What readers think of The Hours, plus links to write your own review.

This book is one of the most beautifully written books of the 20th century. It is a masterpiece. Those who call it "boring" or whatever denigrating terms they choose to use are, to be blunt and simple, abject fools. Ignore them. Read this book! It is so fine. (Then try to read "Mrs. Dolloway" by Woolf -- it's a beautiful book, but good luck.)

One of the best books I've read all year. The narrative used in the book was interesting and very thiught provoking. I loved it.

Superb. Michael Cunningham is the greatest male fiction writer of his generation. The constant weaving of three starkly different lives is a literary tour de fource. Profoundly moving and passionate, The Hours is a must-read for those who appreciate true masterpieces

To "be" or "not to be"
To live or to die...
Definitely a 5 for insight...I identified so thoroughly (how could a man have written this?)
Kudos to Michael Cunningham...and here is what I got from "The Hours".
*******
Choices -
pretending
pleasing
not hurting anyone
Or, choosing peace, finality...

"I gets weary and sick of trying,
I'm tired of living and scared of dying...
That Old Man River...
He just keeps rolling along.... ((Showboat))

And so we fill our days with the hours,
the minutes, the seconds ...

the humiliation
the embarrassment
the pain of living...

And still (somehow) we just keep rolling along.

This book made understand the unpretty side of life, and the difficulties being an adult pressured by society. The characters were strong and very realistic. i do reccomend this book

Powerfull prose yet i found the self-reflexivity of Streep too uncanny ; having seen the film first, inadvertantly, the boook was too strange as Clrissa stood gawping waiting for herself to come out of the star-trailer. And the film was weakened without it!

This was the best book I've ever read. It probably was not the most enjoyable, but it teaches you so much about life and literature. The whole theme of hours in the book is brilliant because it shows that even though the hours are hard, they are life, and we strive to make the best out of them. I definately reccommend this book.

I just finished the book in my Women's Literature course, and I think it was wonderful. Although I am only a Senior in High School I felt identified with the 3 women. I think that Cunninghan has done a marevelous job.