- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Pantheon; 1st edition (Sep 5 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375422412
- ISBN-13: 978-0375422416
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.8 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 653 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (161 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,689,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The artful construction of this seductive novel and the mature, compassionate wisdom permeating it would be impressive for a seasoned writer, but it's all the more remarkable in a debut. This narrative of the McLeod family during three vital summers is rich with implications about the bonds and stresses of kin and friendship, the ache of loneliness and the cautious tendrils of renewal blossoming in unexpected ways. Glass depicts the mysterious twists of fate and cosmic (but unobtrusive) coincidences that bring people together, and the self-doubts and lack of communication that can keep them apart, in three fluidly connected sections in which characters interact over a decade. These people are entirely at home in their beautifully detailed settings Greece, rural Scotland, Greenwich Village and the Hamptons and are fully dimensional in their moments of both frailty and grace. Paul McLeod, the reticent Scots widower introduced in the first section, is the father of Fenno, the central character of the middle section, who is a reserved, self-protective gay bookstore owner in Manhattan; both have dealings with the third section's searching young artist, Fern Olitsky, whose guilt in the wake of her husband's death leaves her longing for and fearful of beginning anew. Other characters are memorably individualistic: an acerbic music critic dying of AIDS, Fenno's emotionally elusive mother, his sibling twins and their wives, and his insouciant lover among them. In this dazzling portrait of family life, Glass establishes her literary credentials with ingenuity and panache.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This strong and memorable debut novel draws the reader deeply into the lives of several central characters during three separate Junes spanning ten years. At the story's onset, Scotsman Paul McLeod, the father of three grown sons, is newly widowed and on a group tour of the Greek islands as he reminisces about how he met and married his deceased wife and created their family. Next, in the book's longest section, we see the world through the eyes of Paul's eldest son, Fenno, a gay man transplanted to New York City and owner of a small bookstore, who learns lessons about love and loss that allow him to grow in unexpected ways. And finally there is Fern, an artist and book designer whom Paul met on his trip to Greece several years earlier. She is now a young widow, pregnant and also living in New York City, who must make sense of her own past and present to be able to move forward in her life. In this novel, expectations and revelations collide in startling ways. Alternately joyful and sad, this exploration of modern relationships and the families people both inherit or create for themselves is highly recommended for all fiction collections. Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
PAUL CHOSE GREECE for its predictable whiteness: the blanching heat by day, the rush of stars at night, the glint of the lime-washed houses crowding its coast. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
PAUL CHOSE GREECE for its predictable whiteness: the blanching heat by day, the rush of stars at night, the glint of the lime-washed houses crowding its coast. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Read,
By Robert C (Maryland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Three Junes (Paperback)
Three Junes is a lovely read, one that begins strongly and only gets better. The story concerns a Scottish family and begins in June 1989. Paul McLeod, recently widowed, takes a tour to Greece, contemplating his future, his past, his family. Jump ahead six years and we are in Scotland, where Paul's three sons are preparing for his funeral. Jump again four years, to Eastern Long Island, a weekend get together with two of Paul's sons and Fern, a woman Paul met on his trip to Greece. It is hard to do justice to this novel in a few pithy sentences. The writing is beautiful and Glass gives us characters we can care about deeply. Their lives are complicated, but without any melodrama or pyrotechnics. Her writing is simply beautiful and I believe gets stronger as the novel progresses. I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful novel and highly recommend it along with two other books, "He Never Called Again", and "The Loser's Club."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting family life story,
By K. Dalum (B.C., Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Three Junes (Paperback)
Like many of the books I read, this book was the selection of a book club I belong to, and I quite liked it. Just before the meeting to discuss the book, I checked out the Amazon.com reviews, and then was surprised to discover that the Amazon reviewers accurately reflected the diverse opinions of the ten at the meeting: although a small majority liked the book, the rest did not; two couldn't finish it and two couldn't even get into it. Amazon reviews, when there is a good number of them, are obviously a good guide.This is a story of family life, for better or for worse, told in three stories, as seen through the eyes of the father, then his three sons, and then a friend of both the father and the sons. The father lives in Scotland, with two of the sons, but his story takes place in Greece, while he is on vacation there. One of the sons lives in New York, and flies back and forth to Scotland. The friend's story takes place in both Greece and New York. The result is a quite complex, interwoven family story that is easy to understand but hard to describe. The writing is sensitive; for example, the description of the death in New York of a friend of one of the sons, due to AIDS, is sympathetically done. Overall, I found the family's story to be very interesting and well written, but not a story I would recommend for everybody.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Something to Try,
This review is from: Three Junes (Paperback)
Everyone has different tastes as readers. I personally feel "THE THREE JUNES" is excellent but I can see where it is not everyone's taste. What is? "THE THREE JUNES" is not a dare to be different book like "MIDDLESEX" or "MY FRACTURED LIFE" nor does it have the universally appealing spiritual elements of "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES" or "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN." Those are different types of books, different "tastes." I like all of them, "THE THREE JUNES" among them. Just like at a restaurant, you don't know if you like something unless you try it.
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