It’s the day before her daughter’s wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines. First thing, she loses her job – or quits, depending who you ask. Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities. He doesn’t even have a suit. Instead, he’s brought memories, a shared sense of humour – and a cat looking for a new home.

Just as Gail is wondering what’s next, their daughter Debbie discovers her groom has been keeping a secret…

As the big day dawns, the exes just can’t agree on what’s best for Debbie. Gail is seriously worried, while Max seems more concerned with whether to opt for the salmon or prime rib at the reception, if they make it that far.

The day after the wedding, Gail and Max prepare to go their separate ways again. But all the questions about the future of the happy couple have stirred up the past for Gail. Because ‘happy’ takes many forms, and sometimes the younger generation has much to teach the older about secrets, acceptance and taking the rough with the smooth.

‘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 social 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 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.