"The Hours" by Michael Cunningham

Review by Dave Karp

            “Yes, she thinks, this is probably how it must feel to be a ghost. It’s a little like reading, isn’t it-that same sensation of knowing people, settings, situations, without playing any particular part beyond that of the willing observer.”

            This is probably one of the most haunting lines that stuck with me from Michael Cunningham’s fantastic novel, The Hours. A friend/mentor of mine let me borrow the book, knowing that I so much loved Virginia Woolf’s novel, Orlando: A Biography, which made me fall in love with Woolf. And, after reading The Hours, I can tell you this: This is one of the most haunting books I have yet to read, but in a unique way that maybe Mrs. Dalloway did for her generation, though I have yet to read the famous Woolf novel yet. The novel has been made into a movie as well, directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep as the leading ladies (and, may I add, a haunting score by Philip Glass). I recommend the movie, as it was a very good adaptation of the book and brought the haunting atmosphere the novel did to the screen, and stayed true to most of the book. But, back to the novel!

            Cunningham takes the day in the life of three different women in three different time periods. There is Virginia Woolf herself in the early 1920’s in a suburb in London. Then, there is Laura Brown in 1950’s suburban Los Angeles. Last, but not least, is Clarissa Vaughan in New York City, 2001. Woolf is beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway, Laura deal with the disenchantment of suburban life with her husband, son, and another child on the way, and Clarissa is trying to get a party put together for a very dear friend and poet. We are thrown into the lives of these characters as well as their ghosts and troubles, and at the end of the novel, we find how all three of these stories and these lives come chillingly together.

            This is a novel rich with not only story, but description. We look at the world these characters are living in almost poetically, and it works. Of course, there is dialogue, but the imagery that Cunningham gets on the page is very rich and he makes you see everything clearly as you are brought into the lives and environments of these characters. It’s some of the strongest description I have read in a while, and it really brings a whole other layer to the story, one that really makes you feel as if you are an “observer” or a “ghost”.

            The story is one that you become quite curious and enriched in, and is very well written. The thoughts of these characters come out on the page amazingly as well, which makes us feel for them even more, and we understand their struggles all the more. The three women are haunted by many things, and we see that clearly, almost as if in some way it mirrors the lives you and I are living, and questioning how much happens within a day of the lives of everyone.

Which brings me to the thing I may have liked about it the most and was one of the most haunting aspects for me: It was an epic about the everyday life. Such as what Woolf did with her novel Mrs. Dalloway, Cunningham brings into his novel and adds his own flair to it. He brings out the power and the epicness of everyday thought, worries, and questions. With the question the three main characters have, you can’t help think about your own life and your own time you are occupying. The book gets even philosophical about living day after day, and why life is, in a way, both tragic and beautiful. But we are left with remembering that we have many days, many hours, and we should always remember that there are good things and bad, luck and bad luck, but that also, strangely, life is a beautiful thing and the only real enemy is time.

            
         

Review: A Moveable Feast

Review By David Marcus Karp

I finally finished A Moveable Feast today, and I’m ready to move to Paris once I’m out of college.

            Whether that’s a feasible and wise decision on my part is questionable, but I will say that Ernest Hemingway’s memoir does nothing more than makes you fall in love with Paris. With the walks along the River Seine, the many cafes, the bookstores, the food, the society (though some things may have changed since the 1920’s, of course), the European mindset, and whatnot, how could you NOT want to go to Paris?

            But the memoir tells about 1920’s Paris so vividly and perfectly, it’s almost surreal. The book really reads like a novel, with its flowing narration, its simplicity prose, it’s moving but clear imagery, and it’s “character” development. The way that each chapter tells a different story/experience in Paris yet they all connect to the theme of a writer in 1920’s Paris is a really cleaver way to write a memoir. I felt like I was looking through a photo album of his time there, each part having something unique but just as interesting a story to tell!

            The book does a great, great job with description of the scene Hemingway came to love. The balance of action and description is built like a Hemingway novel, which I believe is why it’s so readable. The linear structure is that of a short story collection of expanded but beautifully told instances but keeps the reader engaged in the tales of Paris’s literary writing scene, Paris’s “golden age” and some of the most interesting interactions between Hemingway and the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, Ezra Pound, and, of course, the great Gertrude Stein (which Hemingway had some of the best conversations with, in my opinion)!

            The memoir didn’t take me too long to read, partially because I could not put it down and partially because it’s not the longest book in the world (coming from a pretty slow reader), but it’s just the right length (unless you get the restored 2009 edition, which has a few new edits, additions, and other new stuff, along with a forward by Hemingway’s second son himself, Patrick Hemingway. I happened to read the original version).

            When you read the book, it feels like you are walking side by side with Hemingway on his adventures through Paris. The narrative brings the classic feel of Hemingway to a real life account, which is also entertaining and thought provoking. Of course, Hemingway was a café guy in his free time, which I can very much relate too, so this is one for café lovers, as well as book lovers and Hemingway fans. In fact, this was the first thing I ever read from him, and I’m glad it was, since these were taken from journals written before even finished and published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. I got to see what Hemingway was like off of the page just as his writing career is starting, which brings a lot to context, and brings for a great introduction to his writing style and his personality both on and off the page.

            So all and all, this memoir is a must for anyone who reads. It has now made me fall in love with Hemingway and is ranked as one of top favorites. The book will make you want to go to Paris and hope the same thing happens to you that did to Owen Wilson in Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris.

            Look out for Justin’s next review on Ellen Hopkins’s Impulse!