To start this review, I must go back to the beginning. Woolf is one of those authors whom many adore. Her work is proclaimed excellent from mountaintops. Conversely, her work is disparaged, and she is kicked off the very same mountaintop by others, with differing opinions. While To the Lighthouse isn't necessarily polarizing by strictest definition (where either you hate it or love it), this is most certainly the type of novel that everyone will have a solid opinion on—even if that solid opinion only speaks in the most mediocre of terms.

The basis for these opinions will rest strongly upon stylistic preferences—basically, this book is all style and no plot—but, and it must be stated (because it is not only important with this book, but nearly all books), it will also depend on where you are in your own life, and what kind of person you are in the way you approach life. This is most assuredly not a book for everyone...but how do you know until you try?

I read [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479336522s/14942.jpg|841320] years ago, and when I joined Goodreads, I only remembered that I had read it and felt, well...mediocre feelings about it. I will have to give that one another go. Regardless, I was hesitant to begin this one, and I've had [b:Orlando|18839|Orlando|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443118010s/18839.jpg|6057225] languishing on my bookshelves for years, too. I just wasn't sure that stream-of-consciousness was my style. Now, whether my liking this book can attest to all books featuring this structure and narrative mode, I cannot say. I do know that I had a varied opinion on this book, but fell in love with it and am still feeling rather ethereal and floaty because of it.

When it began, it simply came off as a funny, little book...flowing and constant. The introspective nature was interesting, but perhaps not wholly engrossing for me for several chapters. Oh, the people were comical and slightly inflated. Gosh, there were so many people. Woolf writes beautifully. Wait, what? It meandered so much; I struggled to stay focused.

Then, suddenly, I hated it. I was sure this entire episode was going to turn into another book I would be loath to finish and have to push my way through, kicking and screaming. I pressed on. Where was this going? What was the point? And then...I had a revelation. Upon choosing to hate it, I had dismissed it as completely tiresome much like a television soap opera. You could seemingly drop out and drop back in a little while later without missing a beat—and this was only around the 20% mark.

As I jogged down my street, it hit me. It is like a soap opera in that way, because life is just like that. Life is slow and plodding and filled, quite simply, with thoughts. Just like that, I was free to just listen. Be an observer or participant. Connect with or struggle to understand these sometimes strange creatures with whom I am presented. Just like life. It was so freeing, such an opening to simply be.

"What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one."

Such a reflection of existence I have never before read. It seems so pure, so true, such a prismatic expression of life and the human mind. Ghostly quiet and somber in tone and temperament, but roaring and thrumming with life and life’s essence. It contains such a contentment of understanding, that the blood of memories and experiences flows in its veins. The stream-of-consciousness isn't so unstoppered that you can't keep up, and the lyrical quality, the sheer poetry of Woolf's words, are beautiful enough alone.

Now, I will have to read the words and not just listen to someone else read them.

Audiobook, the Nicole Kidman version: My husband had some book credits on Audible hanging out there, inching towards expiring, and I decided to use one up on this book, with this edition. I am so, so glad I did. Nicole Kidman's voice is velvety, rich, and quite lovely. She placed such inflection and varied her voice wonderfully considering this book contains almost no action, very little dialogue, and the plot is secondary to the stream-of-consciousness style of introspection. She doesn’t really do voices, but I don’t know that it’s necessary. She has a fantastic voice, without a doubt, and it’s lovely with this type of lyrical, poetic phrasings.