(56) Found this in a used book store - an excellent exploration of the lives of 2 sisters over the years. It begins when they are college age in the 1980's and extends to their 30's. Along the way we hear much about their quirky well-bred family from the antebellum South now transplanted to coastal Rhode Island breeding dogs and sailing boats and such. One daughter is bookish and conventional, the older Louisa - and the other is really the heart of the book. Clement is wild, brilliant, and reckless. Much of the book centers on their relationships with men and so sometimes the novel thematically bordered on 'chick lit,' but the writing I thought was powerful and quite lovely. I finished the book in one weekend and eagerly stayed up past my bedtime to finish as the book led somewhere that seemed predetermined but still surprising.

I really liked the structure of excerpts from the women's lives at roughly 3 year intervals during their 20's and 30's with liberal use of storytelling from their childhood as well. The tension between the two sisters leapt off the page, but also the gravitas of sharing blood ties and family. Glass' writing feels effortless to read despite the fact that it is empiracally excellent. Unpretentious, but profound and lovely. The characters were drawn precisely with wit and empathy. Sometimes the characters veered a bit toward caricatures, especially with some of the boyfriends - Zip, and RG come to mind and occasionally the dialogue seemed a bit contrived - but overall - a true joy to read.

For awhile, 'family dramas' seemed played out and all the same to me and I steered clear - but this gem (from over 10 years ago) and Joyce Carol Oates new one 'Night, Sleep, Death, The Stars' have perhaps brought me back to this type of book. I will need to see if I can track down some of Glass' more recent work. An easy unpretentious read but with artistry, gravitas, and good story-telling. ( )

Glass uses two sisters to narrate the story and alternates between the two. I found myself having to page back and figure out who was speaking sometimes since I didn't always catch the shift immediately. That was a bit annoying, but manageable.

Overall it was a highly enjoyable read and I liked the characters, nearly all of them. About halfway through the story, the reason for the title becomes clear and the word play was fun. I'm looking forward to reading her other works. ( )

I listened to the audiobook, read by the author & Mary Stuart Masterson. The narrative is told by the two main characters so it was nice to have two distinct voices reading their respective parts. The episodes do feel somewhat like linked short stories, & some of them ended sooner than I was ready for, but all in all it was very good. ( )

I loved Three Junes so so much, that I've wanted to love everything else JG has written. This novel isn't as awful as her second one, but it is also disappointing in a similar way: it feels naive and pat. Although compelling enough that I finished it, and very occasionally touching, mostly it's facile and simplistic in its descriptions and themes of "nature" "science" and "wild animals", and the characters seem too credulous, their lives ingenuously perfect--even in their experience of despair, anger, loss! (the series of boyfriends/lovers/husbands, the food and cooking, the specific music that supposedly is for emotional flavor but will date,not in a good way, all appear too correct and too good to be true and carefully tied up).
The most interesting and believable character was the distant, irritating, hunting-hound mother, and reminded me of that wonderful segment of Three Junes.
I found out afterwards that this JG's most autobiographical book, and I'm sorry that the author experienced the losses she describes in her life, but it just goes to show that "writing what you know" doesn't mean it's going to be good art, or even feel truthful and moving to readers.
In the end the book reminded me how much better Andrea Barret writes about science and nature (exploring, through these themes, many profound issues in her books) and, of course, the ultimate, AS Byatt, who also writes about those issues as well as about family and loss in a rigorously intellectual, never facile, and always thought-provoking and emotionally convincing way that is never simplistically plotted or tied up in the end. ( )

Beautiful and wise. I liked this one at least as much as The Whole World Over, and there were only two main characters to follow here (Louisa & Clem) instead of three. Julia Glass is one of those few authors I have complete confidence in; I know I'll like whatever she writes.

Quotes

The opposite of happiness isn't unhappiness, I think as I sink into sleep. It's surrender. (228)

Accepting favors is an odd form of mercy. (233)

Pain is a detached thing, like an outbuilding, the constant dullness of it irrelevant to the overall estate of pleasure but bringing down property values all over the place...It's like the bass in a good song. At first you don't feel it, but in the end it's what you're dancing to. (254)

No one belongs to us, and we belong to no one - not in that sense. This should free us, but it never quite does. (287)

1/15/14 Julia Class Q&A
A collection of linked stories - "You could see it as a novel perhaps"
Editor Deb Garrison to JG: "You have a wonderful sense of responsibility to your readers [that they have to know everything] - they don't have to know everything."
Deb is "more a midwife than a surgeon" as an editor
ISYA is her most autobiographical novel - her younger sister committed suicide at age 31
First published fiction was a short story from ISYE
"I didn't want to write a memoir...I just wanted to write about a certain kind of sibling relationship" ( )