916. The Hours

The Hours
Michael Cunningham
1998
Around 230 pages

We are on a seriously good run of novels lately, even if we have to take a hit every so often with a Pynchon or Self read. Virginia Woolf is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to read a novel that was so obviously written in reverence of her.

The Hours focuses on three main characters, and switches between their perspectives. In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes Mrs. Dalloway and struggles with her mental illness. In 1949, Laura Brown is reading Mrs. Dalloway while planning a birthday party for her husband. And in 1999, Clarissa Vaughan plans a party to celebrate a major literary award received by her good friend and former lover, the poet Richard, who is dying of an AIDS-related illness.

The entire novel is sweet homage to Mrs. Dalloway, and I just personally love stories that unfold over the course of one day. The three perspectives were brilliant and represented the three figures of literature: the writer, the reader, and the character.  Even if you are not a Woolf fan, each storyline is captivating and I didn't want to leave the characters I was with every time the chapter would end.

And the movie is brilliant too, how could it not be with that cast?

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize.

Adapted to film in 2002.

The Hours was Mrs Dalloway's working title. 

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