A review by ostrava
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

5.0

Mrs Dalloway is a very uncompromising kind of book. Chapterless as it is, it is more akin to an experiment of "course of thought" than an actual story. "Stream of consciousness" but utterly devoided of "distractions". Just pure thought.

My point is that, the book is content with chasing moments of brilliance within the mind of the titular character. It does not seek, I don't know, "perfection of form", though a lot of effort is put into the transitions between scenes, but a more discovered kind of beauty, and all Woolf is asking from us is to follow her in this journey.

You will be somewhat bored out of the lack of any real development and then, boom, one of the most beautiful paragraphs you will read in literature. And it's just like life, you will be distracted by all the noise of the city and that of your own mind, and then... a moment of clarity. Not an epiphany, more of a...stop of some kind.

It's not for everyone, but I liked my attempt at it.