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)

Horrible!

This book might have been a better read than it was an audio book, but I doubt it! I kept listening and finished the book, but it was like nails on a chalkboard. I often felt like the book's reader was reading the book out of sequence on purpose.

Better Read than Listen?

I'd have a hard time recommending this as an audio book. I believe it would be a better read than listen. In my case, while driving, I found the audio book a bit too difficult to listen to, found myself rewinding too often to re-listen to many things that I couldn't catch the first time, either due to the Scottish accent of the narrator, the fact the book jumps back and forth between scenes, or the elaborate language. It's funny, but after completing the whole book, I went back and re-listed to the first 2 hours, and it was as if I had never heard it before. Nonetheless, the second time around, it all made much more sense, however I still believe it is an awkward beginning.

As a whole, this book is about the McLeod family, and primarily about Fenno. Then, about 3/4 of the way through, the storyline just drops off and goes on to discuss Fern. I cannot understand how this did not get edited out. I did not care for this character at this point, and kept asking myself, "but what about Fenno?" This event made the book entirely unbalanced. Sure, Fenno's and Fern's lives intersect, but did Fern's entire history add value to understanding their relationship? - I do not think so. The publisher's summary that Fern "must make peace with her past to embrace her future" is simply putting varnish on the weak part of the book. In my opinion, it was simply a story that the writer could simply not throw out, and the overall story suffers for it.

Overall, the book contains volumes of beautifully written prose. Indeed, Julia Glass does paint wonderful pictures of "love in its limitless forms." Regarding the actual audio format, the narrator is both a blessing and barrier, his different accents and inflections help the listener distinguish between characters and often adds color and charm, but at the same time the Scottish accent can be difficult to understand. Additionally, the book would have greatly benefited from a distinct pause when jumping from one scene to another.

So Disappointed!

There is not much I can say positive, accept that I did finish it. I had to read the entire story to see if there was going to at least be a good ending. No luck.

well written confusion, obsessed with dogs

The author jumps around like movie pulp fiction. Doesn't work well for a narrated book. Adding to this is the narrator's extreme Scottish accent which make many parts unintelligible unless you're from Scotland. How much you can say about dogs? Wow. I had to stop listening after 1 1/2 hours. If you're a dog lover from Scotland go for it.

Confused

I also found it quite hard to listen to the story because it jumped around entirely too much. Trying to keep up with the time period and which character in what time period became what I focused on more so than the story itself. I would not recommend this title.

Horrible horrible book

I have read over 175 audio books from this club and this was probably 1 of 3 I could not even force myself to listen to and I tried twice. I was bored out of my mind - it was slow moving and completely uninteresting.

Three Junes

I have been a member of Audible for many years and have never written a review. Three Junes was the worst book that I have ever listened to. The Scottish brogue was very disconcerting. Also Ms. Glass's depiction of gay's as reprobates and Scot's as lazy, entitled rich folk was too lopsided. I will not ever read or listen to another of Ms. Glass's books. This was a waste of time and money.

Byfield, Mass.

Three Junes

I read this book had received awards and forced myself to read until the end. The reader had a difficult accent to understand and did not transition well from one character to another, making the book difficult to follow. The book was confusing, boring and full of stereotypes and had little character development. I DO NOT recommend you waste your time reading this book in any month, but especially in June.

Couldn't wait for it to end

Talk about fulfilling a stereotype of a gay man. I did not care about any of these characters and I was relieved when the book ended. Parts of the story were interesting but the overall memory of the book was that it was miserable.

Couldn't understand a word

of it. Too much brogue, too little action.