Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous language, subtle insights
Review: I very much appreciate this book, and really enjoyed reading it after getting over my initial doubts. At first I was so struck by the language. The book is written in astonishing style, but felt to me over-"styled", in a way I felt the language so called attention to itself it overpowered the story to some extent. The other side to this was my frequent surprise/admiration of the author's choices of language. Another thing that I noted was that the dialogues or even passing comments by the characters were almost uniformly always polished, witty, and overly similar in style from character to character; I often thought, oh please, nobody talks this way. But this book is able to achieve amazing insight in the most subtle ways. Nothing is hammered home. The reader is not spoon-fed the important things, but rather gathers the beautiful pieces of insight, tenderness, and understanding in unexpected places, and sometimes between the lines. It is not a fast, easy read or a painfully slow read. It is the kind of book you savor rather than devour; every once in a awhile I put it down just to absorb what I had just read. All in all, in my view, a real accomplishment.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply Forgettable
Review: Yes, the author can write but can she be imaginative and take us on a journey? I enjoyed the second part of the book the most about Fenno an interesting character. The 1st was OK, the 3rd part; I'm not sure why she even bothered to write this part! I'm getting tired of reading books about people's every day lives, nothing spectacular. I have an every day life of my own thanks. When I read a book I want rich characters, entertaining plots, perhaps a few twists & the use of a strong imagination on the part of the writer. Although the book is not horrible it's nothing to write home about and it's not a book you'll ever tell someone, or ever hear someone tell you: "You gotta'read"
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad for a first effort - but Award material????
Review: This debut novel is divided into 3 parts:
June 1989 The Collies, Part 1
June 1995 Upright, Part 2
June 1999 Boys, Part 3
The only title I understood "why" was The Collies... the others??Part 1 introduces us to Paul, on a voyage to get over losing his wife Maureen, a kennel owner. Neither of these people or the company Paul kept on his trip was extremely interesting or likeable. Anyone who can drown puppies is not on my likeable list. This part was the hardest to get through because it doesn't grab your interest right away. I had to read it for a book club selection or would not have finished it. Part 2 introduces us to Paul's sons - Fenno, the homosexual, and his 2 twin brothers, David and Dennis. Mal, Fenno's gay friend, dying of Aids, was witty and a bit interesting at times. It is unusual in its writing, flitting back and forth from past to present. One needs to pay attention to whether it is now or then, and at times the reader wonders if it's worthwhile sorting it all out. It is not the type of book I looked forward to picking up. One also wonders throughout this whole section whether Fenno agrees to donate sperm to impregnate his sister-in-law, but it is never clear until the last section. Part 3 - introduces us to yet another new character, Fern, pregnant by an absent lover, living with Tony, Fenno's former gay lover, with whom she had a brief affair, but who is not the father of her baby. This novel is supposed to be about a family in today's times, here and abroad, with a strong Scottish influence, but I didn't get involved with any character in this book, 'though it gives one food for thought. The part about not being able to bury your Mom and having to leave her casketed body out in the cold until the snow melted so ground could be broken was the only emotion I felt, imagining my own mother, not the one in the book. The reader can't feel much emotion for mom, Maureen. She loved her dogs more than her family and the author didn't give us much from her perspective, as she was dead through most of the book. The ending was just that, it stops, and thank heavens for that. I was relieved to get it over with. I can't imagine what qualified it for this prestigious award.
Rating: 
Summary: I suggest you skip this one
Review: This book is very flowery and ornate in its language. I found it a real slog to get through. It's very suprising to me that it has been well-received by critics.
