THE HOURS

THE HOURS comprises the stories of three women--Clarissa Vaughan, who is planning a party for a dying friend in the New York of today; Laura Brown, a wife and mother who struggles with thoughts of suicide in 1950s Los Angeles; and the famed writer Virginia Woolf , who in 1930s England labors over the beginning of her novel MRS. DALLOWAY. Cunningham’s care for the work he created is evident in his narration. As do many novelists who choose to narrate their own work, he emphasizes the perfection of the words at the expense of the narrative pace. It is a reading whose pauses and up-note sentence endings more resemble the rhythm and pace of a poetry reading than a novel reading. While one might occasionally wish for a professional narrator, hearing a book the way an author hears it is an interesting experience, particularly when it is such an interesting book. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]