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The Hours
Escrito por Michael Cunningham
Narrado por Michael Cunningham
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Winner of the Pulitzer prize, the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and nominated for 9 Academy Awards. Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, The Hours tells the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, who one New York morning goes about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway. By the end of the novel, the stories have intertwined, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace, demonstrating Michael Cunningham's deep empathy for his characters as well as the extraordinary resonance of his language.
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a escucharInformación sobre el libro
The Hours
Escrito por Michael Cunningham
Narrado por Michael Cunningham
Descripción
Winner of the Pulitzer prize, the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and nominated for 9 Academy Awards. Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, The Hours tells the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, who one New York morning goes about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway. By the end of the novel, the stories have intertwined, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace, demonstrating Michael Cunningham's deep empathy for his characters as well as the extraordinary resonance of his language.
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So, I found this novel mildly less painful to read than actually reading Virginia Woolf - at least I got more out of it than when I read one of her novels, although I hardly suppose that's a compliment. It was an interesting novel following three women (one of whom is Virginia Woolf) across different eras. At times, I could recognize myself in the characters, especially Laura Brown. When Laura feels that everything she does as a housewife is inadequate and checks herself into a hotel room just so that she can read a book for a few hours, I wondered if this would be my own fate if I ever became a housewife. Overall, an interesting novel, but not one I can rave about.
perfection
Cunningham, Michael. The Hours. Picador USA, New York, 1998. This is a fabulous book. It weaves together three stories: one, the story of Virginia Woolf battling insanity while writing Mrs. Dalloway. Two, the story of Laura Brown, also battling insanity, who reads Mrs. Dalloway while contemplating suicide. Three, the story of ``Clarissa Dalloway'', who is throwing a party in New York for a dying friend of hers. The book is a multi-faceted contemplation of love and insanity. The writing is beautiful and the story compelling. Makes me want to re-read Mrs. Dalloway!
3202 The Hours, by Michael Cunningham (read May 30, 1999) I read Mrs. Dalloway because I intended to read this book. I now can again say I've read every book of fiction that has won a Pulitzer Prize, clear back to 1917's winner, His Family, by Ernest Poole, which I read April 27, 1958.The Hours is elegantly written and its story line is easier to follow than is Mrs. Dalloway's. But I felt very little for the characters in The Hours, so I cannot say I much appreciated the book.
a most amazing book
It was an interesting book with 3 intertwined stories that I expected to meet up but really were 3 separate stories. It kept referencing Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and I had never read that book so I felt a little at a loss. Like there were probably things that were going over my head. Some of the relationships were interesting especially the relationships among the adults. But I felt that the author had no idea how mothers or children feel or think. It was enjoyable but I didn't feel like it was a must read.
Although I don't usually like stream-of-consciousness or the use of historical figures as characters, I really enjoyed this book. Surprisingly, the author was able to make three ordinary days in the lives of the three women very compelling. I would have liked more insight from Leonard Woolf or Richard, whom I found the most interesting - besides Virginia, of course - but I suppose Michael Cunningham wanted to keep the focus on the women.
A pleasure to read and an amazing achievement of style. Book describes the lives to three women who impacted by Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
Engrossing
Never liked Mrs Dalloway, so I should've known I'd dislike this. It's just so irritatingly delicate and light-sensitive, without any real substance. I simply can't bring myself to care about the societal niceties and mental health of an upper class white lady, unless it's revolutionary feminist (ref: Kate Chopin), sufficiently witty (Alan Hollinghurst) or otherwise profound (ref: Katherine Mansfield). The scene where Virginia Woolf struggles with the psychological stresses involved in telling her cook what to make for dinner was one of the most infuriating things I've read in ages.
Third favorite novel.
Empathy in three parts, this novel did not quite hold together. Though it seemed a bit too contrived structurally, its poetic moments redeemed it.
