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Three Junes

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 22,818 ratings · 1,561 reviews

In this captivating debut novel, Julia Glass depicts the life and loves of the McLeod family during three crucial summers spanning a decade. Paul McLeod, patriarch of a Scottish family and a retired newspaper editor and proprietor, is on a package tour of Greece after the death of his wife. The story of his departure from the family home in Scotland and late gesture toward...more

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Published October 2nd 2003 by Arrow (first published September 3rd 2002)

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Sep 01, 2007 Daniel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: women who like to be depressed

Shelves: fiction

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 a somewhat connected way?...more 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 a somewhat connected way?" Would a family's eating, walking dogs and dying count as stuff happening? So far as I can tell, virtually nothing happens in this book, except that a few of the characters pass away. I repeatedly thought to myself: this book is plotlessly pointless (or is it pointlessly plotless?). I kept reading because the writing was decent line-by-line and a dear (female) friend lent it to me with an endorsement. It is not a book for boys who like action.
The novel is also referred to as a "literary triptych" because, I suppose, it has three parts: Part I is third-person narration focalized on Paul, the paterfamilias; Part II is first-person narration by Fenno, the gay son in New York; Part III is third-person again focalized on Fern, the ex-lover of Fenno's ex-lover. As this description indicates, the connections among the sections are tenuous. It is, of course, a not so new attempt at giving three different perspectives of the same thing, but here "thing" is not an event but characters. If you are interested in characterization as creative-writing exercise, then you might find this book fascinating. Here is a sample of what I mean: "With Heather, Fern is the closest and also the most contentious. For their entire childhood, they shared a room. Heather was the athlete: swam, played field hockey, fenced. At schoolwork, she was comfortably mediocre." It reads like a class exercise, especially considering Heather is never mentioned again.
Another complaint I have touches not just on this book but on virtually all modern American fiction. I understand that some of us have yet to get the God-is-dead memo and we're out of step, but must books really be written with such stiflingly limited horizons? These people are all so absurdly earth-bound, with the possible exception of a rather flat character named Lucinda who is a Catholic activist and admittedly sympathetically portrayed. I am reminded of another book popular with the ladies that I recently suffered through for a friend: The Time Traveller's Wife. (Notice to males: do *not* let your girlfriend/mother/sister make you read this pointless book.) Everything about it is so small; the characters have nothing significant to think about but themselves. Even a great book from the eighties like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay manages to avoid being big somehow. And by "big" I don't necessarily mean religious; The Great Gatsby, for instance, at least deals with over-sized dreams and the American experience while being essentially a boy-meets-girl book. Why must all the novels written today be essentially about nothing? Is there no one wondering about anything bigger than family psychology?
The woman who wrote this book is smart and literary, and, because books are in part a kind of pseudo-conversation with the author, it can be worth your time. For me, the whole thing would almost be saved by the fact that Mother McLeod raises border collies, the best dogs alive. Sadly, she's dead on page one.(less)

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Nov 18, 2011 Lena rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

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 York for his fathe...more 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 York for his father's funeral. His attempts to cope with the inevitable challenges raised by spending time with family members during a crisis is flavored by his own recollections of a past relationship with a New York neighbor who slowly succumbed to AIDS.

The last June in this novel occurs ten years after the first. Fern, the young American artist from the first section, is now pregnant. Though her boyfriend has been a steady one, she struggles to tell him about the pregnancy, reflecting back on her failed first marriage as she does.

Julia Glass is a competent storyteller; her smooth prose and skill at involving the reader in the lives of her characters engaged me from the beginning. In the middle section, however, I found myself struggling with the chopped up narrative, unable to keep track of where in time Fenno's mind was resting as he jumped between his present and his past. In addition, though he is the character Glass spends the most time on, I found Fenno the most inscrutable of all of them.

Given the intensity surrounding the decline of a human life due to AIDS, I guess it's not surprising that the middle section of this book was heavy at times. The tone is far from maudlin, but there is a lot of death for its characters to process, so it's not exactly light reading.

