by Julia Glass
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Product Description
An astonishing first novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises.
In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage. . ..Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion. Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses. . .. Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father. Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her. In prose rich with compassion and wit, Three Junes paints a haunting portrait of love’s redemptive powers.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 As close to real life as fiction ever gets., 2008-06-22
Julia Glass' "Three Junes" is less a novel than a set of three loosely connected novellas telling the story of the McLeod family--newspaper publisher Paul; his wife, Maureen, breeder of champion border collies; and their sons--bookstore owner Fenno, veterinarian David, and chef Dennis. You could call it a family saga, except that Glass sternly resists all temptations to give in to the overworked conventions of that genre.
As the title indicates, the novellas tell the stories of various McLeod family members on three separate Junes: 1989, in Greece; 1995, in New York and at the family home in Scotland; and 1999; at the Long Island seashore. All three stories deal strongly with bereavement--dealing not only with the grief of loss, but also with the complicated situations the dead have left behind. Characters outside the family recur from story to story, but not in any Dickensian or O. Henry sort of way--indeed, the characters don't always even realize the connections. Glass is a master of descriptive prose, always finding the right detail to bring a scene to life. She's also a master at creating character, her brainchildren complicated and believably contradictory, never reducible to a few traits. I'm still not certain what I think of most of the characters--which, I believe, is why so many reviewers on this Web site have reacted so strongly against the book. "Three Junes" never tells us what to think of the characters, and never envelops us in the their cuddliness--indeed, they're more often prickly than cuddly. But they're never less than three-dimensional, and in the end they are sympathetic. They're not fantasy people, but more like your next-door neighbors and your colleagues at work. (Two of the most charming characters are Rodgie the border collie and Felicity the parrot--both fully as realized as any of the human characters.)
If you're looking for a story that ties everything up in neat little bows in the end, avoid "Three Junes." But if you want a book as messy, vivid and believable as real life, this is the book for you.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Close to Home, 2008-06-13
Our book club chose this book on a whim, and I could not have been more pleased with the results. The characters are beautifully crafted, and I am not sure I have ever cared for fictional people more. Having to read this in the weeks following the death of a love one, this book helped in the healing process to no end, as you one easily identify with the family and realise that you are not alone in hurt. The intricate details make the family feel so real and you begin to feel you are one of them.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Simply a Work of Art, 2008-03-23
I had the rather strange experience of reading this book AFTER Glass's newest offering ("The Whole World Over"), and so was delighted to see some characters, notably the ultra complicated tortured soul Fenno, again.
Because I knew that Fenno, who is the epitome of a dour Scotsman in Three Junes, had mellowed, I had more patience with him than maybe I would have had. I never really liked him in this book, but was that the point? This brilliant collection of interwoven vignettes had me spellbound throughout. I loved the tapesty of the written word. I loved the visual pictures the words evoked. I loved moving from Greece to Scotland to New York and back again through different sets of time.
In short, I loved everything about this book, and I am so glad I discovered Julia Glass, to to me, if a quintessential writer.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
oh how i love this book..., 2008-02-27
I found it impossible to put this novel down (and dreaded its looming conclusion). The writing is so beautiful, the characters are completely unique but real. A novel hasn't made me cry in a long time, but this one did... It petered out a bit in the final chapter, but the overall experience far outweighed the conclusion. In all, a fantastic read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Proud pilot of an improvised life, 2008-02-23
The equation of a true artist, per Glass, is as a "proud pilot of an improvised life." (Page 277) Glass can really write: that is, her style is elegantly crafted and a joy to read. She reminds me a bit of Michael Cunningham with her rich syntax and sonorus, articulate style as well as her themes and the descriptions of characters and places. I picked up this novel because it won a National Book Award and my wife adored it. I like the way that Glass moves effortlessly among disparate settings to transport the reader from Greece to NYC and the English countryside. At the close of the novel I admit that I was somewhat annoyed that Glass was still introducing long expositions of characters. But I really felt that characters like Fenno, Tony, Mal and Fern were roundly and compassionately drawn figures. The story line takes unexpected and for the most part rewarding turns: Mal's illness was very Michael Cunningham and has emerged as a contemporary theme that we've had a great many literary opportunities to dwell upon. I'm not sure when this thematic focus of the plague will simply cease to be considered original or engaging among contemporary novels but, personally, I'm already there. What makes this novel interesting is what Fenno does both for Mal and Fern as their friends in light of their situations. Tony is an intriguing antagonist to Fenno's protagonist and becomes key in the plot's denouement. I consider Three Junes a very good but not great literary novel. The straight-ahead, traditional, narrative style makes for quick reading and Glass, by her own definition, artistically pilots the reader adeptly through her intelligently improvised world.
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