Cunningham won the Pulitzer Prize with his story that is an homage to Virginia Woolf but also a powerful story on its own terms. The story moves between three women, who are linked thematically and in other more intimate ways that are revealed as the story progresses. Virginia Woolf herself is one of the women, presented at the time in her life when she is working on the novel Mrs. Dalloway and struggling with mental issues. The second is Clarissa Vaughan, lovingly dubbed Mrs. Dalloway by her friend and ex-lover Richard, both because of their shared first name and a similar temperament. The third woman is Mrs. Brown, a relatively new wife and mother who feels disassociated from her comfortable suburban life and at odds in her expected roles. Mrs. Brown is reading Mrs. Dalloway both as an escape from her life and because she finds it richer and more alive than her own life.After its lyric and haunting prologue, which describes Virginia Woolf's suicide, the first chapter opens with a scene that is familiar to readers of Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa (Vaughan) is off in the early morning to buy flowers for a party. Rather than England, though, her street is in New York City, and the events that crowd her morning are reflections of Woolf's novel with a modern and American recasting. For example, rather than seeing a mysterious royal driving by, Clarissa catches a glimpse of a famous movie star in her trailer; instead of the brash Peter Walsh, she meets the , and so on. In essence, Clarissa is living out the day described in Woolf's novel, but the author is self-consciously making the reader and even the characters aware of this parallel, and subverts it with small differences that become magnified as the story progresses. After introducing Clarissa, the novel returns to Virginia Woolf before her suicide, at the time when she is composing the book that Laura Brown will read and Clarissa "Dalloway" will live. Her fragile mental state is already clearly apparent. However, she is not contemplating death, but her new book, and her desire to leave the country and return to the city even if it means the return of her headaches and hallucinatory experiences. The next chapter brings in our third protagonist, Laura Brown. She feels obligated to make her husband's birthday a special day for him, but she would rather read her new book. In fact, she would rather escape altogether, from her husband, her young son, and her bounded life. The chapters move between these women as they experience the events in a single day, but one that
I feel like I am the only person who didn't read this when it came out in 1998. Now I'm really glad I waited until now to read it as it seems to mean much more to me what what life means to me now than it would have nearly 20 years ago. The movie version I had seen and while very good, the book has so much more and all the layerings are so much more obvious to me.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while. Here goes!
This book read so quickly, I couldn't put it down! I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm already sure that Julian Moore is not appropriate for the character of Mrs. Brown :)
This book read so quickly, I couldn't put it down! I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm already sure that Julian Moore is not appropriate for the character of Mrs. Brown :)
I picked this up because of the movie at first, but I was shocked because the book is a million times better then the movie. The details are enriching in the book where you got only half of what was going on in the movie. The book is truly an inspirtation to me to be a better writer.
Beautifully sad, and a great complimentary book to Mrs. Dalloway, though I wondered if I had liked it, had I not read Mrs. Dalloway.
I enjoyed the first chapter, and paragraphs here and there throughout the rest of the book. But most of it felt like reading a high school English class assignment: write a story in the style of _____, the blank in this case filled with "Virginia Woolf." Excessive comma use does not good writing make; in The Hours, it makes for a herky-jerky read, no stream-of-consciousness mellifluosity.
PretentiousI really did not enjoy this book and would probably have abandoned it if it hadn't been in the form of an unabridged audiobook. The author seemed to be trying to be something literary, as if having just completed a creative writing course, but it didn't work for me. It was tediously slow, with some repetetive themes such as flowers, and chaste kisses between women that portended something else, and repetetive phrases, such as 'here is...', which irritated me.I have not read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolf and maybe I would have got more from this book if I had, possibly i would be giving three stars. But i'm not convinced that I'd be awarding any more than that, even so.There are three main (female) characters. The first, set in the 1932s, is the author, Virginia Wolf, struggling with mental health problems and trying to write her novel, Mrs Dalloway. The second, is a young mother in the 1940s, who is desperate to read her copy of Mrs Dalloway but must bake a cake for her husband's birthday and care for her adoring young son. And finally, in the present day, we meet Clarissa, renamed Mrs Dalloway by her dying gay friend, for whom she is preparing a party.That is about it, very little happens and the ending is similarly flat. I think the only part I gained anything from, was the description of Virginia's two nieces and a nephew discovering a dying bird in Vanessa's garden.Not recommended at all.
Cunningham's novel pays tribute to Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway by providing a connection in the stories of a single day in each of the lives of three women - Virginia Woolf in England 1941, Clarissa Vaughan, nicknamed Mrs Dalloway, in contemporary New York, and Laura Brown in 1949 California. Their lives are so diverse yet Cunningham adeptly describes how they are linked and brings them all together in a brilliant ending.I have seen the movie and to be honest, remember little about it. The book, so beautifully written, is much more memorable. This is especially recommended for fans of Virginia Woolf.
OK, I just knew I was going to have to eat my words...Last week, I was whining about Mrs. Dalloway. The meandering narrative had me absolutely convinced that I was ADHD. Well this past week, I decided to listen to Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Hours. The novel is about a single day in the lives of 3 women, who are loosely tied together by the book, Mrs. Dalloway. The women - Virginia Woolf, who is just starting to write Mrs. Dalloway, Laura Brown, who is reading Mrs. Dalloway, and Clarissa Vaughan who is planning a party for a dying friend who has playfully nicknamed her Mrs. Dalloway. Although the women are different ages, occupations, and live in different time periods, their stories have some very interesting common threads. I found this book to be absolutely brilliant. I loved the similarities between the stories and how the plot tied in very closely to Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (I guess I was paying attention after all!). If you listen to this book, you will definitely want to read Mrs. Dalloway first. It ties the stories together and makes The Hours a much richer experience. So, reading this book had me running over to wikipedia to learn more about Virginia Woolf. And yes, I will probably increase my rating to 3 stars for Mrs. Dalloway (chomp chomp). But the author I really want to add to my shelf is Michael Cunningham - what a clever and enjoyable book!
