The Hours

Poco conocida es la novela de "Las horas" de Michael Cunningham, premiada con el Premio Pulitzer en el año 1999; pero casi todo el mundo habrá oído hablar de la película que lleva el mismo título, protagonizada por Nicole Kidman (como Virgnia Woolf), Meryl Streep (como Clarissa Dalloway) y Julianne Moore (como la señora Brown).

He de reconocer que supe de la existencia de la novela de casualidad, y no tardé ni unos pocos minutos en hacerme con ella. Había creído que "Las horas" era una adaptación de "La señora Dalloway" de Woolf, desconocía la existencia de esta fascinante obra literaria, como pocas he tenido la suerte de leer a lo largo de todos estos años, tantos años. Desde su comienzo, hasta su final, me resultaba show more hasta doloroso apartar la vista de las letras, tan plagadas de hermosura, sentimientos, con una prosa superior, y un dominio del alma humana increíble.

Tres mujeres, tres tiempos y tres historias. Todas ellas desarrolladas en un único día, de su mañana hasta al caer la noche. Es un homenaje a la mujer: a la mujer que escribía, a la mujer que leía y a la mujer que vivía. Es un recuerdo fulminantemente radiante de Virginia Woolf, un reflejo del proceso creativo que terminó por destruirla, un análisis certero de la terrible enfermedad que sufría. Y es un reflejo moderno de lo que puedo haber sido la señora Dalloway, una mujer que organiza una fiesta, que está plagada de pasado, que sufre el peso tan duro de los recuerdos. Y es la señora Brown, un ama de casa atormentada por el poco dominio de sí misma.

Qué difícil es leerla, y qué difícil es sentirse identificado. Expresa la amargura, el bloqueo que a veces, ese dolor, ese sufrimiento, ése que no se sabe de dónde viene, pero te hunde, y no te permite vivir. La mente de Virginia, Clarrisa y Laura sufre, sufre tanto que resulta imposible ponerse en su piel si se desconoce tal sentimiento. Es un sufrimiento que nace de sus entrañas, de no poder asimilar la vida, o no la vida cómo debe ser considerada. Planea Cunningham un reflejo crudo de la anodina rutina, el silencio del hogar y la inmensidad de estar en soledad por un momento.

¡Qué difícil! ¡Qué difícil se puede antojar comprender la narrativa de "Las horas"! Encontrar la belleza en cómo se friegan los platos, o se van a comprar flores, o se prepara un pastel. Encontrar la razón de ese beso tan robado como prohibido. Encontrar el deseo inherente de libertad de tres mujeres encadenadas a sí mismas.

Creo que cualquier lector, cualquier persona, se deleitará con la lectura de esta obra maestra única, inteligente, cruda y dulce. Una auténtica joya de vida, inolvidable. show less

I first read this book back in the early 2000s, but I remembered very little beyond the broad outline (3 women, 3 timelines, inspired by [Mrs. Dalloway]...). I think I missed a lot when I first read it. I also hadn't yet read Mrs. D so all of that was a bit lost on me. This time, however, I couldn't put the book down. The prose was gorgeous, and I loved the connections and shared threads between the three lives Cunningham gives us. I also thought Cunningham did a wonderful job with the interiority of three very different women, especially considering he's a guy ;-) In the end, the considerations of the place and role and aspirations of women were what I took away most - and the fact that those questions are so little changed over time show more and circumstance.

4.5 stars show less

It was timely to read this book right after Mrs Dalloway, where even the title might have been the same. Michael Cunningham plays a game of hide and seek with Virginia Woolf. It might be annoying at first, the events set in New York seem like a caricature of a greater book. But then the lesser book grows out of the greater's shade and twists its own tale.
I am glad I have forgotten the movie except for a few memorable scenes, I am glad I have persevered beyond the initial allergic reaction to the book, I am glad that Michael takes Virginia along or rather takes us along for her last walk.
What is literature after all if not a retelling of great stories previously told! Can we demand more than a twist, a variation on a theme, a smile of show more recognition on reader's lips? show less

She will do all that’s required, and more.

