The Hours is one of those books that leaves phrases resounding in your mind long after you have put it down. The poetic prose isn't quite Virginia Woolf's, but Cunningham does a wonderful job of adapting the stream-of-consiousness style and making it his own. Like Woolf, he does with words what great artists do with paint, but has made it a little easier to follow (think Mrs Dalloway as stream-of-consiousness on speed). It maybe be a little harder than other books to understand, but I urge you not to let that faze you!