Ultimately, I admired the way Glass wove together her stories and showed us how each of these characters was impacted by death in their own way. But this is one of those books where I enjoyed contemplating its insights after I had finished it more than I enjoyed actually reading it.(less)

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May 27, 2008 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Michelle by: Martha

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 desperate...more

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Aug 18, 2007 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: human beings

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.

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Mar 12, 2009 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 sure w...more

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Nov 07, 2007 Trish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

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Dec 29, 2008 Floramanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. One of the things that I love about being in a book club is that it pushes me out of my reading comfort-zone. I have read so many things that I normally would not have picked up on my own. Sometimes I'm disappointed, but still look forward to the conversation. Sometimes I find a jewel that has a gift for me that relates to where I am at that moment in time. Three Junes was, surprisingly, a gift.

I've read some interviews with Julia Glass where she discusses the book being about love and loss, and...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is one of those stories that I suspect will stay with me, but this time it's partly because of so many unanswered questions and in a sense longings I had for the characters that never quite panned out. But perhaps that's the point. Three Junes is told from three different points of view in different time periods - with lots of flashbacks from the characters' memories. The three point-of-view characters are an older, recently-widowed man, Paul McLeod, his oldest son Fenno, who is gay, and a...more This is one of those stories that I suspect will stay with me, but this time it's partly because of so many unanswered questions and in a sense longings I had for the characters that never quite panned out. But perhaps that's the point. Three Junes is told from three different points of view in different time periods - with lots of flashbacks from the characters' memories. The three point-of-view characters are an older, recently-widowed man, Paul McLeod, his oldest son Fenno, who is gay, and a young woman named Fern who in a sense ties the whole series of stories and memories together. My favorite of these three characters was Fenno, my least favorite Fern, but perhaps because I saw some of my own weaknesses in her, a tendency to let others' influences provide her too easy excuses for not doing what she loves and wants to do. A sense that she does what she considers to be inevitable instead of what she wants. The others do this too, but she being the female was perhaps easier for me to identify with and find fault with as well. But don't we all do this to some degree? We let life and others lead us around, but there's that saying, "Go with the flow," and maybe it's not always such a bad thing to do. It's just that as a creative person I don't like to see anyone's creativity suffer for it.

One of my favorite characters is a red, blue, and violet Eclectus Parrot named Felicity, who sings scales whenever it rains. The bird belongs to Fenno's friend Malachy, but Mal persuades Fenno to take care of her, in fact adopt her, and she is a somewhat important part of Fenno's story as the practical stepping stone to Fenno's relationship to Mal. She doesn't steal the story, but she could if she wanted to.

I'm rambling though. Maybe that's because I don't want to say too much about the story, for once I get started it would be too easy to include spoilers - though this is anything but a plot driven book. This is more the slow, psychological kind of story that I enjoy but anyone who needs action and excitement will detest. The book begins in June of 1989 with Paul's trip to Greece, which is where he meets Fern. The settings move between Greece, Scotland (where Paul grew up, raised his family, and runs a newspaper), and Greenwich Village, where Fenno has made his home. Fern is a young American woman, much younger than the elder McLeod, and is more of a fantasy for him, when he meets her on a trip to Greece shortly after his wife's death. In their brief friendship he regains a glimpse of youth, life, hope, and anticipation of the future that helps him return to life and gives his marriage and his new life alone some perspective. (I was relieved there was no clichéd affair to spoil this for me.) Fern unwittingly helps Paul come to better terms with his son being gay, through the simple gift of a painting.

The two other Junes, in 1995 and 1999, bring the characters around in a kind of spiral, ending with Fern's portion of the story, and a visit to Long Island. Again I don't want to spoil it for anyone. There is a lot of heartache and longing between these pages, and I found a surprising number of passages I wanted to savor and even quote.

One thing I noticed about myself as a reader, while digesting this novel, was how I visualize some characters as actors that I know of, and following on that I was struck with the idea that one of the characters, Mal, might have even been visualized by the author as Johnny Depp. I could swear I heard his voice in the dialog.

