This Puts "The Hours" To Shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Casting, direction, and excellent filmmaking turned a mediocre book into an A-list film.  On paper, "The Hours," was meant by Michael Cunningham, to be a homage to Virginia Woolf.  I read it, and thought of it little more than a student's submission in some MFA Writing Program, where it actually should have stayed.  Clever, but nowhere as skilled as Woolf.  As I said at the time, if you want Virginia Woolf, read Virginia Woolf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                "Pond" was published in 2015.  I only just read it recently, but it was a revelation. Claire-Louise Bennett is able to do what Cunningham could not.  If I gave someone a copy of this book, not knowing the author or title, I am betting they would tell me they are reading Virginia Woolf.

                                   Because, without copying her, Bennett writes just like her.  "Pond" is less a narrative than a series of collective musings, covering one day in the life of this remarkably astute and observant woman.  It goes beside "Mrs. Dalloway," as a stylistic masterwork.

                                     To think this was Bennett's debut. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I cannot wait to read more from her. And, make no mistake, there will be more.

                                      If "Pond" were published this year, it would easily have made my Best List.

                                      As it is, now I can amend my original statement to--"If you want to read someone who writes like Virginia Woolf, try Claire-Louise Bennett."