The Sunday Salon: Three Junes
By Kristen on Nov 8, 2009 in Future Classics...?
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Release date/ Length: 2002 / 353 pages
Synopsis (from jacket cover): 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.
First line: Paul chose Greece for its predictable whiteness: the blanching heat by day, the rush of starts at night, the glint of the lime-washed houses crowding its coast. Blinding, searing, somnolent, fossilized Greece.
Review: My mother loaned me this novel months — probably years — ago, with the warning that she did not enjoy it very much… So, I threw it in my “cabin” dufflebag as an emergency read, in case I ever found myself without a book. Well, this never happened (not surprisingly), so this past week I decided to give it a go. This novel is so exquisitely well-written, yet I found it somewhat grueling and was so glad to be finished.
I felt so very impatient with the characters, the narrative pacing, the setting even. I’m afraid that beyond the beautiful prose, I somehow missed the magic of this award-winning novel. I did not connect with any of the characters — and the quite long second section (there are three) focused on my least likeable character from the previous section. I read the synopsis after I finished and found the primary character described as “loveable,” so I know I missed something significant in my reading.
However, beginning with the first two lines (above) there are passages that stunned me with their beauty:
Time plays like an accordion in the way it can stretch out and compress itself in a thousand melodic ways. Months on end may pass blindingly in a quick series of chords, open-shut, together-apart; and then a single melancholy week may seem like a year’s pining, one long unfolding note.
I did not wonder if what his absence would spare me was the exhaustion of a longing so relentless it had become nearly unconscious, as if I had failed to realize that the water I drank was salty, always salty.
There is no doubt that Glass can write — and I loved The Whole World Over so much (but I See You Everywhere not as much) — however, this National Book Award winning novel just left me cold. I hope others have read this, too, and can share their experiences. I would like to be “brought around” if possible!
Welcome back!
Sorry Kristen, I wish I could try to change your mind but I agree with you. We read this a while back for our book club and though I don’t remember much about the book, I do remember that I didn’t like it. No one else cared for it that much either.
Dana | Nov 8, 2009 | Reply
Thank you, Dana! At least I know I wasn’t alone in my derision… I wonder why it won the NBA??
Kristen | Nov 8, 2009 | Reply
Same opinion here. I was bored, didn’t care for the characters, and actually disliked many of the characters. Guess it won purely on writing skills, but plot and characterization ought to be part of writing skills!
Karina | Nov 12, 2009 | Reply