From the author of the beloved novel Three Junes comes a rich and commanding story about the accidents, both grand and small, that determine our choices in love and marriage. Greenie Duquette, open-hearted yet stubborn, finds her passion in her Greenwich Village bakery and her son. Her husband, Alan, seems to have fallen into a midlife depression, while Walter, a traditional gay man who has become her closest professional ally, is nursing a broken heart.
Listen to this audio performance for one minute and hear why Glass is a National Book Award winner. The author's elegant prose unfolds petal by petal, allowing each character to bloom slowly. Similarly, the setting reveals itself with rich imagery that, thanks to Ann Marie Lee's lyrical voice, nearly turns an audiobook into film. As the story shifts between a restaurateur and a pastry chef, the delicious kitchen descriptions adeptly keep up with the beauty of the language itself. Lee's performance captures the beauty and tragedy of everyday life and its relationships, triumphs, and challenges. The combination of Glass's skill and Lee's voice makes for a beautiful audio experience. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly (starred review)...
"In her second rich, subtle novel, Glass reveals how the past impinges on the present, and how small incidents of fate and chance determine the future . . . Glass brings the same assured narrative drive and engaging prose to this exploration of the quest for love and its tests-absence, doubt, infidelity, guilt and loss."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)...
"The cultures of Manhattan and New Mexico, straight and gay relationships, parents and children, are sensitively explored in Glass's replete successor to her NBA-winning debut novel, Three Junes . . . Glass knows what she's doing. Readers who love quirky characters and a gentle wit that breathes affection even as it skewers human foolishness and frailty will follow her anywhere."
Elizabeth Judd, The Atlantic Monthly ...
"[A] winning second novel . . . Harks back to Trollope and Tolstoy. Like her predecessors, [Glass] finds inspiration in the vicissitudes of family strife . . . Watching Glass sort out a dozen intersecting story lines is never less than fascinating. In keeping with her nineteenth-century influences, she resolves all loose ends, treating everyone with remarkable evenhandedness in her bustling, congenial world."
Library Journal...
"How does one follow up a National Book Award? Glass (Three Junes ) creates an array of full-bodied yet vulnerable characters whose intersecting lives converge on September 11 . . . Glass's long but always captivating tale is a quilt of many colors and motivations whose strongest threads are love of family and sense of self."
Entertainment Weekly, A-...
"A voluptuous treat."
Booklist...
"Glass gracefully [and] deftly explores the sacrifices, compromises, and leaps of faith that accompany love."
More...
"This delicious novel is so like life."
The New York Times Book Review...
"Three Junes brilliantly rescues, then refurbishes, the traditional plot–driven novel . . . Glass has written a generous book about family expectations—but also about happiness."
Chicago Tribune...
"Radiant . . . an intimate literary triptych of lives pulled together and torn apart."
The New Yorker...
"Enormously accomplished . . . rich, absorbing, and full of life."
Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours...
"Three Junes almost threatens to burst with all the life it contains. Glass's ability to illuminate and deepen the mysteries of her characters' lives is extraordinary."
San Francisco Chronicle...
"A warm, wise debut . . . Three Junes marks a blessed event for readers of literary fiction everywhere."
