Published in 1998, Michael Cunningham's The Hours was widely acclaimed as a literary accomplishment of great significance. It received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was chosen as Best Book of 1998 by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and Publisher's Weekly.
The Hours is the story of three women from three different time periods whose lives are all influenced by a great novel (namely Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway). In The Hours we see the stories of three unique individuals, Woolf herself in 1923 suburban London, Eisenhower-era housewife Laura Brown, and modern day Manhattenite Clarissa Vaughn, who share the feeling that they have lived their lives for other people. Though they outwardly appear quite different, their tales parallel one another in extraordinary and deeply moving ways.
Soon after the novel's publication, Scott Rudin purchased the screen rights to The Hours. The filming of the movie version of Cunningham's novel began in early 2001, and is now a highly-praised film, starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman among others. The film won the Golden Goble award for Best Picture, and Nicole Kidman won Best Actress for her role as Virgina Woolf.
Cunningham recently sat down with The Heights to talk about his novel, and the remarkable success it has achieved in both the literary world and Hollywood.
The Heights: Where did the inspiration for The Hours come from? How did you go about working on it?
Michael Cunningham: Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway is the first great book I ever read. It was forced on me when I was fifteen, and in high school. They made me read it, and if they hadn't I likely would never have picked it up. I was sort of a stoner -type in high school, not really what you would call a "book type." But reading Mrs. Dalloway, I was struck by the density, complexity, and beauty of the novel. When I read her, I thought, she's doing with literature what Jimi Hendrix did with music. Woolf opened my eyes to the beauty, the infinite possibility and power of literature, which ultimately led me to become a writer. She showed me how alive a book could be.
H: How did you go about creating the interior of Virginia Woolf? I would imagine you used the diaries, but I wonder if there was a lot of research involved, or whether it was more an act of the imagination.
MC: Oh yes, there was lots and lots of research involved. It's hard to appreciate just how much Virginia Woolf wrote. I think she is one of the most documented authors in history. She wrote copiously. I mean, we have the diaries, her many novels - there is just so much out there. After I did the research, I closed all the books and started writing. I didn't want to be too precise. It's important to remember that the Virginia Woolf in my novel is a fictional Woolf, not the real one. I imagined a day in her life based on what I've read, but to a certain extent the story took on a life of its own.
H: Did the novel develop as you expected?
MC: Well, I never outline a book. If I know too well where a story is going the best I will do is get there. The story won't truly come alive. It won't achieve the same sense of clarity, or completeness. Whenever I write, as is the case with The Hours, I start out with an idea, but the writing goes in directions that I never can predict.
H: I'm very curious about the character of Laura Brown in The Hours. It's clear that your character Virginia is Virginia Woolf, and that Clarissa Vaughn is a modern day Clarissa Dalloway. But how did Laura Brown make her way into the novel?
MC: Laura Brown was the last character in the novel. I started out with only Mrs. Dalloway, with the idea of writing what it would be like if she was alive today. But pretty soon into the process, I realized it was just a conceit. Virginia initially existed in the novel as a sort of ghost, haunting the story. It was a day in the life of a modern-day Mrs. Dalloway, but I knew it just wasn't enough. The idea of Mrs. Brown was based very much on my mother. She is a housewife at the end of World War II in Los Angeles who's baking a cake. And I found that I was able to write convincingly about that housewife, a woman named Laura Brown, by thinking of her as somebody doing something every bit as important in her kitchen, trying to bake a perfect cake, as Virginia Woolf was sitting down one day in 1923 trying to write the her perfect novel.
H: What parallels do you draw between Mrs. Brown and Clarissa Dalloway? I know there were some interesting possibilities such as the idea of baking the cake and concept of throwing a party.
MC: Yes, that definitely is a parallel. Each woman experiences a unique day, yet several parallels exist between each of them. Each woman creates something, each one kisses someone, but there are several parallels like that, and deeper ones as well.
H: Were you surprised by the magnitude of success this novel achieved?
MC: Definitely. I was astonished. When I wrote The Hours I thought to myself, here is my little artsy novel that we will just put aside and let it be what it is. Maybe it will sell a few hundred copies. Nobody foresaw this kind of success.
H: Were you at all reluctant to sell the movie rights to your novel?
MC: Initially yes, very much so. I resisted at first, when I got the call from [producer] Scott Rudin. I thought I'd rather there be no movie at all than a bad movie. It wasn't until he called back and told me that the incredibly talented David Hare had agreed to write the screenplay that I agreed. I thought if a writer as talented as he is thought it was possible, then the movie really had a chance.
H: Did you picture the characters, the way the novel unfolds, in the way they have been depicted in the movie?
MC: No, not at all. People would ask me which actors I thought should play the roles. But I have such a clear mental image of these people. I know the characters so completely, and have such a strong image of them in my head, that I don't think there is any way anyone could possibly look the same as these women do in my mind. I mean initially I thought, "Who could possibly play my mother but my own mother? Who could possibly be Virginia Woolf but Virginia Woolf?
H: Did you have any influence on casting?
MC: No, not really. The cast fell into place very quickly. Scott [Rudin] and all of the casting directors were incredibly respectful. When Scott called me and told me Meryl Streep had signed on, followed by Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman, I was more than delighted.
H: Virginia Woolf aside, who are some of your literary influences? By that I mean the authors whose novels have really stayed with you and influenced the kind of writer you are.
MC: Oh I'd say Flaubert, Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Mann, Jim Crace, Joanna Scott. There are so many great authors out there, both past and present. I think we are living in an age where fiction is very much alive, and thriving.
H: It's interesting that you mention Flaubert. I'm sure you admire Madame Bovary. Do you find parallels between any of the women in The Hours, and Emma Bovary? Maybe the indifference both Laura Brown and Emma seem to have toward their children?
MC: Absolutely! I think there are several parallels, and parallels between the writing of Woolf and Flaubert. I think that's one of the last literary taboos, the idea of mothers who love their children on a certain level but are somewhat indifferent toward them. Emma and Laura also have a similar sort of desperation in their lives, a feeling of drowning, of being totally suffocated. But yes, I think there are many connections one could draw between them.
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