Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Three Junes

Three Junes
Three Junes
Author: Julia Glass
Genres: Literature & Fiction, LGBTQ+ Books
Book Type: Paperback
pogosmith avatar reviewed on + 20 more book reviews


Very engaging novel from a first rate novelist writing a first novel. Remarkable insights into human nature. Julia Glass shows an uncanny ability to understand and write from the perspective of her male characters. I loved it.

I had the privilege of hearing Julia Glass read from her new novel, A Whole World Over. Serendipitously, I was doing my usual walk to the library here in New Haven to exchange books, when I noticed I was just in time for this reading. I had seen the signs earlier and made some mental notes, but true to my Some-timers brain, I had forgotten. She read the first chapter and then answered questions of all types. She was delightful.

Most of the questions pertained to her first novel, Three Junes, which amazingly, for a first novel, won a national book award. The award apparently launched her career and changed her life. Apparently lots of people have awaited her new book, The Whole World Over. I fumbled away the opportunity to have a signed first edition as I didn't have sufficient cash in my pocket and they didn't take credit cards.

I thought the q&a was interesting as insight to her writerly life. For example:
-she writes using a computer
-she has no set routine or discipline
-while writing "Three Junes" she had no group of confidants reading her work and feeding back; the first person to read it was her agent
-she was ~45 when she wrote her first book
-she enjoys speaking through the voice of males (Three Junes uses multiple first person singular narrators)

She lives in Massachusetts near the ocean. She would rather have stayed in NYC, but real estate prices pushed her out. She was raised in NYC, in the village.