Title: Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Book Beginnings quote:
People don't tap their watches anymore. Have you noticed? Standard wristwatches, I'm talking about. Remember how people used to tap them?
Friday56 quote:
“He studied me. "What you need," he said finally, "is a thunder jacket."
"A what?"
"One of those really snug jackets they put on dogs who are afraid of thunder. I mean, good grief! Do you keep an itemized list of things to worry about? How do you remember them all?”
Summary:
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.
But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past. (Publisher)
Review: Three Days in June is exactly the book the doctor ordered. I've been stuck in the middle of serious, hard-to-read books and it was so nice to start and finish a book in two days while enjoying every minute of it. It helped that it was short, too. Really short. Novella short. Anne Tyler, who has been around for decades, served up a good one here, too. Blessedly it stuck to the point, too. No wandering around in uncharted territory. No complex character list and twisty-turny plot. Just a good ol' story from start to finish.
Gail and her ex-husband, Max, have remained friends after their divorce, so it wasn't a disaster when he showed up on her porch steps the day before the their daughter's wedding with a cat carrier and a cat. Gail was having a very bad day and Max was someone she could talk to about her situation. When she tells him she might have been fired, instead of platitudes, he eclaims, "Good. Now you can go back to teaching. You are an excellent teacher!" Their interactions were built upon years of knowing each other and there is comfort and ease to those kind of relationships.
I've read seven of Tyler's books now and Three Days in June is my favorite from among them. I just checked, Tyler has been publishing books since 1964. Sixty years. Isn't that tremendous? Here she is in her 80s still writing books that are vibrant and crisp, books which are relevant and real. In 1989 she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and she is still going strong in 2025. Remarkable. Now I'm off to order a copy for my 96-year-old mother who still loves to read. I know she will enjoy this one.
Rating: 5 stars.
I am out of town, so will not be able to respond to each of your posts this week. Communicate among yourselves. Enjoy the Friday56 community!
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-Anne
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