Three Junes | Julia Glass | As close to real life as fiction ever gets.

Three Junes | Julia Glass | Entertaining, Insightful..a Beautiful Novel

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Three Junes

	Three Junes Julia Glass Anchor, 2003 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 230 reviews view larger image
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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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As close to real life as fiction ever gets.

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.

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Entertaining, Insightful..a Beautiful Novel

I loved this book from the beginning to the end. Characters were so richly drawn, plots intriguing, and writing stellar. Recommend to anyone who wants an engrossing novel that is a pleasure to read.

Glad I picked it back up!!

So, I just finished this book tonight. When I was done, I thought it was a good book, but I also thought the last part about Fern seemed like it was just tacked onto the the story of Paul and Fenno MacLeod, father and son. Of course, I had missed the fact that Fern was the same artist from the beginning. That may have had something to do with the time machine quality of the narrative (it's five years earlier, five years later, etc.) or the fact that I listened to the book instead of reading it, which made it a little hard to keep track of things.

Anyway, the more I thought about it, the book really is about love, or the absence thereof. It seems that Paul's marriage had fallen into a loveless or at least independent pattern. After his wife's death, he found a new place for himself and found love and companionship.

For Fenno, Mal is the lover with whom he never falls in love. After his death, we learn that he does develop a more solid relationship with Tony. We also learn of the love that he feels for his children, which, for the most part, he will never really get to express.

And there's Fern who is freed from a loveless marriage by what she thinks is a freak accident. Accident or not, she eventually finds love with Stavros.

That final part does end up seeming a bit disconnected, but when viewed with this theme the three sections do seem to fit together a little better. I personally would have enjoyed a little more time with Fenno or even the next generation of MacLeods, but as someone else pointed out this structure allows us to see Fenno from his father's perspective, his own, and an outsider's with Fern's section.

Overall, it is the MacLeod's who drive this story and who are the most interesting two thirds of it. Through their stories of life and loss, we can see how love can elusive, often tragic, but also fulfilling. I also enjoyed the book's realistic portrayal of the nuances of family life.

I would definitely recommend this book. If you like audio books, this one is a great option. The Scottish burr alone makes it all worthwhile.

Enjoy!

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Good Book Club Discussion, A Bit Too Wordy At Times

Ironically, before our book club had our official meeting for this read, everyone complained about it's complexity; however, after the meeting we all agreed that Three Junes provided us a bounty of discussion. Personally, I found it to be wordy at times rendering it difficult to digest. (An English Major in college yet I felt there were times when I had to "plod" through it.) The flashback sequences were distracting at times and many of the plot line issues seemed to be unresolved...e.g. Fern's purpose seemed unclear to us; we desired more information regarding Paul and Maureen's marriage or lack thereof, etc.

I didn't really embrace any of the characters in this book. I found Fenno especially annoying and for the most part, aloof and too self-directed. However, his actions in Mal's death scene I found particularly poignant. It certainly is worth the read, but won't be for everyone.

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