This book is original in its own way. It is so unoriginal that it has almost reached a sort of paragon of innovation. The Hours really was a ballsy move on Cunningham's part; it is not something that everyone else is doing. It is not merely plagiarism, but rather an expansion of Mrs. Dalloway, involving the writer and her process as well. Having that said, there has got to be something more to this book. More than the fact that this is a remake of Mrs. Dalloway. More than the fact that all three women are living parallel lives. I keep waiting for something more profound to happen. In some way this book has to be worth reading on more levels than the fact that it is an interesting positioning of characters and inclusion of Mrs. Dalloway and Virginia Woolf. In parts of this novel, Cunningham is a fabulous writer, and in other parts he falls short of himself. I think that the best parts of the novel are in the chapters with Clarissa Vaughn and with Virginia Woolf. I feel like Mrs. Brown is a dispensable character, and, had I written this book, I would not have included her. Sometimes the way that Virginia Woolf is portrayed is annoying; I wonder what she would say about the depiction of her if she were still alive. The connections between characters are sometimes obnoxiously obvious, but sometimes they are very intricately interwoven. The book seems sort of inconsistent. Because I know from the better parts that Cunningham has the ability to make this book great, I keep waiting for it to get better, and I really think that it will.