After describing the type of book I enjoy reading to my friend Tonya, she recommend Three Junes.
Synopsis:
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.
Review:
The premise of this book immediately interested me as I love books about families and all the tangled webs of emotions involved. Compromised of three distinct sections, the main character of each section is tied to the main character in the previous section. I found some characters lovable, some difficult to like and felt pity for others. Overall, I found each respective relationship to be extremely tender. I could feel the emotions between them in my own soul. The book felt long because so much of it is dialogue based, however, it never dragged and I didn’t find myself skipping anything. I enjoyed Julia Glass’ writing so much, my next selection is by her too.
**** of 5 stars
[...] After reading and loving Three Junes, I couldn’t wait to pick up The Whole World Over. I truly wish I hadn’t. [...]