Sept. 19, 2002 — Three Junes, by Julia Glass, is a novel about a Scottish family that takes place on both sides of the Atlantic over three summers. It begins with the family’s recently widowed patriarch, Paul McLeod, who travels to Greece and becomes infatuated with a young American artist he meets there.
In an online Q & A, Glass answered just a few of her readers’ questions about Three Junes, which is Good Morning America’s current selection in its “Read This!” book series.
Q: First of all, I loved the book! I became totally absorbed in the story, andtook thoughts of it to bed with me each of the couple of evenings it took meto finish it. My question concerns a certain “puzzle” about the relationshipof Fenno and Mal. It appears, by the end of the book, that Fenno couldhave/should have been Mal’s lover. Other than Fenno’s typical “repression,”why didn’t this happen? What about Mal’s own personality? I had a hard timefinding any real indications of Mal’s feelings toward Fenno except duringthe last conversation the two held on the night of Mal’s assisted suicide.Could you give your thoughts on this relationship?
— Sarah
A: You’re right that Fenno and Mal were, in a way, meant for each other — butthis is a truth that Fenno cannot see until it’s too late. The soul matethat Fenno sheepishly claims he’s found in Felicity, the parrot he takesfrom Mal, was really Mal all along; he was just too frightened to see it. Asfor Mal, he is a man so preoccupied with the struggle against death that heno longer has the energy to spare for seeking true love. To me, this missedopportunity is the central tragedy of the book (more tragic than Mal’salmost inevitable death), and Fenno’s recognition of that is its darkestmoment — but it’s from this nadir point that he rises and begins, ifcautiously at first, to live a riskier life (think of the living room hepaints a brilliant shade of red!) and to reconnect with the other people wholove him. One reviewer has said of Three Junes that it’s a novel aboutemotional isolation — I can’t entirely disagree, but I’d say it’s also abouthow we fight to overcome that isolation and, if we are willing to take therisks, succeed.
Q: Why did you divide the book into three parts, with only the second as afirst-person narrative? And why all the bouncing from time period to time period?
— Rebecca
A: When I write, I write from characters, not from an outline. Three Junesgrew organically out of a short story based on Paul McLeod, the Scottishwidower, and Fern Olitsky, the American painter he falls for in Greece. Thefirst part of the book was finished, almost exactly as it is now, whenPaul’s eldest son, Fenno, began to “speak,” giving voice to the novel’ssecond part. Like no other character I’ve ever created before, he seemed toget up and live a life that had nothing to do with my authorly intentions. Inearly lost my breath keeping up! About two thirds of the way throughwriting the book, I realized that it really belonged to him — but that hisfather’s story and Fern’s (the first and third parts) were essentialelements as well. Before I wrote fiction, I was mostly a painter, and onetype of painting I loved and studied closely was the medieval triptychaltarpiece: generally a central, tragic image (like the crucifixion or asaint’s martyrdom) flanked by two slimmer paintings — often portraits of thedonors who gave the church money for the altarpiece. I saw Fenno as “facing”the reader, center stage, telling his story directly, and the other twocharacters as figures seen in profile (which is what third-person narrativeis, really seeing characters from the side).
As for the way I move to and fro in time, that goes back to character aswell. As my characters grow in whatever world I create for them, it’s as ifI’m watching what they do in the present yet increasingly curious about thepast that’s carried them here and I can’t resist telling both stories atonce. I’m a great believer in the power of psychotherapy: looking repeatedlyat our past to illuminate and deepen our present.
Q: This is sort of a personal question. Given the way you write about death —what are your views of death?
— Mary
I don’t think I realized how much death there was in this book until I hadfinished it (I also see it as radiating a great deal of life!). And sincethis is a personal question, I’ll answer it as personally as I can. Until myearly 30s, I was a fortunate person, largely sheltered from a closeexperience of death and then quite suddenly I was, as one friend put it,”brushed twice by death.” Within two weeks, I was diagnosed with cancer andmy sister, my only sibling, died. I was “lucky,” in that my cancer wascaught very early, but this beloved person I’d thought I would know for myentire life was suddenly gone forever, and then I began my medicaltreatment, often surrounded by people who were clearly close to death.Obviously, I came to see the world differently and felt a kind of grief Iknew I would never “get over.” While the storyline of Three Junes isn’tbased on my own life, parts of it surely mirror that change in me. Aboutdeath itself, I have no certainties: I don’t know if there’s a heaven or ahell, what happens “after.” And this is something about which you have totalk pretty clearly and honestly when you have an inquisitive6-year-old-son, as I do, and when you live, as we do, in the shadow ofGround Zero. My “views of death” remain uncertain, like my views of so manymysteries; I think fiction writers, by nature, are people with a lot ofuncertainties. The best of our work is an obsessive attempt to try to answerour own questions (our inner 6-year-olds), and if Three Junes didn’t tell methe ultimate meaning of love and death, maybe my next book will!
Q: “Three Junes” was one of the best books I’ve read lately. I just wish thelast chapter would have exposed Fern’s identity to Fenno. Even thoughnothing happened between Fern and “Poppa,” he may have understood his fathera little better. Why didn’t that happen?
— Tom
A: I get asked this question a lot, but I am a realist as well as a romantic:The truth is, there are so many connections in our life hidden from us — someof them, alas, forever. No one gets to see or understand everything aboutanother person, no matter how intimate those two people are. For instance,though my parents are still alive, I worry about important details of theirpersonal stories that I will never know once they die, no matter how manyquestions I ask now, but those lasting mysteries are a bittersweet fact oflife. Likewise, there are essential things that Fenno will never know abouthis father and things that his brothers will “know” about Dad that clashcompletely with what Fenno “knows.” In a given family, every child has adifferent childhood.
That said, I do have a vivid picture of Fern and Fenno after the book ends,and this is what I see. Do you remember that Fenno keeps pictures of hisentire family on his mantelpiece? (Both Mal and Tony examine those pictures,with different reactions.) And remember that at the very end of Three JunesFenno issues a dinner invitation to Fern, and she accepts. So I see her,just a week or two later perhaps, standing in his apartment looking at thosepictures herself. When she picks up the photographs of Paul, Fenno’s father,will she recognize him from 10 years ago? I can’t say for certain, but shedoes have a pretty sharp memory, doesn’t she?
Q: What kind of feedback have you received so far? I believe this was alsoyour first novel … correct? If so, what was your inspiration? Being thatI’m older, something spanning generations such as this really appealed to me, a very interesting concept.
— Bena
A: Yes, this is my first novel, and like any writer who puts her heart out onpublic display, I get mixed reactions, though I’m glad to say most of theones I’ve seen have been positive. (One negative reaction that amused mecame from a reader who claimed that “nothing happens” — this in a book almosttoo full of deaths, births, betrayals, and life-changing decisions!) ThoughI love to write about romantic love, about children and animals and thebeauties of the world around us, the readers I’ve met seem to respond mostenthusiastically to the way I write about family relations, and I have tosay, I think nothing on earth is more fascinating than families: groups ofpeople thrown together by choice, by chance, and by biological destiny. Thecomplex interactions between older parents and adult children, when they’reforced to regard one another as fellow “grown-ups” — or refuse to! — thatfascinates me most of all. (I may be the only person you’ll ever meet whowants to see your home videos and look at your wedding album.) So thatintense curiosity is probably my inspiration, though I am also in love withlanguage and reading. So many writers, because of the joy they’ve given mein their books, have also kept me writing.
Three Junes, by Julia Glass, is now available in paperback. Please go to the Random House Web site for information on the author’s book tour: • RandomHouse.com
