Author : Michael Cunningham
Score: 8/10
Year: 1999
Publisher: Harper Perennial (= Harper Collins)
ISBN 978-1-84115-035-2
Pages 230
Language: English
In this novel, Cunningham intertwines the stories of 3 generations of women, in three different locations and periods : Virginia Woolf and her family set in a fictional but plausible period in 1923 when they lived in Richmond ; Laura Brown reading Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway in 1949's Los Angeles, and, in 1999, New York, Clarrisa Vaughan, preparing a party for her poet and sick friend, Richard.
I had seen the 2002 movie adaptation a year & half ago, and luckily had forgotten most of it by the time I read the original novel.
Cunningham named this novel The Hours, which, I learned only last week, would have been the original title Woolf intended for Mrs Dalloway. I assume that even in the late 1990's, he had access to information like that through the various sources he cites at the end of his novel.
His novel is quite clever in transposing Woolf's original stories of Mrs Dalloway (the short, and the novel, if you recall, I reviewed them here), into those other women reading her and living the lives Woolf either imagined or wished for.
In fact, the character names and structure of the present novel are based Mrs Dalloway, mirroring situations and expanding the topics discussed in it, all the whilst imagining the writing process Woolf had for her plot-points. I suggest, therefore, to read her short story and novel before The Hours.
Also, I must warn to possible triggers in view of some of the content (I'll explain at the bottom of this review, to avoid spoilers).
Both Woolf and Cunningham's stories address two existential topics in common, each written in their own period.
- LGBT issues, through homosexual or bisexual characters and their plights ;
- Mental Health, through perceptions of insanity VS sanity, and realistic depictions of depression.
Cunnigham, additionally, uses patterns of three everywhere in his novel : through three main women, relationships, and family members, which aren't present in Woolf's original stories.
On the other hand, he trully nails the narrative style Woolf had, and pays a great tribute to her through this story where future generations of Woolf can live aspects she herself couldn't back in the 1920's. It is, therefore, quite an ingenious way of transposing and writing in a voice that is similar to hers but not copying her, either.
Bellow is a the trigger warning explanation, containing possible spoiler points
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The novel depicts depression in a realistic way, with the inner struggles of characters, their difficulties in facing their roles in life and in the society they inhabit ; it discusses suicidal ideation as well, and could therefore be triggery.
One character is quite ill and when a person comes to visit, a very short, possibly emetophobic triggering element is described in a couple of lines.
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