We had a great turnout for the June book club! Regular members in attendance were Barb, Becky, Cheryl, Ginnie, Mary Beth, Sharon, and myself. We welcomed a new member Jody Barnhart, and our junior member Makenzie also joined us. Needless to say, the upper room at Kairo's Coffee House was percolating with book talk!
The June book Three Junes by Julia Glass challenged our members with multiple narrations, a staggering plot, and a thought-provoking vocabulary. The book exposed the life of Fenno McLeod, a gay man living in New York City but still very much bound to his family ties in Scotland. Fenno's personal relationship with two very opposite gay men lead him on a path of self discovery. Mal, who is also Fenno's neighbor, is dying of AIDS, and, unwittingly, Fenno becomes Mal's support as his illness progresses. Most of us liked the character of Mal. He was the stereotypical gay, flamboyant and pompous. Although Mal would have been a more appropriate sexual partner for Fenno, Mal's illness prevents them from sharing intimacy. Instead, Fenno satiates his desires through Tony, a very masculine gigolo type. We thought Tony was a real pervert especially when we discovered later in the book that he preys upon young boys.
Boys 1999 was our favorite part of the book. It read more easily and did not stagger back and forth like the previous chapters. This section described Fern, a character introduced earlier when Fenno's father was traveling in Greece. Fern is pregnant, and her character has several links to Fenno. Not only had she traveled with Fenno's father, but she was at one time Tony's lover, too. In addition, Fern is renting Mal's apartment which overlooks Fenno's home and bookstore. Now, get ready for this one everyone. A Three Junes II could easily be in the printing. Remember Stavros, Fern's adorable Greek boyfriend and the father of her child. I think he may be a love child! Think about it. On page 319, Stavros tells Fern that his mother always returns to Greece every summer without their father. His mother had said that she always had to leave one of their sons at home because their father feared she might never return. Did Stavros's mom have a lover in Greece, and was that lover Paul, and could Stavros be Paul's son, therefore, Fenno's half brother???
As mothers, we all feel an affiliation with Stavros's mom, despite her subordinate status as a minor character. Stavros describes her to Fern when he explains his childhood. "In Greek, you know, there's no word for privacy." His mother would sit right next to him while he talked on the phone then bombard him with questions when he hung up. Makenzie sympathized with Stavros as we mothers confessed to similar acts of meddling.
In book II, Glass could also develop the character of Fern's mom. She and her husband own and operate Arcadia, a nursery where besides tending to the plants, Helen Olitsky makes dried wreaths, keeps bees, and sells honey. Fern describes her mother as a "pagan disciple of mother nature" which is why Helen so reverently christened her children with names like Fern, Forest, Heather, and Garland. With such two extraordinary moms screaming to be cultivated, Glass most certainly has the inspiration for Three Junes II.
Always stirred by stimulating quotes, I mentioned one in particular at the meeting worth repeating again. As parents we felt an affiliation with Paul when the narrator comments on page 22 about the joy Paul derives when his three boys all return home after time spent apart. All so unique in their interests, Paul "loved their separateness, and when they shared their enthusiasms, felt the privilege of being admitted to three different worlds." Family conversations are at the top as one of the most precious of God's blessings. When our children spend time away from us growing and discovering, we are fortunate if they return and share their worlds with us. The sharing with us, however, I feel is what completes their journey. With us to confirm or witness their growth, for them their newly established maturity then becomes absolute.
There are many more thoughtful quotes in Three Junes. One appears on page 111 in which Mal says, "We're all alive the day before we die." My mother having worked in a nursing home most of her life observed this phenomena daily. She would often tell us the same thing. If she observed an otherwise fatally ill patient acting perky one day, the odds were the next day would be their last. Another notable quote was on page 286 when Anna, Fern's friend, is giving Fern some advice, "When it comes to life, we spin our own yarns; where we end up is right where we had always wanted to be." This has much to do with our own degrees of self-actualizing. We all have freewill, we make our own choices, and what we get in life is a result of what we selected for ourselves.
The conversation potential of Three Junes is unlimited, but we didn't have time to uncover its many layers of texuality. The next time we meet, we will continue our book talk until at least 8:30 P.M. If members have to leave, I will continue the meeting with those remaining. I don't know about anyone else, but cutting the meeting short deprived me of an evening I look forward to all month.
The next meeting is scheduled for 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, July 16, at Kairo's Coffee House. Our book selection is an easy summer read, Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella. Let's have fun with this one; so check your emails for an upcoming homework assignment! I haven't given one in a long time, so we're due. Find a special summer retreat for seasonal reading and I'll see you soon.
