Three Days in June

‘Three Days In June‘ was Anne Tyler at her best. In the space of a few hours, she crafted an intimate portrait of a woman in her sixites, facing difficult changes in her life, reflecting on her past and considering her future, all while coping with the stresses of preparing for and attending her only daughter’s wedding.

I liked that Gail, in her sixties, knew herself so well and was comfortable with her identity and most of her choices. The few choices that she's not comfortable with, she does her best to forget about. Gail knows that she's not as sccial as other people would like her to be but she also knows that that isn't going to change.

This being an Anne Tyler novella, Gail's carefully maintained sense of balance is show more stress-tested to the limit over three days in June. She acquires a grumpy old cat she tells everyone she neither wants of needs. She quits her job after taking offence at not being promoted. She is negotiating all the traumas associated with her only daughter marrying into a family with very different expectations of how a wedding should work She's forced into bringing her ex-husband into her house for the duration of the wedding. Like her, he's grown older but he hasn't really changed. She is reminded of the reasons that she loved him and the things that drove her crazy about him. Hardest of all, she's forced to remember some of her choices that she normally chooses to forget.

There was no high drama in this novella . No dead bodies. No gaslighting. No evil villains. Just real people with real lives trying to do the best they can. It was wonderful.

I recommend the audiobook. It’s four hours and twnety-four minutes long and I listened to it in a single sitting. J. Smith Cameron’s narration made the prose shine. Her tone was a perfect match for the personality of Gail Baines, the main character: slightly dry, sometimes judgemental, sometimes funny, always trying to be honest with herself about how her day was going. show less

Ah, Anne Tyler, a practical romantic before romantasy even existed. She's been writing mostly about the good white suburban people of Baltimore since 1964, and has specialized in angry women and kooky men for most of her career, with brilliantly incisive results. Tyler is in her mid-eighties now and this novel is more relaxed and in slo-mo style, and is, as usual, a warm joy. Gail Baines and her ex-husband Max are united for the weekend of their daughter Debbie's wedding, and there are some unsettling incidents: a homeless cat, a possibly adulterous fiancé, and a job loss. Tyler does a fine job of wrapping up the package into a neat bundle, without shocks or twists, and does a heart good, as always.

Gail Baines has just learned her job will no longer exist, but she can’t spend any time thinking about her next steps because her daughter, Debbie, is getting married the next day. To add to her stress, Gail’s ex-husband Max will be staying at her house for the wedding. Gail’s character becomes fully formed through her internal monologue as she leaves her workplace and tries to put the morning behind her. Then Max arrives, and proves to be a bit quirky and in many ways Gail’s complete opposite. As Debbie enters the scene we see Gail starting to become overbearing and Max just barely keeping her from making a mess of things. And so the wedding weekend continues …

Three Days in June is told from Gail’s perspective. Filled with show more both pathos and humor, it’s a wonderful portrayal of one woman’s struggle to navigate both mother-daughter and (ex-)marital relationships and find her “new normal.” I loved it. show less

Anne Tyler has made a career writing about socially awkward and shy people living in Baltimore, Maryland, whose lives are, for the most part, quiet and constrained. Three Days in June is a perfect example of her writing and was, for me, an excellent and relaxing read.

Gail is 61 and an assistant to the headmistress of a private school, when she's called into the headmistress's office to be told that the headmistress would be retiring, but that Gail would not be considered for the job. She's told she should consider a career change as "social interactions have never been her strong point." So Gail walks out, away from her career, but not from stewing about the encounter. It's an important weekend, with her only daughter's wedding to take show more place the next day, the rehearsal dinner that evening. Coming home, she finds that her daughter has dropped off her ex-husband to stay with her as he has brought the cat he's fostering with him and her fiancé is allergic.

What follows is three days in which Gail is pressed from every direction, even as she continues to think over how her boss sees her. She spends a lot of time thinking things and then keeping those thoughts to herself, kind of if Olive Kitteridge were sensitive to the feelings of those around her. As the weekend goes on, between the usual drama of a wedding and the presence of the man she divorced over twenty years ago, Gail comes to terms with how she wants her life to look like going forward.

