka. Mrs. Dalloway to her friend, witnesses the suicide of her terminally ill friend. With so much going on in one novel, none of the stories are told in much depth, but the imagery that crosses between stories is fun, yellow roses popping up in each setting, etc. The book also did have a style reminiscent of Woolf's books, so that it worked well as a response to Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. I found all of the women a bit tedious and boring, so I was not really thrilled with this book, but the writing was nice and it was a pleasant enough story, if not all that memorable for me. I am not sure I'd include it on a 1001 Books list, but I might recommend it to friends who like Woolf's books.
I gave this book 4 stars on goodreads.

I really enjoyed this book of three women in different times and how the author created tenuous connections between them. The themes of suicide, insanity, and not being an impersonation of who you are expected to be was so well written and captured some small essence and key moments of each of the women's lives, that I came to think of them as interconnected. The parallels with Virginia Woolf's writing as well as her appearing as one of the three women characters was also very well done.
I gave it 4 stars.

4+ stars
The Hours isn't the type of inspirational, cheer-you-up book many readers prefer, but it is a very good novel, not only deserving of the Pulitzer prize it won but better than most Pulitzer-winners in my opinion (and I have read 28 other fiction Pulitzer-winners).
It is helpful to have read Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway before you read this, but not essential. I have become a fan of Woolf in recent years and have read four of her books, which contributed to my interest in this novel.

Virgina Woolf is herself one of the three main characters of this novel and the other two, living in the U. S. decades later, connect to her. The connection seems slight initially but gets stronger as the book progresses. The strength of the novel is not simply the creative structure of it, but how it is told, as is so often the case.

Kelly_Hunsaker_reads wrote: "... sometimes I wonder what it is I am missing when I read. Obviously readers who are more knowledgeable about literature than I am saw something more...."

Yeah, I know that feeling Kelly, like when I read The Great Gatsby. Good book, but one of the greatest novels?

3 stars for enjoyment 4 stars based on our discussion and for making me think.

I would class this as a modern retelling of Mrs Dalloway the events that happen all mirror events from the original in the same way the characters may be of a different sex or sexuality in this version but they complement the original.

Woolf provides social commentary on the pressures on women in her time frame as well as the treatment of PTSD victims while Cunningham comments on the treatment of AIDS victims and the pressures on women in 3 time frames all linked to Virginia Woolf and Mrs Dalloway.

4 stars
Read in 2015

A powerful novel of three very strong women; Mrs. Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway and Mrs. Brown. I enjoyed the storyline of Mrs. Woolf the best. Mrs. Brown was a very tormented character and I still don't know how I feel about her. Mrs. Dalloway was probably the most stable of the bunch. I enjoyed the three story lines and how they interacted with one another. I am not sure how I feel about the ending but the fact that I am still thinking about it is a good sign of a good story.

***

Three storylines from three different eras intersecting and cross-referencing each other through various props (flowers, kisses, and the Mrs Dalloway novel), written a bit as an homage to Virginia Woolf. Obviously, it features some stream of consciousness and a look on the fine lines of sanity vs insanity, of mental illness and on the desire to live as opposed to the acceptance of death. It was not a bore, but I would probably not yearn to re-read it.

Reading , or in my case, listening to The Hours, without having read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe, is a distinct handicap to the enjoyment this book. There are three protagonists, a fictional version of Virginia Wolfe; Clarissa Vaughn, who shares the same name as the protagonist in Mrs Dalloway, and Laura Brown, who is possibly a closet lesbian and the mother of Richard, the famous poet for whom Clarissa is throwing a party, and who is reading the novel Mrs Dalloway on the day of the story. Each intertwined story takes place in the course of a single day, as did the novel Mrs Dalloway. It is the internal dialogue of each character which provides the richness and profundity of the story. Cunningham is channelling Virginia Wolfe, and doing it splendidly.

Rating: 4 stars


A story about characters spanning different generations and time periods and their interconnections. The major connecting thread is the novel Mrs. Dalloway. Other major themes include suicide and same-sex relationships.

Overall, I found this book very creative and thought-provoking.

Rating: 4 stars.

I love Virginia Woolf's non-fiction, but I'm not so keen on her stream-of-consciousness fiction. But after reading Michael Cunningham's re-telling of/dialogue with Mrs. Dalloway, I am eager to read it. I loved how Woolf's novel was there as a fourth story-line, intersecting all three of Cunningham's narratives. The story was glum yet oddly comforting in the way it portrays the very human struggle of feeling like you are a failure no matter your successes.

It's funny that I just realized this morning that The Hours satisfies one of the "Scavenger Hunt" challenges I'm doing for another group this year. Besides being in the 1001 list, one of the 12 books you read for the challenge needs to have an LGBTQ character. I guess I wasn't thinking of The Hours primarily in that characteristic, but thinking of it more in the "Mrs. Dalloway" theme.

Leni wrote: "Rating: 4 stars. I love Virginia Woolf's non-fiction, but I'm not ..."

This is off-topic, but Leni, did you know that the focal character in the German novel Group Portrait with Lady, one of the monthly books this group is reading for June, is named Leni?

Yes, George. That's actually where my parents found my name. ;) I read the book in my teens and found that I didn't have too much in common with the character other than the name.

Leni wrote: "Yes, George. That's actually where my parents found my name. ;) I read the book in my teens and found that I didn't have too much in common with the character other than the name."

That's kind of cool though to have a literary-inspired name. I have a cousin named Delight- my aunt read a book with a character by that name; I don't know what book it was.