| Michael Cunningham Photo by Brad Fowler |
Parallel Lives
A novel that echoes 'Mrs. Dalloway' features Virginia Woolf as a character.
By MICHAEL WOOD
November 22, 1998
THE HOURS By Michael Cunningham. 230 pp. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $22. |
n a morning in June, a woman in her early 50's steps out into the bright, busy city that she loves. She needs to buy flowers for a party she is giving later in the day. She bumps into an old acquaintance, remembers moments from her earlier life. Along with a number of other people, she catches a glimpse of a celebrity, but isn't sure who it is. She buys the flowers, goes home and her day continues.
Where are we? We could, of course, be in any one of a number of days and cities, and the possibility itself is part of the answer to the question. But we are quite definitely, recognizably, in two novels: ''Mrs. Dalloway,'' by Virginia Woolf, and ''The Hours,'' by Michael Cunningham.