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shelbystahl
, April 02, 2014
The Hours by Michael Cunningham is a truly stunning novel. This novel is a connection through space and time of the life and written work of Virginia Woolf. The two main female characters connected to Woolf are Laura Brown and Clarissa Dalloway. The book deals with the strong emotions of contemplating suicide, life-long love, and the complexities of searching for something greater than yourself. Because of these themes, I would recommend this as a mature book for upper-level high schoolers and older. There is an element of sexuality and difficult concepts such as suicide and pure forms of love for another human. Some of these thematic elements would be lost on children who don’t quite yet understand the complexities of the human experience. The prose is also rather eloquent and would be difficult for people who are insufficient readers to grasp. I believe this book to be one of the most beautifully written and perplexing books I have ever read because it forces the reader to reevaluate the meanings of life, love, and death.
This book is written following three different characters in separate locations and times. Virginia Woolf is the first and is introduced in the capturing prologue, sucking the reader in. The prologue tells the story of her suicide in 1941. Her subsequent chapters follow her recent times leading up to her suicide. The character Laura Brown is a caring housewife and mother living in Los Angeles in 1949. The third main character is Clarissa Dalloway who is living in New York City at the end of the twentieth century. Clarissa is a lesbian, but her story follows the implications of a past romance with a man named Richard who is living with AIDS. The themes that this novel deals with are, at times, very philosophical and one has to have the capacity to follow these themes so they can develop as the author intended them to for the impact and meaning of the novel. The reader also has to be willing to jump around to different character storylines. With the character changes every chapter, a reader needs to have a sense of patience. Just know that not every question will be answered right away, but it will tie together eventually. Only with an open mind will a reader have a positive experience with this book.
As I begin reading any novel, I always question why a book has the title it has. Cunningham’s title, The Hours, is revealed to be the perfect fit as characters contemplate the meaning of their life and how time is eternally ticking away. Clarissa Dalloway discovers that “There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) know these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult,” (225). This relates to the eye opening yet very dark theme that there will eventually be an end, maybe one’s soul has had its end before its body has physically ended. The common trend between the characters in this novel is that they all have moments of dissatisfaction in their lives, possibly in their relationships, but something could just be empty as well. However, this theme is attached to a larger moral, that is, to live and love as fully as possible because someone may be dependent on the love you give to him or her. This moral is connected because, “for a moment they are both simply and entirely happy. They are present, right now, and they have managed, somehow, over the course of eighteen years, to continue loving each other. It is enough. At this moment, it is enough” (185). This quote, like many others in this deeply profound novel, is almost so philosophical about the human experience involving love that I can’t fully grasp it! The difficulty of grasping these topics is exactly what Cunningham wants, as evident when he wrote, “Love is deep, a mystery- who wants to understand its every particular?” (143). This novel stretches the mind to levels not yet developed to contemplate the human experience involving life, love, and death.
I believe the book was beautifully written by an author who took care in writing a book that successfully achieved its goal of having the reader be impacted. It is a book with very important ideas to consider and there is heartfelt meaning behind all of these main points the author wanted to show to readers. One aspect that stands out is his use of language. The prose used by the author and the roles of the characters were essential to this novel’s structure. The fact that it follows three main characters separately, but yet ties them all together is critical to the impact of the novel and shows how we are all connected through the human experience because we all go through the cycle of life and death. Cunningham uses language in such a unique way that makes every sentence different in such a beautiful way. At times, it’s surprising how he can take certain words and put them together to make a sentence that’s so unusual that I’m sure it will only ever be said in the pages of his book. There is no doubt in my mind that this book is timeless and can be appreciated by all who read with an open heart.
This book is a must-read because of the new ideas that are presented in an eloquent manner. In The Hours, three women are connected through the human experience of life, love, and death. This book is highly relatable because of these themes, yet so deeply philosophical that it can blow your mind! I would highly recommend this book; it has truly left me marveling over its quality.
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