Summer Reads...

The Hours by Michael Cunningham- 5 stars *****

The first thing to note about this book is how cleverly constructed it is. Telling the stories of three different women; Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan, it constantly intertwines and skips through the decades as it recounts their stories to the reader.

Reading the blurb, apparently it is a retelling of sorts of Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway' but having never read the novel, I couldn't relate to this whilst reading it. Upon finishing the book and reading a plot summary of the novel on which it is based, there are several very clever similarities which link it to the well loved classic. I would definately like to read 'Mrs Dalloway' now in order to understand the author's intentions fully.

There is an overtone of depression and suicide in the book, as Virginia Woolf is well known for having commmitted suicide by drowning herself in a river, and the other two characters in 'The Hours' share certain characteristics with her and also with her character of Clarissa Dalloway in her most famous novel. Clarissa Vaughan not only shares a first name with the novel's protagonist, but she also has a relationship with a woman called Sally, and Sally in 'Mrs Dalloway' is someone who the main character feels strongly for.

Laura Brown is more closely linked with Virginia Woolf herself, feeling unhappy without reason, and often wanting to escape and be left alone despite the responsibilities she holds at home. Her character in the book is reading 'Mrs Dalloway' and likens herself to the leading lady many times, and there are excerpts from the book throughout her chapters (as the book is split into chapters relating to each character).

I really enjoyed reading this as although it was short, the plot has a shock element to it, especially at the end where the links between the characters are made more obvious. The language used is beautiful, and as a reader you really feel that you are inside the head of someone having to cope with these awful thoughts all the time. I especially liked the line said by Clarissa; 'Why else do we struggle to go on living, no matter how compromised, no matter how harmed? ...even if we're fleshless, blazing with lesions, shitting in the sheets; still, we want desperately to live.' I thought that this sentence summed up perfectly how bizarre it is that people are afraid of death.

Laura's struggle with depression, though she hasn't been diagnosed, is apparent in the way she thinks about everything in such a great amount of detail. I really liked the paragraph; 'She pauses several treads from the bottom, listening, waiting; she is again possesssed (it seems to be getting worse) by a dreamlike feeling, as if she is standing in the wings, about to go onstage and perform in a play for which she is not appropriately dressed, and for which she has not adequately rehearsed.' I just felt that this description was so abstract, yet summed up her thought processes so well, as though she is a stranger in her own body, and doesn't know how to react, even to her own husband and child.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick read that still creates an impact. I hope to also watch the film, starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman, as I am very interested in how the story will translate onto a screen.