The Waves is definitely a difficult book to digest as usual for it is written by Virginia Woolf. In relation to the other two books, To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, that I have read by VW, the overall tone of The Waves is the most gloomy, grey, heavy, and sad.
There are many layers in this book. The overall storyline of the six characters recounting their life (VW had not written in a direct way as most story does, but it was written as if the readers are reading the brain activities – the consciousness – of each character) in different time period: preschool, university, young adult, adult and maturity. The six characters can also be interpreted as one character as their discourses overlap and intertwine. VW had also given some hints here and there that they are in fact, one character. Well, to read VW is never about the story. It is about the beauty, the aesthetic aspect of her writing, and her struggle to reflect reality in languages.