My biggest quibble with this book is not that it ended, but that it ended too abruptly, though now that I've had a few hours to digest that, I realize I can tie the ends together as I wish, in my mind, or let them be. Perhaps the lack of conclusion is a gift.(less)

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Jul 17, 2011 Cara Lopez Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 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 stereotypes.

Fenno is a perfectionist first-born son who believes that his two younger brothers, twins, are always judging him - for being gay, for being stodgy, for deserting his family to move to New York - yet who fails to recognize that he is constantly judging them. In his love life, Fenno is even more tragically in denial, pining for a lover who refuses to be pinned down while failing to realize that the love of his life is right before his eyes. How can he admit to loving a somewhat pretentious intellectual, when it might require him to admit the man is a mirror for his own flaws? Yet he does lovingly tend to his true love's needs throughout a battle with AIDS - so it seems his denial is also self-protection from guaranteed grief. The question is, can he learn to accept the loving heart within him that he has long denied and begin embracing life with all its uncertainties?

Glass tells two other stories in the book: one from the point of view of Fenno's father, as the man travels Greece after the death of his wife and tries to come to terms with the ambivalence of that marriage, the other from the point of view of a young woman whom the father meets in Greece. These characters, too, must decide whether they can let go of the pain of the past to embrace life and love before it's too late. I didn't feel as emotionally compelled by the two secondary stories, except where they intersected with Fenno's. There was a formality in the language applied to the thoughts and dialogue of the characters that made it tough to get close to them at times. However, in Fenno's case that style fit his character, and certainly the rich descriptions made his life feel quite real. I loved the detailed description of his relationship with his macaw, a stand-in for the love he had trouble sharing with humans. Overall, Glass has pulled off a lovely piece of art, that offers much to consider about the human condition. (less)

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Jul 21, 2008 Neil Litt added it · review of another edition

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) son of the man...more

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Dec 27, 2007 Vicki rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 boiste...more

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Jan 10, 2008 megan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

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 has scorned who, a...more

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Dec 16, 2007 Brenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: others...various others.

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 might have made his...more

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Jun 05, 2007 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 crisis of t...more

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Mar 12, 2009 Wendy added it · review of another edition

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.

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Jan 26, 2009 Masanaka Takashima rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jan 02, 2013 Joanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fenno McLeoud shines as the hero of this novel, with his self-aware narration binding together the less personal, third person narratives in parts I and III. The prose was poetic, chock full of unexpected descriptions that add a zesty splash of color to otherwise ordinary objects and situations. Some imagery, the blood-red parrot, the blooming gardens and wildlife tucked away in Lower Manhattan, even the whimsical Old World bookstore, engage us - no, engulf us - with a full sensory experience th...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked Paul very much, but wasn’t really drawn into his story. There wasn’t enough going on for me. I loved the middle section told from Fenno’s perspective. He wasn’t the most likeable character ever, but I thought the storyline was great. The third section completely lost me. I didn’t get it. Fern was not nearly compelling enough for her own section. I know it brought everything full circle, but it wasn’t enough for me.

The book was a mixed bag. I liked the writing and the family drama. I like...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Aliza rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most jarring of this tale is the shift from narrator to narrator. First, Paul, the Scottish patriarch of the McLeod clan, touring Greece after his wife's death tells us part of the story. We see him struggle with issues of loss, legacy and coping with the new lease in life he has been given.

Then his eldest son, Fenno, becomes the narrator. Fenno believes himself the black sheep for living far from home in NYC and never being straight about being gay with his knowing family. Struggling with h...more The most jarring of this tale is the shift from narrator to narrator. First, Paul, the Scottish patriarch of the McLeod clan, touring Greece after his wife's death tells us part of the story. We see him struggle with issues of loss, legacy and coping with the new lease in life he has been given.

Then his eldest son, Fenno, becomes the narrator. Fenno believes himself the black sheep for living far from home in NYC and never being straight about being gay with his knowing family. Struggling with his gay identity in the midst of the beginning of the 1980s AIDS epidemic claiming the lives of his friends, he secretly wonders---as his father worries the same for hhim---if he will be next though he is too scared to be tested.

Paul may be the introduction but Fenno claims the bulk and the heart of the book as he deals with identity, family and the loss of people who are important to him, including Mal who he befriends just as Mal becomes to succumb to AIDS as his lover has before him.

