This week's #ReadWomen2014 author recommendation is going old school. Virginia Woolf is the O.G. advocate of women in literature-- she read plenty of women authors and was a notable appreciator of George Eliot before it was cool; she delivered a lecture on why there aren't more women writers historically, which was subsequently turned into the excellent little volume known as A Room of One's Own; perhaps most importantly, she was a critically-acclaimed novelist herself, which only served to legitimate her opinions even further.
I realize all of this sounds like I'm a huge Virginia Woolf fan, but that isn't actually the case. I struggled with Mrs. Dalloway multiple times before I was finally able to finish it, and even then I was mostly just happy to have it over with. I struggled again with A Room of One's Own, which luckily is very short. I guess it's worth mentioning at this point that I will struggle with and suffer through literature if it's sufficiently canonical, especially if every indication tells me that it is something I in particular should enjoy. Even if I hate it, my assumption is always that those who sing its praises must know more than I do. As I get older, I'm sure I'll start to relax this policy, but in the case of Virginia Woolf, it was an excellent guiding principle, because I do not regret the pain she put me through.
My breakthrough moment was with To the Lighthouse, which is interesting because it's arguably her most difficult book-- the narrative structure is very modern, and all the action revolves around a family deciding to go visit a lighthouse while at their summer cottage. The prose style is stream-of-consciousness, and from the perspective of several different characters. I would liken it to Faulkner but with significantly less sex and racism. I did not like it immediately, but it slowly wore me down until I finally realized why Virginia Woolf is so canonical and influential. Plus, I wanted to love her because of the movie The Hours, so I guess I have Michael Cunningham to thank for my perseverance. Tilda Swinton stars in the film adaptation of Orlando, so that's another Virginia Woolf novel I will be reading because of a movie.