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Dec 17, 2009

Daniel rated it:

At times irony seems to have many levels; recently I saw the musical Altar Boyz and could not for the life of me figure out how multi-layered the irony was (a group of young guys poking fun at boy-band evangelization simultaneously evangelizing in a Godspell way). Dare I hope for irony in the NYT Book Review on the back cover of Three Junes? "TJ brilliantly rescues, then refurbishes, the traditional plot-driven novel..." By "plot" don't we usually mean "stuff happens in More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2011

Teri rated it:

Argh! I loved reading this book until the third "Fern" section. Her character just did not measure up to the other, even minor characters in the previous two wonderfully written sections. So why did she get her own section? I felt betrayed, as I often do, to have an intruder in MY book, because by then, Three Junes was my book and I was ready to recommend it to anyone.

Fenno is so compellingly zipped up and stuck in his head while the rest of his world lives and dies. Some More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2011

Lena rated it:

This novel begins in June of 1989. Scotsman Paul McLeod is vacationing in Greece, his first trip since the death of his wife six months earlier. While traveling the islands, his attention is drawn to a young American artist. As his interest in her grows, he reflects back over the course of his marriage - its beginnings, its never-resolved uncertainties, and its untimely ending.

Six years later, June of 1995 finds Paul's son Fenno returning to Scotland from his expat life in New Yor More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Michelle rated it:

Although different from my expectations, I enjoyed this book a lot for its character explorations, unique structure, and descriptive writing. Broken into three parts, the first section is a third-person narrative from the perspective of the Scottish father, reflecting on his wife's death and his three sons. The second part is first-person narrative in the voice of the oldest son Fenno. This section is surprising in so far as Fenno can be overly rigid, often unexplainably angry, and you desper More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kate rated it:

I'm tempted to give this book five stars, but it isn't my nature to gush and I think, based on her characterizations, that Julia Glass would understand my reticence to love without any reservations. But _Three Junes_ captured me and I hereby recommend it to you. When I finished this novel, a long journey of imaginary characters across hundreds of pages, I felt at once connected to the world and affirmed in my humanity. Life is imperfect and we love anyway. As best we can.

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2009

Katie rated it:

I picked this book up at the library because I thought I recognized the title. It turned out to be pretty different from what I thought it was going to be, but a very interesting read about the ways love plays out among family and friends. It honestly portrays love as very complicated, making clear that those we love are often people we may not like at certain times. Also interesting and unusual for me to read, was one of the main story lines followed the life of a homosexual man. I'm not su More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2007

Trish rated it:

This book is not at ALL, what I expected. From the cover I was expecting another typical book club, chick-light book about three women named June...little did I know. I loved this book because it was complex and seemed very "real" life. Nothing was nice and tidy and that's my kind of world.

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Floramanda rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2011

Cara rated it:

Julia Glass is a superb writer, and my mind sank into her luxurious words the way my body might sink into a thick quilt or warm beach sand. I enjoy stories in which characters' lives interconnect in ways that the characters themselves can't see, and stories that show us how often we think we know someone well when we really don't. I was particularly drawn to the main story of Fenno, the intellectual, emotionally disconnected, ever-yearning gay man who takes us deep into a life that smashes stere More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2008

Neil added it

This is an odd book. The first and third of the three sections are anchored by a woman named Fern who is a catalyst for critical transitions for different members of a Scottish family who she meets many years apart, in Greece (the early section) and the Hamptons (in the later section). She has no awareness that the people she is meeting are related to each other.

The family themselves are the subject of the long middle section, which is a first-person account by the gay (favorite) so More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

Vicki rated it:

There are a lot of beautiful things about this book, but to be honest, it gets weighed down by the whiny primary character, Fenno, who has the longest section all to himself. He's angry, and we have no idea why. Very angry, and very self-righteous, and we have absolutely no idea. Yes, he's gay. One parent is okay with it, one parent isn't really, but doesn't get in Fenno's face about it. Fenno has exiled himself to NYC, and amidst countless witty observations about the differences between b More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2008

megan rated it:

I really enjoyed this book--it was both an easy read but also full of substance that resonated well with me. I think it was especially interseting reading this book in the context that I read Julia Glass' second book The Whole World Over beforehand and also really enjoyed it--but some of the characters make cross over appearances.

One of the most enchanting aspects of the book was what the author did not write. She never really delves into long diatribes of "who loves who, who More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2007

Brenda rated it:

I really enjoyed this book quite a bit. The story was intersting and sad. The main character of the majority of the book, Fenno, is set up to be this snarfy guy after you read the first part from his father's perspective. But you still feel for him.

I took two big things away from this book. First, the relationship that Fenno has with his mother. He refuses to see her flaws and blames his father for a lot of her woes (and therefore his as well). And he doesn't see the ways she m More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Emily rated it:

Sometimes extraordinary books are about extraordinary things, and sometimes they are about regular people. This is an extraordinary book about one Scottish family, a normal family, if, of course, there is actually any such thing as normal, and assuming normal includes a little bit of human mystery and tragedy.
Three Junes starts with the death of the mother of the family, and explores the stories of her husband, her three sons, (two married in Britain, one in New York during the AIDs crisi More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2009

Wendy added it

one of the very few books i picked up and put down never to read. maybe i will give it another try but it was so slow at the beginning i always fell asleep.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Deborah added it

I thought the book was about three ladies named June. Not so, three events in June. So far so good, it is holding my interest. The first section of the book was about border collies. Strange I just adopted a rescue border collie.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2009

Masanaka rated it:

While reading this story, I often thought of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where three weddings take place --- Theseus/Hippolyta’s, Oberon/Titania’s and the two pairs of young lovers’. Trying to find matches from both of the stories might fail, but Tony should be Nick Bottom, Stvros one of the young lovers. BTAIM, I got into this because of the second part where Feno narrates from the first-person point of view. I felt empathy for him though I’m not sexually attracted by people of the same sex. In More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Expo77 rated it:

Here you can watch our book trailer for Three Junes. This was the first book by Julia Glass and published in 2002. It won the National Book Award in 2002. Katherine Wolff for the New York Times writes, "Three Junes brilliantly rescues, then refurbishes, the traditional plot-driven novel". Julia Glass was born in Boston in 1956 and her other novels are The Whole World Over, I See You Everywhere and The Widower's Tale
Expo77: where books move!

