Becky's Great Book Reviews Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

To read an Anne Tyler novel is pure joy. She is a wonder at writing dialogue and through that, about the human condition. Tyler has a way of evoking such tenderness through not only what her characters say but through what they don't say.

Three Days in June is probably one of prolific Anne Tyler's shortest books but no less impactful. Gail and Max are a divorced couple in their mid-sixties whose only daughter is getting married. Max has come to stay with Gail for the weekend of the wedding with his foster cat in tow. Gail and Max's ying and yang personalities are evident. Fuzzy, warm Max "doesn't take himself too seriously" and "has a tendency to wander off course halfway through a project, as if his life were just a casual experiment". Remote, aloof Gail, on the other hand, has just been spoken to by the headmaster of the school where she works about her "lack of people skills".

Gail and Max's daughter comes to Gail's house the night before the wedding saying she needs to call it off. She had heard some distressing information about her husband-to-be from his sister. Gail and Max's approach to the problem is only one way that they differ. Readers get snippets of their past and what eventually lead to their divorce through Gail's point of view. However, the three days of this novel draw Gail and Max back together in a way which ultimately leads to the sweetest ending ever of a novel.

Anne Tyler is hands-down a national treasure of an author, not only because of her readable style but because of her come-alive characters. As readers, we are exposed to her character's vulnerabilities, like when Gail ponders feeling inept at handling her feelings and choices she's made in her past thinking, "Why did everyone assume I knew what I was doing??"

Having read every one of Anne Tyler's wonderful novels, I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. Three Days in June is a sentimental, quick read and it gets five stars out of five.