Virginia Woolf is one of those authors whose works I’ve wanted to read for the longest time, but for some reason, I have never managed to. Woolf's reputation precedes her: we all know that she had nervous breakdowns, attempted suicide once, and eventually succeeded (don’t we all know that?). So when our book club chose To The Lighthouse as the book for the month of May under the theme modernist literature, I was beyond thrilled.
To The Lighthouse follows the story of the Ramsays, a family of ten vacationing in their home, Isle of Skye, overlooking the water and the Lighthouse beyond. It is also the story of young artist Lily Briscoe, the Ramsays’ guest; Charles Tansley, Mr. Ramsay’s protégé, and; William Bankes, a family friend. Their stories are intertwined and framed in a novel divided into three parts, with the first part covering the duration of an afternoon, the second one spanning ten years, and the last one transpiring – again – in a single afternoon.
To The Lighthouse is written in the stream of consciousness narrative style which, I must admit, was difficult to get into. At least in the beginning. I had trouble holding on to an initial thought as subsequent ideas meandered and threatened to shake me out of focus. There were entire paragraphs which I read through without understanding a word, and so I had to read it again, a second or third time, slowly, before finally comprehending.
