A review by davidjames
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

fifty per cent of this is maybe the most ecstatically brilliant writing i've ever read. it took me way longer than really necessary to finish it because every page had a sentence or two that would make me put the book down and go PHWOAR like gregg wallace experiencing some laaaahvly flayvah on masterchef. the other fifty per cent is possibly also just as good but just needs another read through or two to click into place, and possibly just her getting a bit carried away. the drawback i found with woolf's writing is when it doesn't work it's pretty obnoxious to read; she does these massive fuckoff sentences; all stuffed with bizarrely placed semicolons; they go on for pages; and pages; and pages; like that one about the woman outside the tube station who seemed like some kind of primordial god or something; ma'am; what; the hell; are you on about;. 

but then as i say she has a pretty amazing hit rate, it really is something like half of all those massive sentences which make just about complete sense and are totally vivid and make you feel so glad to be alive in a way i've never got from any other piece of writing. so who's to say if it's good or not. me. i would say overall it's very good