Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I'm not really, though I do admit to not caring for her writing too much. I was wondering how I would like The Hours, because it focuses around Virginia Woolf and promised to be similar in writing style as Woolf's novels. I've read A Room of One's Own, Jacob's Room, and Mrs. Dalloway, the book upon which The Hours was based, and Virginia is not really my style. But after reading The Hours, I don't know why...I can't really figure it out. I felt like Cunningham's Virginia was a woman I could very easily relate to, as were the other women in the book. I feel often, like Virginia, that I'm outside of my body, looking in on my own life, exploring my own grief, frustrations, and the internal voices that speak to me almost as if I am a bystander. That sounds super odd, I guess, but I do feel that way at times. Also, the preoccupation with death of both the Laura Brown character and Virginia, how the suicidal thoughts were described reminded me of my years in college where I battled depression. I wanted to check into a hotel room(remember my Veronica entry?) much like Laura Brown did for those few hours, to escape, for certainly at that time, which was before I came to terms with what I wanted to do and my homosexuality, I was constantly feeling like I was losing touch with reality, like I wasn't a part of my own present. The Hours was a fabulous book, giving me hope for the Pulitzer prize system, a book about characters who are homosexual, male and female, living lives as openly gay, as well as the characters who are trying to sort out their own budding sexualities. The Canadians have done it, not only having a book with openly gay characters in it, but also being on the whole less conservative about what they chose to give the GG to, so, even though the American awards tend to be more conservative AND this was a book about lesbians written by a man, at least it's still A HOPE. His style is so cinematic in span, I do admit that I wonder what the movie would be like, especially since in the beginning Clarissa sees a woman that she thinks is a movie star that could be Meryl Streep, when I know that in the movie Clarissa's character is played by Meryl Streep. How ironic.:) There's a quote at the end about the bittersweet-ness of life, but I don't have the book on me while I'm typing this, so I can't add it until possibly later. However, it's all good, I guess.:) What I must say is it's really nice to have 45 minute lunch breaks(even though at times they feel a bit forced) because I can get A LOT of reading done.:) I feel like I've read so many books by men lately, but that's not really the case I guess, I just checked, it's only been 4 in a row. When I get up to 10 books in a row, then I'll have to go back to reading the ladies. Not like I'm lacking in books by them either. Pulitzers 24, GGs 25.