Gail is a wonderful and opinionated character and this is a novel about character development and how, even at 61, a not particularly flexible person might find it in themselves to bend in a new direction. I like how Tyler writes and how fully realized her characters are and this small book was exactly what I was in the mood for. I'm glad she's still writing, and with the same compassion and humor. show less

My First Anne Tyler Novel!

I came across this book on a list of 2025 anticipated novels and, after reading the synopsis, immediately added it to my library list. I decided to give it a shot—and I’m so glad I did.

I started it this morning and just finished, reading off and on throughout the day. The story unfolds over three days, centering around a 61-year-old woman navigating some career drama the day before her daughter’s wedding. Cue the chaos: her ex-husband shows up, along with her mother, an ex-lover from before her marriage, and the entire groom’s family.

I laughed so many times—Anne Tyler’s wit is dry as hell in the best way. She takes the mundane details of life and makes them completely engrossing. I loved it.

Author Anne Tyler never disappoints. As always, even in this novella-length story, she makes you pay attention and gives you something to think about. It’s only, as the title says, three days in June and fairly short, but it’s packed with a wedding, complicated relationships, and people that have to look at their past choices and/or carefully consider the choices that may well be for the rest of their lives.

At the start Gail Baines seems like a cranky, judgmental woman that doesn’t have many friends and is hard to get along with, but as the story progresses we might unfortunately see more of ourselves in her: someone who isn’t always comfortable, who is bossy possibly because she’s unsure, who keeps to herself and whose inner show more dialogue is often critical of the people and things happening around her. Her ex-husband Max used to adore her, but something – we don’t know what yet – caused their marriage to fall apart and what she remembers most now is his annoying habits. Their current relationship is amicable, or at least amicable enough so they can attend their daughter’s wedding together.

Debbie is thirty-three years old and getting married. Gail’s inner voice thinks Kenneth’s parents are too this or too that but Debbie is strong, opinionated and vocal so Gail keeps those thoughts mostly in her head. Max looks like the peacemaker, which kind of irritates Gail. Debbie shares a secret with her parents on the eve of her wedding. Gail’s first thought is call it off, Max’s wait and see, but Debbie probably regrets even mentioning it and does not want any advice or further discussion.

Three Days in June just kinds of rolls along, lulling you into thinking not much interesting is happening, until suddenly you realize there is a lot going on beneath the surface; relationships, especially Gail and Max’s, are deeper than we thought. A secret is revealed, unexpected actions are taken – and a cat chooses Gail as her next owner.

Three Days in June is a fascinating book about people: choices made, consequences, the possibility of new choices. I received an advance copy from NetGalley. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own. show less

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is a short but focused look at everyday life. The events here fall broadly under "slice-of-life" umbrella, where a relatively common event(s) leads to some soul-searching and new dynamics between the characters.

Like most of Tyler's characters, the people in this story will likely remind you of people you know even if you don't want to be friends with them. They aren't truly unlikeable, they aren't being evil or hateful, they have personalities that can be hard to deal with in real life, but they are simply people navigating life as they know it. The vast majority of characters in most novels (and movies and television shows) aren't truly likeable even if we enjoy the limited contact we have with them. If show more you must truly "like" a character, as in someone you would want as a friend, in order to enjoy a story, then I would suggest you gain a little more empathy and try to understand these people as who they are rather than judge them for not being as you believe yourself to be.

One thing Tyler has always done with her characters that I find engaging is allow them to make, to us, seemingly peculiar word or idea associations. I think we all do that, and every now and then we have to explain to someone how our thinking went from 'a' to 'b' via 'x.' An example from the beginning of the book is the tapping of a wristwatch (her father's in particular) to the restarting of a heart. It isn't an analogy so much as an association in Gail's mind.

If you enjoy glimpses into other lives that don't involve murders or other extreme catalysts, you will find a lot to enjoy here. Just spend a few days in this family, learn part of their past and leave pondering what their futures hold. If you need something unusual to happen to make a story compelling, or you simply want more "action," then perhaps this won't appeal to you.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less