Three Junes, by Julia Glass
Published by Arrow, 2nd October 2003
Genres: Fiction, family drama, multi-generational
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased (secondhand)
As the title suggests, this book takes place over three different Junes (1989, 1995 and 1999) and follows the lives and loves of the McLeod family. Journeying from Greece to Scotland to New York and back, we meet various family members and experience with them their grief, love, family tension, difficult decisions and secrets.
Usually, I love a multi-generational novel with multiple perspectives, but I just could not get into this one. I have picked up this book several times in the past and put it back down again. But, since I am trying to clear my tbr pile as part of my self-isolation reading challenge, I decided to stick it out this time.
I just struggled to get into the story, to get interested in the characters and their lives. I found that we spent a lot of time on Fenno, the eldest son, during the 1995 time-period of the book, and none of the other characters are that fleshed out or even have real lives it seems. Fenno is frustrating; he just stumbles around his life, making some pretty strange decisions and not opening himself up to be the person he really is.
The final section, based in 1999, seemed almost unnecessary to me. We are presented with some new characters at the last minute and, to me, this last part of the book did not add a great deal to the overall story.
At 536 pages, this book was a bit of a slog to be honest…
My rating: 3/5