And then, we seem to come full circle as Fern becomes the narrator. Fenno and Fern are connected through Tony, an elusive, secretive ex-lover who collects former lovers as friends. When we meet Fern again, she is a young widow who now finds herself pregnant by her boyfriend. Again, because Fern is more intricately intertwined with the Scottish McLeods than she or anyone else realizes. We first meet her at the beginning of the story as a young 20-something American who meets Paul, the first narrator, in Greece on his tour and while something about her draws him to her despite "being old enough to be her father" and widowed for only 6 months, Fern crushes on the heartbreaker tour guide and is crushed by him. (It's a small world after all?)

The way the three narrators split the story into three acts could be utterly jarring and disappointing until the reader realizes that Fern's "outsider perspective" allows us to see the McLeods and those who love them in a different light than they have, perhaps, presented themselves. Her instant connection to Fenno allows us to see him as others do but also provides intimacy that gives us closure though I found myself missing Fenno carrying th narrative.

Though, Fern seems an odd choice for a narrator as a non-family member and her entrance is unexpected, I would have loved to see the payoff of what is a foregone conclusion to her tale. Still, the book leaves you wanting more of, if not more from these characters, who have been laid so bare for us in such a way that they feel like old friends and family.(less)

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May 19, 2012 Greg Bascom rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

THREE JUNES is a three part literary work about events involving the McLeod family that occurred in June 1989, June 1995 and June 1999.

In June 1989, Paul McLeod, the protagonist, is vacationing in the Greek Isles with a small tour group. The narrative switches between Paul's sedate interactions with his tour companions and the back story of his life in Scotland with his recently deceased wife and their three sons.

In part two, the McLeod clan is gathered at the family home in Scotland for Paul's...more

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May 11, 2012 Little rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Julia Glass likes to make parenthetical comments. A lot of them. That's kind of a nice change of pace. Julia Glass does not like to spell things out for you. You need to make sense of things from context, rather than waiting for her to hit you over the head with a hammer and say outright, "This character is GAY" or "This proves he was LYING." That's kind of a nice change of pace, too.
Three Junes is funny. It's also charming, and has something of substance to say. I will transcribe for you a few...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Bill added it · review of another edition

Arbitrarily inserted at the beginning: the end of the first section of this book was the most melancholy thing I've read in years. I loved it, but you might want to know: that kind of thing is in this.

A book club I'm in is on a streak of reading pulitzer and national book award winners. This is the one we read this month, and I dug it quite a bit.

The book is essentially a triptych as far as I'm concerned - one section at the beginning about a Scottish father, one section at the end about a moth...more Arbitrarily inserted at the beginning: the end of the first section of this book was the most melancholy thing I've read in years. I loved it, but you might want to know: that kind of thing is in this.

A book club I'm in is on a streak of reading pulitzer and national book award winners. This is the one we read this month, and I dug it quite a bit.

The book is essentially a triptych as far as I'm concerned - one section at the beginning about a Scottish father, one section at the end about a mother in the States, and a long section in the middle about a perplexed gay Scottish expatriate living in New York. I'd say the major theme is on the ties of responsibility versus the truth of freedom, and the different pains these two extremes can inflict. These responsibilities and pains flower over the long term, so this is a book about human relationships from fifty feet in the air; love, marriage, birth, and death, etc.

It's not a stretched out kind of narrative, though. Time is traversed through flashbacks. Each of the three sections alternates between a "present" time (which is different according to the section) and a past time revolving around the death of some lover. Spoilers, but the dead lover is in every case a psychic burden, and in every case reveals a perverse strength in their live foil. The past alternations review the background, and in the present each character is processing who they are and moving beyond that old reality defined by the loved one.

I read briefly another review here that referred to the NYT review saying that this book "refurbishes the traditional plot driven novel". Well, now I've read that review and am aghast that I am not alone in saying "triptych, triptych, triptych". This is not a plot driven novel, though. This is a character driven novel. There are elements that move along, but the pleasure of the novel lies in watching the characters unfold and grow, and in seeing the themes unwind and intertwine.

