The Hours

Michael Cunningham

………

FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX, 1998

(available in paperback from Picador, 2002)

IN HIS PULITZER PRIZE–winning novel, Michael Cunningham interweaves three parallel stories, each focusing on a single day in the life of a woman. Though each story takes place at a different time in the twentieth century, all are connected by Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, about a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a London socialite planning a party.

An account of Virginia Woolf’s suicide opens The Hours. The story then reverts to 1923, in Sussex, as Woolf, longing to be in London, struggles with the writing of Mrs. Dalloway.

The second story in The Hours is set in the Los Angeles suburbs in 1949. Housewife Laura Brown, who feels trapped in her own life, reads Mrs. Dalloway. “Posing” as a wife and mother, she is unable to fulfill the duties expected of her. Laura spends her hours with her young son, preparing the perfect cake for her husband’s birthday.

The third story woven into the fabric of The Hours is that of Clarissa Vaughn, a book editor in 1990s New York. Like the Mrs. Dalloway of Woolf’s novel, Clarissa’s day is focused on organizing a party; hers is in honor of her oldest friend, her ex-lover Richard, a poet stricken with AIDS, who has just won a literary prize. Richard playfully nicknames Clarissa “Mrs. Dalloway.” Clarissa, dissatisfied with her relationship with her lesbian lover, devotes all of her energies to nurturing Richard.

The three protagonists share many of the same emotions and experiences throughout the novel, and the three stories converge in the novel’s final chapter.

In The Hours, the state of the characters’ emotional and physical health suppresses their appetites. Food often remains untouched or discarded. Virginia Woolf has to feign interest in food as “she reminds herself: food is not sinister.”

Laura Brown’s hours are consumed with the creation of a perfect birthday cake for her husband. Her goal is to produce a cake “as glossy and resplendent as any photograph in any magazine.” To Laura, the cake she bakes appears “amateurish, handmade,” with crumbs caught in the icing and imperfect lettering. “She has produced something cute, when she had hoped … to produce something of beauty,” writes Cunningham. Laura throws the cake in the trash.

BRITTA’S CRAB CASSEROLE

To Richard, “food doesn’t matter much” anymore; to Clarissa Vaughn, “food matters a great deal.” Clarissa tries to entice Richard to celebrate his literary prize with his favorite dish, crab casserole. Richard, whose illness has diminished his appetite and left him emaciated, pretends to be interested for Clarissa’s benefit. Says Clarissa: “I’ve made the crab thing. Not that I imagine that’s any kind of serious inducement.” Richard responds, “Oh, you know how I love the crab thing. It does make a difference, of course it does.” In spite of her efforts, Clarissa’s crab casserole, along with a table of other food, remains untouched.

At Britta’s Café in Irvine, California, chef and owner Britta Pulliam prepares a theme lunch for the book club discussions regularly held at her restaurant. Pulliam replicated the entire array of appetizers Clarissa Vaughn prepared in The Hours for her book club’s luncheon discussion of the novel, including the crab casserole. After it played to rave reviews at her book club meeting, Pulliam added the crab casserole to her café’s lunch menu. “I think I have perfected what Richard would have loved!” says Pulliam.

NOTE: Clarified butter is pure butterfat made by removing the water from butter. Here is a quick way to clarify butter: Melt 7 tablespoons unsalted butter slowly in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit; the milk solids will sink to the bottom. Skim any foam off the top and discard. Pour off the clear liquid, leaving behind the milk solids.

1 pound cooked lump crabmeat, picked over 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium red potato, diced cup finely chopped white onion ¼ cup chopped red bell pepper ¼ cup chopped fennel 1½ teaspoons minced garlic	1 cup sliced Swiss chard, stems removed ½ cup baby spinach, stems removed 3 eggs, beaten ½ pound feta cheese, crumbled 3 tablespoons heavy cream ½ cup fresh bread crumbs
½ cup loosely packed cilantro, stems removed 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives Salt and pepper	4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese 12 sheets phyllo dough cup (5 tablespoons) clarified butter (see note), melted

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Thoroughly drain the crabmeat, gently squeezing out excess moisture.

3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add the potato, onion, bell pepper, and fennel and sauté until slightly soft, about 2–3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté briefly. Stir in the chard and spinach and cook until wilted, about 1–2 minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl and allow to cool completely.

4. Add the eggs, feta cheese, cream, bread crumbs, cilantro, dill, and chives to the cooled vegetable mixture and stir to combine. Gently fold in the crabmeat, being careful not to break apart the lumps. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Sprinkle a buttered 9 × 12–inch baking dish with 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Place 1 sheet of phyllo on the bottom of the pan and brush lightly with clarified butter. Lay on 5 more sheets of phyllo, brushing each with butter before adding the next. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Spoon crab mixture evenly over the pastry and top with the remaining phyllo, again buttering each sheet. Score the top with a serrated knife, marking off portion-sized pieces. Bake 30–40 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Cool slightly before serving.

Yield: 8 to 12 servings

   NOVEL THOUGHTS

Lisa Stone’s metro Atlanta book club comprises busy moms who work outside the home, so they choose paperbacks they can read at baseball practices and in carpool lines. Stone calls Michael Cunningham’s The Hours “one of the best books ever written.”

“Our book club facilitator came at The Hours from a very different perspective. He asked: ‘Why did the author choose this particular format for the book? What does the format of the book tell you about the content of the story?’ We discussed the book in terms of the three stories being intertwined and ‘the truth’ from each character’s perspective. Although these women’s lives were disparate, and they lived in different eras, the author did an amazing job of weaving their stories together at the end of the book, giving the reader an entirely new ‘truth’ to ponder.” The Hours also prompted discussion of the ethical and moral issues of suicide and terminal illness. “We wrestled with the question, ‘When is it okay to decide that you’ve had enough?’ ” says Stone.

“We talked about Laura Brown’s feelings of ambivalence about her role as a wife and mother. Parenting can be so stressful and it can bring you to the end of your rope. We have all been in a place when we wanted to say, ‘I’m done, I’m finished being a mother,’ ” says Stone.

More Food for Thought

For their discussion of The Hours, the Meeteetse Book Group of Meeteetse, Wyoming, met for a Sunday afternoon English tea. Hostess Catherine Pinegar served a variety of finger sandwiches, including ham-and-cheese and egg salad, as well as scones, English muffins topped with crabmeat and cheese, and hot artichoke dip. Pinegar topped off the meal with a rich chocolate truffle cake cut into 2-inch individual servings.

The variety of English teas that accompanied the meal and the fine bone China used for serving created a formal English setting that “put us in the right mind-set to discuss the book,” according to member Rosemary Lowther. “Tea is intoxicating in itself and a great stimulant, and the formal service provided a much better ambience than paper plates and mugs.”