Three Days in June

The novel begins with a fraught conversation between Gail and her supervisor, Marilee. Marilee explains that Gail will not be promoted to Marilee’s position when she retires and that she will lose her job. She communicates to Gail that her decision is rooted in part in Gail’s lack of tact, especially during tricky conversations with the school’s affluent parents. This conversation and Gail’s response to it reveal much about Gail as a character and establish the importance of in-depth characterization in the novel. Gail bristles at the characterization of her as tactless, yet her response to Marilee labeling her as such is to fire off an angry retort that itself could be labeled tactless. Gail will continue to ruminate on the idea of herself as someone without tact throughout the novel, and the conclusions she comes to reveal her partial commitment to self-reflection. In doing so, Tyler introduces the theme of The Impact of Personal Crises on Self-Perception. Gail is capable of being tactless, yet she would not characterize herself as such because she often refrains from speaking her mind in social situations, allowing her many criticisms to remain unsaid. 

The conversation also establishes Gail’s difficulty in social situations and struggle to form meaningful relationships. She and Marilee have worked together for many years and are the school’s two top administrators. However, Gail characterizes their relationship as “formal” and does not express much sympathy when Marilee informs her that she is about to undergo a serious medical procedure. Gail is not a conventionally friendly individual and does not have an easy time making friends, yet she is capable of forming deep bonds. For all the differences between her and Max, many of their conversations settle into an easy banter that suggests deep familiarity and comfort with one another.

The conversation also reveals Gail’s preoccupation with aging, introducing the theme of The Nuances of Aging. At 61, Gail feels particularly blindsided by the firing because she was not preparing to make another career transition so close to her retirement. Gail notes at multiple points during the narrative that aging is not what she thought it would be like: The gulf between her expectation and reality as it pertains to aging and career is particularly wide. Gail’s ruminations on her progression into old age and reflections about her mother Joyce’s aging are key parts of this section of the novel. She notes of her mother, for example: “My mother was more dressed up than I was: blue-and-white flowered silk, high heels, patent leather purse. But in her old age she’d grown scrawny and her dress hung on her like a sack” (45-46). Although, conceptually, she understands that her mother is getting older, seeing her dressed up at the wedding provides a visual marker that she didn’t have before. Her reaction tacitly reveals her discomfort with the changing relationship dynamics sometimes associated with late middle age; at the same time Gail must adjust to “losing” her adult daughter (Max’s framing, which she vehemently rejects), she must also cope with seeing her mother in a vulnerable state and brace for her eventual loss.

Tyler introduces the theme of The Complexities of Familial Relationships in Part 1 through Gail’s interactions with Max. When Gail returns home, Max arrives with the cat. At this point in the narrative, the author introduces Max primarily through Gail, whose attitude toward her ex is both fond and irritated. Her gentle teasing of Max suggests lingering affection, but there is also underlying resentment. She sees the cat, which he planned to spring on Debbie without notice and now expects Gail to host without having been consulted, as evidence of his enduring lack of boundaries. She noted his poor boundaries even before they got married when they were housemates, and it was an issue that continued to pop up during their marriage. What she sees now confirms for her that little has changed. However, Max has changed. She will reflect on this increasingly as the narrative progresses, but even during these early interactions, she takes note of his willingness to prepare meals for her. Although she still finds much to criticize about Max, the sea change in her emotional orientation toward him has already begun.

Beauty salons play a key symbolic role in Part 1. They reveal Gail’s singular disposition and the lack of ease she feels among her peers. Gail has never felt comfortable in the ultra-feminized space of the beauty salon and has cut her own hair for years. She does not understand why her daughter would want to engage in an entire day of beauty treatments before her wedding, but she still feels excluded from the event. This disconnect is typical of Gail and helps define her as a character: She finds little in common with most people, but she still feels isolated because of her lack of social life and social connections. Gail will have to come to terms with herself emotionally as the narrative progresses and find a middle ground between staying true to herself and reaching out to other people to forge connections.

The question of whether or not Kenneth cheated on Debbie comes up during this portion of the novel, and it reveals much about Debbie, Gail, and Max as a family. It also further develops the theme of the impact of personal crises on self-perception; specifically, it allows Gail to reconsider much of what she thinks she knows about herself and Max. Gail initially wants her daughter to call off the wedding, whereas Max encourages Debbie to speak with Kenneth to hear his side of the story. This difference of opinion reveals how forgiving Max is and how easy Gail finds it to hold on to anger. It also reveals key discrepancies in the way that they approach parenting: Gail still sees herself as Debbie’s primary caregiver and protector. Max has realized that, now that Debbie is an adult in her thirties, her decisions are her own. He encourages Gail to see her in this light, but Gail remains incapable of the kind of hands-off parenting that Max favors. This makes Gail’s rejection of the cat on the grounds that she is no longer interested in “caretaking” particularly ironic, suggesting that she needs to engage in further self-scrutiny.