You won't like this book if you don't like the idea of three different stories knit together. You might like it if you like books that I like.

I did feel like every now and then I was getting bonked on the head with "Look, if you haven't figured it out yet, this is what this means." I found it handy. I am dim.

Anyway, that's the end of this review, which is probably a little too effusive. I've added something at the beginning of the review now. Oh, this is awful.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When a book comes highly recommended, I am not one to turn away from it. I know what it feels like to push a certain book with all my heart and soul, hoping people will believe me when I say "This book is simply sensational." This was just such a book, recommended by a dear friend, so I couldn't say no.

I'll start off by saying that Three Junes is no easy read. The writing style is not complicated — it's actually rather simple. But like many books that cover numerous characters and span many, man...more When a book comes highly recommended, I am not one to turn away from it. I know what it feels like to push a certain book with all my heart and soul, hoping people will believe me when I say "This book is simply sensational." This was just such a book, recommended by a dear friend, so I couldn't say no.

I'll start off by saying that Three Junes is no easy read. The writing style is not complicated — it's actually rather simple. But like many books that cover numerous characters and span many, many years, it can seem a little too detailed, covering more than enough of the person's life, until you all of a sudden have to ask, "OK, so... what's the point of this? Where is this story going?"

The book tells three separate stories, centering around (can you guess?) three different months of June for three specific characters. The years covered, however, are numerous, with each story going back and forth through different periods of each character's life. The first subject is Paul McLeod, an older Scotsman who is vacationing in Greece following his wife's death. He tells us about his life, his wife and the collies she bred, their sons, along with his search for 'something' on this tour of Greece. The second character (providing the meat of the book and the bulk of the story) is Fenno McLeod, Paul's oldest son. Paul recounts his life in New York City, life as a gay man in the 80's, along with a trip to Scotland for his father's funeral. The final story is the only one told in the third person, centering on Fern — a girl who met Paul during his trip to Greece and who is visiting a friend, Tony, outside New York City.

Yes, it sounds complicated. No, it isn't as complicated to read as it is to describe.

The characters are all connected, their stories overlap, but that is merely a fact of the story, not any sort of plot point. Essentially, their connections make no major difference to their own tales. Fenno's story is the fullest, the most detailed, and covers the most events. It is difficult to figure out just why Glass decided it was necessary to have the two bookends. They were interesting, and I enjoyed them very much (particularly Fern's story, and her own relationships), but Fenno's story could very much have stood on its own.

Even though a lot happens in the book, it becomes clear (not soon enough) that it is about relationships and life decisions and family, more so than any particular events or catastrophes. The best thing about the book is the character development, the unique and beautifully detailed lives of each and every character (and there are many — not just our main three). Among these are Fenno's twin brothers, David and Dennis, who are as individual and interesting as could be for minor characters. (Dennis, without a doubt, was my very favorite.) Also, there is Mal — Fenno's close friend who is slowly dying of AIDS. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the way their friendship never becomes romantic, and the bonds that can develop in a relationship that doesn't enter into the realm of sex.

I understand what my friend loved about this book; I enjoyed the same aspects. But I can't say I would highly recommend it. It didn't capture me the way I felt it should have, and there were far too many moments that seemed to repeat itself. Fenno's story (and only Fenno's story) would make a fantastic film, condensing all the many, many details into something a little more streamlined.

Not a total strikeout, but not quite a standout. Just eh.(less)

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Jan 19, 2012 Ardin Lalui rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 mother figure. As...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

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 place during...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Bdalton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 throug...more

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Jun 20, 2011 David Lentz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Emma Spadoni rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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. T...more

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May 16, 2011 emi Bevacqua rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to emi by: Thank you, Emily Burg!

Shelves: fiction, euro

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 i...more

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About Julia Glass

Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes , which won the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction, and The Whole World Over . She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her short fiction has won several prizes, including the Tobias Wolff Award and the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Medal...more

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Quotes from Three Junes

“Mind who you love. For that matter, mind how you are loved.” — 21 people liked it

“Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.” — 17 people liked it

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