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 truly loved listening to this novel

The characters were wonderful, the writing witty and touching, the reader just beautiful. My only regret - I wished the third part of the book was about the french wife, I think she would have made a very compelling story. But all in all, I loved it.

Extraordinary spirit fills this wonderful novel.

At the level of the sentence, at the level of the paragraph, this is an affecting experience. Glass puts us deep in the emotional world of her characters as they work through life.

Few novels I have read/heard in recent memory have quite as many epiphanic moments. Glass reminds us of when we had experiences with our families or loves that vaulted our understanding to new levels. Her characters comment on self-observed traits in humorous and poigniant moments.

Admittedly I'm writing this review with little thought: the novel is bathing me in a warmth that makes me want to share my pleasure.

A fine listening experience

This reading made the charaters live and the story move. Ms. Glass writes about ordinary people, living complex contemporary lives. There are no black and white problems, nor simplistic representations of good vs evil. Just real folks narrating the events of their lives in voices (captured perfectly by the reader) that rang true to me. Because of the great narration and the slower pace of the story, this might be a book that is better to listen to than to read.

Meandering Stroll with Limited Plot

This book was on sale in an Audible Editor Recommends sale. I was unfamiliar with the author and the book. The summary didn't give a lot of information, but something caught my attention so I read it.

I enjoyed the three distinct story lines, especially the middle section of the book that deals with Fenno, his life in NY and the decline and death of his larger than life neighbor. Each section of the book jumps around in time and I assume those jumps in time that often move the current storyline to a time more fleshed out in another storyline was the authors attempt to tie the stories together. I was generally OK with the jumping. It wasn't difficult to follow. But I don't know that this was sufficient to make three stories into one novel.

Throughout the book the author would briefly allude to a person, event or place and you would assume that it will be fleshed out later in the book, so you will understand the importance of the reference. But most of the time there was never further explanation. I kept waiting for there to be a big reveal so that Fern would understand Fenno was the son of the man she met many years ago in Greece, and that this coincidence would somehow have meaning. But it is never revealed and didn't have any meaning. The Fern in the first part of the book seemed like a completely different character in the last part of the book. And since the meeting between Fern and Fenno's father had meaning only to Fenno's father, not to Fern, then the entire plot of the first story had no affect whatsoever on the plot of the third story. The only reason I caught the connection was because the book summary mentioned it.

I also wondered if the author just ran out of things to say, so she stopped writing and the book ended. I thought the ending was a shame because nothing was resolved and the characters were dropped abruptly. I cared for Fenno and his brother. And the end of the book seemed to forget they existed.

In spite of all of this, I enjoyed the book. It was a relaxing, meandering story that never required the reader to invest any emotion in the characters or the story lines. If the reader doesn't want to pay close attention or think to hard,this is a perfect book for them.

The narrator did an excellent job.

An excellent read

This was one of the better Audible selections I've listened to in awhile. There is quite a bit of switching back and forth in time, but I had no trouble following the flashbacks. The strong Scottish burr of the reader added to the story and drew me in. The story is a messy discovery of what pulls us to and drives us from family. The author offers no tidy summations or endings, which was realistic and satisfying.

Slow Start, then a good listen

It took about half the book for me to get very engaged in the story. But, once I got there, I really enjoyed it.

The narration moves very fast. Until I got used to the Scottish accent, and the author's tendency to write long, meandering sentences, I had to push the back button a lot. Again, I got used to it, and came to enjoy it. It just took a bit.

Excellent narration for compelling tales.

What did you love best about Three Junes?

The characters, the wonderful narration, the settings, the story-lines.

What does John Keating bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The wonderful voices of each character and the story introspection.

If you could rename Three Junes, what would you call it?

Untold Realities. Many of the dilemmas were caused by what was unsaid amongst friends and family members.

Any additional comments?

I've listened to this story several times and have enjoyed the retelling immensely.

Left me feeling the story was unfinished

The story of several individuals whose lives entwine and impact one another. I actually wanted more answers than the story provided. The reader was excellent and made the story easy to listen to.

Well written, but poor narration

I thought this book was very well written – Julia glass certainly has a way with words. However, it might have been the reader, but all of the characters seemed like a cliché, and I didn’t care for any of them or care what happened to them. I also didn’t like the fact that it didn’t tie up loose ends – did Fenno know that Fern had met his father in Greece? Why not? The jumps back-and-forth in time we’re also a bit confusing – that might have been easier to follow if I had read it in paper book form. Overall, it was an interesting read and I would read something else by this author.

My first audiobook - and still a favorite

Julia Glass’ National Book Award winner holds the distinction of being my very first audiobook. And thank goodness for that – I don’t know if I’d be as hooked on listening if I hadn’t been so charmed by John Keating’s lilting performance of this moving family saga (featuring the loveable Fenno who fulfills my own dream of running a bookstore).