So many women, doing what other people need/want them to do. There’s Virginia Woolf in 1923, obliging to her husband’s request that she recover her mental health in the suburbs, when the only place she wants to be is London. There’s Laura Brown, performing the duties of wife and mother in conformity-laden 1949 Los Angeles. And there’s Clarissa Vaughan in late-20th-century New York City, organizing a party to honor her longtime friend/former lover who’s been ravaged by AIDS. Each of them enduring the hours of a single day, and then the hours after those.

I first read this in 2014 -- a fascinating riff on [Mrs. Dalloway], where the original novel’s author (Virginia), its main show more character (Clarissa), and a reader (Laura) are imagined in their own storylines. I watched the film again yesterday after I’d finished my re-read. The novel is a beautiful and melancholic tragedy; the film is devastating. show less

I really, really liked this. I liked that it was *about* women. I liked that everything tied together without being showy and clever about it. I liked that it showed Woolf's desperation and despair and genius, all at once; that none of them cancelled out the other (ie, that she wasn't a genius despite or because of her "madness", she just was this great big jumble of things).

It may have influenced my 0.5 draft of "A Bargain for Salvation" a little too much; which makes me say it is a little too clever and in love with its own cleverness, but that is very much a critique in retrospect.

Someone, I don't recall whom, left me this book with a recommendation. It sat on the "to-read" pile for some time, but I finally got around to it and am happy that I did. It is a fine novel that intertwines three stories: Virginia Woolf (the novel opens with her suicide in 1941, but then goes back to an earlier time when she was recovering from depression with her husband Leonard in a suburb of London); Mrs. Brown, set in LA in 1949, a housewife with a small boy, pregnant with her second child, and struggling against depression, and Clarissa (called Mrs. Dalloway by some) who lives in NY in the 1990s and is preparing a party for a poet-friend of hers who has won a minor literary award, but who is suffering from aids. Each chapter moves show more back and forth among the stories of the three women, which come together very cleverly at the end (a reader more observant than I could pick up a couple of clues). But it is not just the clever ending that endears this book, it is the clear, even pellucid writing that is deceptively simple, yet conveys a world of feeling and sensitivity to the conditions of life, love, depression, struggle, and the universal questions of what life is all about. You really care about these people. The following captures a lot of the tone of the book:

We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then sleep–it's as simple and ordinary as that...There is 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) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything for more.

This, in itself, sounds a little depressing, but I think it is also a celebration of the small things in life, and of the need to find pleasure in them. show less

“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) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.” -- Michael Cunningham, The Hours

Michael Cunningham’s The Hours is an inspired creative work of art that uses Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway as a starting point. The author braids together three different stories of three different days in the lives of three female protagonists: Mrs. Woolf, Mrs. Brown, and “Mrs. Dalloway.” Mrs. Woolf show more is an imagined version of Virginia Woolf herself, in June 1923, as she is in the process of creating her book and envisioning how it will unfold. Mrs. Brown is Laura Brown, a wife and mother in 1949, who is suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. “Mrs. Dalloway” is Clarissa Vaughan, nicknamed by her gay friend and noted poet, Richard, due to her first name and personality. She buys flowers for a party she is hosting later that evening for Richard, who is about to receive a literary award. The exact date is not given, but implied to be in the 1990’s. It is hard to do justice to this novel through a plot summary. Suffice it to say it is character-driven and plot is secondary.

Poignant and sad, though not without a thread of hope, this novel explores the difficulties of living with depression, surviving day-to-day in the face of mortality, and fighting against perfectionistic tendencies. The reader will notice many parallels to Woolf’s work in style, themes, and scenes. Cunningham’s prose is lyrical, and he successfully simulates Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness writing style, replete with parentheses, semi-colons, detailed descriptions, and asides. Themes include time, mortality, gender, creativity, and finding meaning in life. The perspective is omniscient third person, so the reader is privy to the thoughts of both the main and secondary characters. This work evokes questions in the mind of the reader and invites meaningful introspection. Be aware going in that the content includes suicide.

The Hours is a brilliant and moving tribute to the hopes and fears of everyday life. Cunningham turns the seemingly mundane into the sublime. Recommended to anyone that has read and had a positive reaction to Mrs. Dalloway. show less