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishingly Brilliant
Review: This book is one that I thought I would not be interested in reading. It just did not seem so exciting by the description. Then one day I had to go on a plane, and I noticed, that the book had won the National Book Award. I immediately bought it, and I was transfixed. The amazing thing about Glass' writing is that it does not really matter what the subject is; but how she writes that is truly incredible. Out of the box with her first book, the novel is gripping. Not from suspense, but from the structure, the feelings, the emotions, the conversations and the narration. Glass is quite the brilliant author and person. What she conveys in this book are feelings that no one would even consider. Feelings, that are so subtle, yet when she paints the picture with her profound and literary sentence structure, seem so clear, so obvious. Her insight into mental transaction is acute; her analysis astute. And her entire construction of the book is illuminating. This book is a must read for all lovers of modern literature in fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, annoying, but kinda good!
Review: This book was chosen by my book discussion group this month simply because of the title. "It's June," we figured, "so why not read Three Junes?" The book starts off well enough. The reader is introduced to Paul McLeod and his family in the first of three sections, almost novellas. Paul is on vacation to help him recover from grief over the death of his wife Maureen. The reader is told about their life together and their three sons, Fenno and twins Dennis and David, in a series of flashbacks. It's a simple domestic portrait and fairly well written. The second section, the longest and the best part of the book, is about Fenno, who has moved from the family's Scotland home to New York City. Fenno is gay and the section mostly deals with that aspect of his life. Fenno is taking care of his neighbor, Mal, who is dying of AIDS. I pleased at how well this part of the book is written. The last part of this section about Mal's death, is especially good. And then the bottom falls out. If the book had ended after Mal's death, Three Junes could be considered almost a great book. Instead, Ms. Glass writes about Fern, who was a minor and not likeable character in the first section. It's ten years after the first section. Fern and Fenno are staying at a friend's house, unaware of their connection through Paul, who is now deceased. The quality of the writing takes a nosedive here. Ms. Glass also reintroduces Fenno's brother, Dennis, who is totally unrecognizable. In fact, I first thought that Dennis in part 3 was a different character than Dennis in part 2 until he is specifically referred to Fenno's brother. Ms. Glass gives the reader all this detail about people that we don't even care about. I kept waiting for the parts about Fenno, who I really liked. It seems that Three Junes really has two endings, the end of the second section and the end of the third. The reader would be much more satisfied if he or she just stops reading after the second section. Whenever I read a book, I ask myself if this is a book that I would read again. I would read the second section of Three Junes again, but not the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Great descriptive writing; tedious shifting of time
Review: I so wanted to enjoy this book and was doing so during the first novella, the story of Paul and Maureen. Julia Glass has a wonderful way with descriptive writing: I could feel the Greek sun and taste the ouzo. This, I believe is her strongest writing skill, but not enough to carry an entire book. The second and longest part of the novel centers on Paul and Maureen's son Fenno and those who enjoy this character probably will enjoy "Three Junes". Fenno was too embittered and distant for my taste. He misread almost everyone he was related to or allowed himself to become involved with - hard to root for the guy. By the third section he seems to have turned his life around a bit but because this section is not told from his point of view - but rather from the p.o.v. of a fairly minor character - it's hard to know. The book is divided into three sections - Three Junes - over a period of ten years. Within each section Glass uses flashbacks liberally so that the three sections fold back on each other. This technique is a tough one to pull off - Anne Tyler's "When We Were Grownups" and Guterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars" are brilliant examples. The constant playing with time in Three Junes became tedious for me. By the time we meet Fern again in the third section, we don't care about her past but we get it anyway: mother, father, siblings, dead husband, in-laws...all these people are trotted out, the reader knowing all the while that there's not enough of the book left to explore them. What about the McLeods??? I wanted to scream. Fenno might not be my favorite guy but at least I've spend all this time getting to know him and his family. I wanted to hear from them and find out from them what had happened over the past four years when we left them last. And poor Paul. Our charming guide during the first section, dead by the second, forgotten by the third. Marjorie showing up at his funeral with promises of letters to be sent to Fenno on her death...I thought at least I'd hear more from him by book's end. But no, Marjorie disappears as well. Even Paul's ashes seem to have evaporated somewhere. And we're left with the conclusion that Fern and Stavros have a shot at happy- ever-after. Who???? Well, if you haven't fallen asleep before the last 20 pages you'll know their story. But will you care?
Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: Three Junes was difficult for me to rate because, although I recognize the artistic achievement of the novel, it really was not a book that I enjoyed reading. The language and character development by author Glass was well done, but at the same time the characters were so full of angst that I wanted to shout at them, "Lighten up! Life is not meant to be so tortured." The story covers three summers (or Junes) in the lives of a Scottish family. The first part describes the life and marriage of Paul McLeod. Although it was interesting, it didn't seem to be developed fully enough. The next section, about Paul's eldest son Fenno, was longer than necessary and seemed to drag in parts. The last part was about Fern, a woman who was important in Paul's life and seemed to be destined to become a big part of Fenno's as well. Their relationship developed unrealitically quickly and seemed to magically defuse all of the doubts which had tortured Fern for many years. The author has real potential, but will hopefully be less heavy-handed in future novels.
Rating:
Summary: what junes!
Review: Reading this book was like watching a foreign film: Did I really read/see that? Was this worthy of Nat'l Book Award? I'm still trying to answer that question. Would I recommend this? Yes!!
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeously written and emotionally resonant
Review: The National Book Award judges must like books about families. This year's winner, "Three Junes", a three-part novel held together by a couple of casual common character threads, isn't a million miles from the subject of last year's winner (Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections"). Both make the event of homecoming - a parents' funeral in "Three Junes" and Christmas in "The Corrections" - the flashpoint for the subtle outbreak of sibling hostilities and the restoration of calm via an uneasy truce that comes with the recognition that family love binds us all. "Three Junes" is a linearly constructed three novella whose centre and emotional core lies clearly in the middle story. Nevertheless, the opening vignette about the recently widowered father's escape to Greece to deal with his bereavement is both poignant and heartbreaking in conveying the deep sense of longing experienced by Paul McLeod for the missing intimacy with his late wife, Maureen, an independent and feisty woman whose life seemed to have been tied up more with her beloved collies than with her family. In his travels, Paul strikes up a casual acquaintance with a young woman, Fern, who will be written out of the script only to make a mysterious reappearance as the central character in the concluding episode of "Three Junes". In the middle and most substantial story, Paul's three grown up sons, Fenno, and twins David and Dennis and their wives Lilian and Veronique, return home for their father's funeral. At the same time, another story emerges in parallel, that of an earlier homecoming when the boys visit the family home to spend time with their dying mother and to subsequently attend to her funeral. It pans out that nothing is quite what they seem on the surface. The cerebral and intellectual Fenno is most like Dad but sides with Mum. Subconsciously, he admires her fiercely independent streak. Who can blame him, when he has the privacy of his secret gay lifestyle in New York to protect ? Music critic and bosom pal, Mal, is mistaken by the family for Fenno's lover while secret lover Tony remains invisible to all but Fenno. The ever pragmatic David - his mother's son - thinks he knows something from the past about Mum that may haunt them.....but does he, really ? As it turns out, his life isn't nearly as perfect as it seems. Even Veronique, Dennis' French wife, shows she isn't quite the shrew we all came to expect. Ultimately, the McLeods don't let the half-truths, secrets and lies that permeate their lives to destroy them. They overcome the odds to show each other the meaning of love. It is in this middle story that Glass impresses most with her strong characterisation and her gorgeously written and luminous prose that speaks straight to the heart. If she had ended with this middle story, "Three Junes" would have been an unconditional triumph. Sadly, she didn't and lost her way in the concluding episode, which feels dramatically out of place, flat, and unsatisfying. Why would anyone be interested in Fern so late in the day ? She is after all a long forgotten minor character from the opening story. Had Glass stayed with Fenno, she would have had a more convincing wrap up. "Three Junes" is a flawed but smashing debut from Julia Glass. It is gorgeously written, emotionally resonant and one of the most delightful reads this season. Highly recommended.
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