The Hours

By: Michael Cunningham

Narrated by: Michael Cunningham

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Pulitzer prize, the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and nominated for 9 Academy Awards, The Hours is now available in audio.

Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, The Hours tells the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, who one New York morning goes about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway. By the end of the novel, the stories have intertwined, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace, demonstrating Michael Cunningham's deep empathy for his characters as well as the extraordinary resonance of his language.

©1998 Michael Cunningham (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Adult Fiction, 2001

"An exquisitely written, kaleidoscopic work that anchors a floating postmodern world on pre-modern caissons of love, grief and transcendent longing. (Los Angeles Times Book Review)
"A delicate, triumphant glance...A place of late-century danger but also of treasurable hours." (The New York Times Book Review )

super Buch

manchmal sind die Authoren auch noch gute Sprecher...sehr selten aber hier der Fall. Die Geschichte ist rührend und klug erzählt.

Read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf first

This is one of those literary exercises writers like to do. Before you read this book I STRONGLY suggest you read Virginia Woolf's classic, Mrs. Dalloway. This book is based entirely on that one and you won't get what's going on if you don't know that book. There are 3 characters in this book, Virginia Woolf -- it starts off talking about her suicide when she finally gave up on her life long struggle (her first breakdown was at age 13) with what is generally recognized today as having been bipolar disease. The other two characters are spread out over time, one in the 1950's the third around 2000, at the height of the aids epidemic. All the stories are either about Woolf writing Mrs Dalloway and what she was trying to do in the book, or are lives that echo the book. Read by the author who does a fairly decent job of it.

Skip the audio read or watch the movie

The book is fantastic, the audiobook, read by the author is terrible. He speed talks through the entire story, has a monotone voice and can’t do dialogue. The movie is also exceptional.

Brilliant

The bold concept of The Hours is to capture the essence of life in a single day. It is a contrast of mundane and extraordinary, life and death, and the ability of a human to carry all this inside, with every breath.

Mr. Cunningham takes a lot from Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and while it is not necessary to read Mrs. Dalloway first to appreciate this novel, it greatly added to my enjoyment as I recognized the parallels between the two books. It is pure brilliance that he was able to take another author's concept (and stay true to it), borrow from the actions in her book and yet make it his own.

I have previously read this book and thought that listening to it would enhance the beauty of the writing. Unfortunately, Mr. Cunningham's reading of The Hours leaves something to be desired. I don't think he does the power and beauty of the words justice. However, if you love literature, this is a must read, whether in print or this audible edition.

Michael Should Not Read His Own Book

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Michael Cunningham?

ANYONE!! He is a horrible reader and his voice does not fit for this story. I had to stop listening to it and go read it because I couldn't stand his book. In 4 years and all the books I've listened to I have never stopped listening bc of the narrator.

The Hours Tries Too Hard

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes. I read/listened to it for a course in English Literature and I enjoyed the experience.

Would you ever listen to anything by Michael Cunningham again?

If required for a class, absolutely. On my own, probably not.

What about Michael Cunningham’s performance did you like?

Completely objectively, I liked it well enough. He has a pleasant voice that does not grate the nerves like some other male narrators have.

Did The Hours inspire you to do anything?

No, but I would like to see the movie sometime.

Any additional comments?

I know the book was inspired by or based on Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, and I felt the connections are too forced in some places. Often, the parallels seem contrived. Some (like the yellow roses) were a pleasant surprise that I didn't pick up on until class discussions.

Great book horrible narration

Michael Cunningham knows how to piece together several storylines and make them Fit together like an intricate puzzle. The way he describes places, things, events, smells, makes you believe that you are the one having these experiences. I truly enjoyed this book however; Mr. Cunningham should really stick to writing and leave the narrating to someone else. I found the narration to be extremely “choppy “ and uneven. I almost returned this audible book and bought the printed version.

Sounds like it was recorded on a cell from 1998

The book and the performance are good but the sound quality is terrible for some reason.

Wonderful book! Terrible narrator!

The craft and skill and imagination that make up a wonderful writer DO NOT necessarily translate into the craft and skill and imagination that make an excellent narrator. This extraordinary novel deserves a skilled professional to give it voice.

Hire a professional reader

An exceptional text spoiled by the ego of an author unwilling to permit a professional reader.