'To The Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf

 To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (4.0)

I found this book very sad. Having recently read about Ms. Woolf via her association with Keynes and the Bloomsbury group, I wanted to experience her unique writing and discover what all the fuss was about. Her writing reminded me of Jane Austen’s (a slice of life concerning ‘gentry’ where nothing really happens) with a lot more focus on the inner thoughts of her characters. To that end, the Ramsay family and their summer guests could have been from the Midwest of the US – never really saying what they mean and usually very polite. This slim book is really three sections. The first has the family and guests at their summer home on an island off the coast of Scotland. The activity is really just the interaction of the people with the thought of visiting the neighboring lighthouse driving their feelings. The middle section is a twisting allegory of time passing, though not linear, introducing major changes to the family. And the last bookends the first with at long last a trip to the lighthouse. Since this book is known to be autobiographical and we know Ms. Woolf suffered from depression or bi-polar disorder, it’s not surprising that the inner thoughts of the characters are often conflicted and quite negative. I was saddened the extent the family would go to indirectly hurt one another – it all felt quite dishonest. I admire the writing, and the book moved me, but I can’t say I enjoyed reading it.