There is a unique sensation of both immense loss and joy when you read the final page of a book that you immediately recognise as one of your life's favourites. Having seen the film first (and loved it), I feared that it would spoil my enjoyment of the book, knowing exactly what was going to happen. At first I had a sense of rushing the book for that reason, but then the story hooked me all over again, and I was rushing simply from an urgency to devour more and more of it's clever deliciousness.To intertwine a modern retelling of a classic story with parallel stories of Virginia Woolf's demons when writing Mrs. Dalloway, and the fragile state of mind of someone reading Mrs. Dalloway is sheer brilliance - complex yet so simple.I have not yet read Mrs. Dalloway, but feel I will have to, just to gain another perspective of the immense depth of this novel. Certainly, in reading the novel things became clear to me that I did not pick up on when I watched the film, and I'm sure that having an understanding of Mrs. Dalloway would enhance the book still further.
If you love dark gloomy books about depressed people and their struggles to get through a single day, you'll love this book. I didn't.
This is one of my favorite novels of all time, if not my absolute favorite. I think this is the third time I've read it, and it won't be the last.
The novel is an ode to the unsung middle-aged woman, who he portrays with such sympathy and respect. It reads like a symphony, with each storyline a different instrument weaving in and out of each other. It's a novel for literary types, rich with subtext and beautiful language.
The novel is an ode to the unsung middle-aged woman, who he portrays with such sympathy and respect. It reads like a symphony, with each storyline a different instrument weaving in and out of each other. It's a novel for literary types, rich with subtext and beautiful language.
A beautifully written complex book which intertwines around the lives of three women living in three different decades.
With all its subtle instances of overlooked details in terms of lacking variety of voices to distinguish characters, the novelist cum reader still does enough, and much more, to move your heart.
Omg. This is definitely the type of book I have been looking for for awhile. It's one that makes me think. It's worth reading, but only really if you've read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf first.
I may suck at writing reviews. But this is a "To Read" if you haven't already.
I may suck at writing reviews. But this is a "To Read" if you haven't already.
N interesting interweaving of the story of mrs dalloway between 3 people in 3 different times First Virginia Woolf as she write the novel battling her own Daemons. Then a housewife just after the war who is reading the novel and struggling with her role as wife and mother. Finally Clarissa, in late 1990s who like Mrs Dalloway is planning a party.... each outworks their own destiny ...
This is the story of three women, each a generation apart, told over one day in their lives. One of the threads tells the story of Clarissa Vaughn who is hosting a party for her award-winning poet-friend Richard who is suffering from the ravages of AIDS. Around fifty years earlier, Laura Brown is an American housewife and young mother who over the course of her day spends some of it reading Mrs Dalloway hoping to escape domestic drudgery in the pages of the book. The third main character of the book is the troubled author, Virginia Woolf and it is set on the day that she begins to write Mrs Dalloway.
It is a clever idea linking the three stories all intertwined together with the common link of the book Mrs Dalloway. Picking up on details of their lives, Clarissa shopping for flowers for Richard, Laura wanting to stay in bed rather than face the stark realities of that day and Virginia avoid eating to spend time alone and writing. He picks up on their fears and insecurities as well as the small victories they pass through the day.
I have read one of his other books previously, Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown, and really liked it. This had been recommended to me via a friend on Twitter and managed to get hold of a copy, so I’d thought I’d give it a go. However, even though the writing is quite special, especially one particular moment that is one of the key points of the book, it really didn’t work for me. Not sure why, possibly because the link between the three characters is gossamer thin, but I think it might have been because of the Woolf connection. The only book of hers that I have read before, To The Lighthouse, I could not get along with and so it seems with this one.
It is a clever idea linking the three stories all intertwined together with the common link of the book Mrs Dalloway. Picking up on details of their lives, Clarissa shopping for flowers for Richard, Laura wanting to stay in bed rather than face the stark realities of that day and Virginia avoid eating to spend time alone and writing. He picks up on their fears and insecurities as well as the small victories they pass through the day.
I have read one of his other books previously, Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown, and really liked it. This had been recommended to me via a friend on Twitter and managed to get hold of a copy, so I’d thought I’d give it a go. However, even though the writing is quite special, especially one particular moment that is one of the key points of the book, it really didn’t work for me. Not sure why, possibly because the link between the three characters is gossamer thin, but I think it might have been because of the Woolf connection. The only book of hers that I have read before, To The Lighthouse, I could not get along with and so it seems with this one.
Maybe I should have read Mrs. Dalloway first. Maybe I should have read more of Mrs. Woolf first. More than a single essay, "The Death of the Moth," which is all I can recall having read of her. Regardless, the prologue, read in the library stacks, was so absorbing I took the book home. The story didn't require foreknowledge, but would likely be even more captivating with it. I wonder if that bumblebee harkened back to the moth.