Three Junes

A Novel

By: Julia Glass

Narrated by: John Keating

Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family.

In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage. Six years later, Paul’s death reunites his sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his family’s future.

A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all emotional entanglements - until a worldly neighbor presents him with an extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that will reveal to him the nature of love.

Love in its limitless forms - between husband and wife, between lovers, between people and animals, between parents and children - is the force that moves these characters’ lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her future.

Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of the heart - how family ties, both those we’re born into and those we make, can offer us redemption and joy.

©2002 by Julia Glass
(P)2002 by Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Julia Glass' talent just sends chills up my spine; her novel is a marvel." (Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls)
"Has the rich pleasures of a 19th-century novel and the rush of New York life of the last ten years. I'm amazed it's a first novel - it is a mature, captivating work of fiction." (John Casey, author of The Half-life of Happiness)
"Almost threatens to burst with all the life it contains...extraordinary." (Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours)

I miss them still

I thought this to be a delightful book! I finished it over two weeks ago and I still miss the characters. Julia Glass created wonderful real-life characters that you could love, and Keating brought their character to life. I looked forward every day to listening and I know I'll listen to it again.

A worthwhile book.

I'm a sucker for an attractive accent, and the reader of "Three Junes" did his Scottish brogue very, very well. The book itself is responsible for the missing star -- its three-part structure detracted. The father's and eldest son's sections (I and II) were enough; the third section, about how the eldest son eventually met the young woman his father had been attracted to years before after his mother's death, didn't add anything for me. Still, I found I was wrapped up in the characters and their lives. A worthwhile book.

This will not disappoint...

...and the quality of the reading itself is wonderful, as well.

Enjoyable characters but a challenging listen

I knew nothing about this book prior to listening other than it's long presence on the N.Y. Times bestseller lists and the fact that it had won some literary award. As a result, it took me some time to have any idea what it was supposed to be about. Did the title refer to three months, three women named June or something else. I wasn't at all sure. On top of this, the narrator's accent in first "June" section was so heavy that I found myself constantly re-winding and turning up the volume to understand a word. Fortunately, the narrator drops the brogue in later sections, though by then I had gotten more or less accustomed to it. The story does jump around through present events and past flashbacks rather severely which makes it a challenging listen. In the end, I have to admit that I did become fond of the characters and enjoyed listening to the story of their lives. Still, they are rather ordinary lives and those seeking action, adventure and intrique will definitely be left wanting--particularly by the ending which leaves the reader with a quiet sigh rather than a tidy conclusion.

Interesting and thought-provoking

It took me awhile to get hooked, but eventually I was. The story is complex and provides deep insights into flawed, but still worthwhile, human love in its many forms.

labor to listen

This may have been a great listen however I found it so very difficult to get used to the strong accent of the author. It became a labor to listen.

very good

Great reading job by the actor. Good story. Parts of the beginning seem abreviated though....but a good listen nonetheless.

I enjoyed this "little" book

I thought this book was thoroughly enjoyable. I called it a "little" book, only in that nothing grand happens. It is about as far removed from an epic as a book gets. Instead it is a few slices of some fairly ordinary lives. There is very little plot, yet the slices are at moderately pivotal portions of the these lives.

The book was divided into three parts, each primarily from one character's viewpoint (though all intertwined). But within each part are two story lines, one in the current time, and one in the past.

My only complaint is that it took me a little while to understand in an audiobook when we were transitioning from present to past. The scottish accent was a little tough too, but go to where I could comprehend easily after an hour or so.

But the book was touching....some resolution to its issues....though not perfect resolution, as is too often the case in life.

fantastic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

i keep going back to listen to this book . every time i do, i enjoy it more.the narrator does the author proud. such a great combonation

What did you like best about this story?

going from time frame to time frame, keeps you alert.

Have you listened to any of John Keating’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Any additional comments?

one of the best

Enjoyable and Insightful

I very much enjoyed this book. The story was nothing monumental - no murders, no crimes, no intrigue - yet the characters were drawn with such care and love I got pulled into their lives and wanted to know what was going to happen to them next. I really liked the narrator who gave real life to each character - no cheating with funny accents or tricks of the voice. He treated each character as if he or she were real and important. Just a good, small book by a very talented writer.