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Dec 26, 2011

Bowerbird rated it:

In a way this is three interconnected books in one. Each "June" story revolves in some way round a death in the family. Because Julia Glass uses a different person's viewpoint to develop each section, one is given more understanding of the various characters. But it is Fenno, the one portrayed as the outsider who is central to the book.
The story begins with Paul the father, who first features as the main character. In June 1989 the family in Scotland copes with the death of the More...

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Sep 13, 2011

Tony rated it:

Glass, Julia. THREE JUNES. (2002). ***.
This trilogy of novellas that make up this long book won the National Book Award for fiction in 2002. In my opinion, it must have been a slow year in the fiction department. The three tales ultimately interweave, but getting there for the reader is not an easy task. The stories deal with love in all its varied aspects: love between husband and wife, between loveers – both gay and straight, between people and animals. Each of the episodes take More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

Bdalton rated it:

Three Junes is both a love story and a tale about what people withhold from one another. Love is explored from many angles. It is the story of a man Paul, who has loved and cared for his now deceased wife during her cancer treatments even though she has been unfaithful and likely loved her collies more than him or their sons. It is the story of their oldest son, Fenno, who loves a man who is doomed to die of AIDs. It is the story of Fern, a perfect woman, who struggles to find a good mate th More...

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Jun 20, 2011

David rated it:

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 se More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 07, 2011

Emma rated it:

Julia Glass wrote the book Three Junes for mature adults, to show complications in life. This book was written in third and first person, alternating characters in a series of three books. The protagonist in the first book, titled Collies and takes place in 1989 in Greece and Scotland, is Paul McLeod but there is no true antagonist. The protagonist in the second book, titled Upright and takes place in 1995 in America and Scotland, is Paul’s son, Fenno. The antagonist would be the disease AIDS More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 16, 2011

emi rated it:

I loved reading Three Junes by Julia Glass even though I could never be entirely sure what the basis of the book was, I was intrigued throughout. The book is divided in three parts: Collies 1989 is about Scottish upper class Paul and how he met and wed his not-upper class wife Maureen, about her ultimate success as a dog breeder, how the couple had three sons and then drifted apart (due to his aloofness) prior to her death (due to cancer), and also Paul's subsequent travels in Greece; part two More...

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Mar 03, 2011

Cheryl added it

People either loved it or hated it. The ones who loved it cited beautiful writing, interesting characters, and an honest look at the complexities of love and family life. Those who hated it found it draggingly dull, as well as disjointed. Despite one of the blurbs on the cover calling it "plot-driven" things just seem to go on and on without point or pattern. What does Maureen and her dogs have to do with Fern and her unborn baby? And what about all these French in-laws who chatter in More...

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Dec 30, 2010

tina added it

i'm trying to think about thoughtful things to say about this book, but nothing is coming. the writing was impressive, if not slightly verbose at times when recounted from the perspective of Fenno. but there's something very inauthentic about the whole book. maybe i'm projecting my very recent inclination towards memoirs here. although the genre is fiction, i found myself asking whether a straight woman from NY was really capturing the Scots accurately. not too sure. in addition, at the risk of More...

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Jul 31, 2010

Harmonybites rated it:

This is more three related stories--a short novel flanked by two novellas--than an integrated novel. They're united by being set in three June months and one character appears in all three stories--Fenno Macleod. He's a supporting player in the bookend third-person stories and the first person narrator in the central section.

I loved all three stories but for some reason this book misses being a favorite--maybe because I wished the three stories were closer entwined rather than feeli More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 24, 2010

Christina rated it:

It's so appropriate that this book covers "three Junes" because it captures all the sunshine and vivacity of that month. Even though several characters die and two sections revolve around funerals, the book is so firmly and wholeheartedly about life--the very essence of June, with all its growth and buzzing.

There are three sections of the book, which covers the lives of a Scottish family over two generations. The first is written from the perspective of a middle-aged man na More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 21, 2009

Lori rated it:

Julia Glass has written a luminous novel about family ties those we are born with and those we acquire through life. The novel is divided into three sections that each include the McLeod family memebers. In the first and most interesting section we meet Paul McLeod who is recovering from his wife Maureen's death on a trip to Greece in June . Paul's reminiscence of Maureen is poignant as he describes their meeting and early years of marriage together. The reader is treated to beautifully written More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2009

Sharyl rated it:

Three Junes, by Julia Glass, has been hanging around on my bookshelves for quite some time. Yes, that's shelves, plural, since it's been around for at least two rearrangements. Glass won the 2002 National Book Award for this novel, and surprise-surprise, I loved it. The Junes in the title refer to three different months, different times in the life of the McCleod family, but it's not exactly chronological--there are many flashbacks woven throughout the book, which is perfectly paced. The father More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

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