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A Separate Peace

by John Knowles

3.50 · rating details · 51,750 ratings · 2,549 reviews

John Knowles' beloved classic has been a bestseller for more than 30 years and is one of the most moving and accurate novels about the trials and confusions of adolescence ever written. Set at an elite boarding school for boys during World War II, A Separate Peace is the story of friendship and treachery, and how a tragic accident involving two young men forever tarnishes ...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published October 7th 2003 by Scribner (first published 1959)

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Community Reviews

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Jun 22, 2010

Bird Brian rated it

Shelves: literature-20th-century

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. You don't remember the past as a whole, just the vivid images that made enough of an impression to stick. One of those memories for me was the day my father started to teach me to drive. I was excited to be gaining mobility and all the freedoms that go with it. Most of my friends already had their licenses, and I was eager to join them. It was a sunny Saturday morning in July. I was wearing a stupid yellow t-shirt with a hot air balloons graphic on it (why do I remember that?). We got in our li...more

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Oct 01, 2011

Amanda rated it

I recently re-read this book for the AP class that I'm teaching and I was reminded of what a deceptively simple book this appears to be on the surface. Set in an all boys prep school during WWII, A Separate Peace explores how the encroaching reality of war affects the psychological and social development of all the boys at the school. The poignant irony of providing these young men with a classics based education at a prestigious school just to be sent into war to kill and be killed effectivel...more

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Jun 15, 2007

Matthew Klobucher rated it

This book had a profound and lasting impact of me. It is a short, exquisitely crafted story narrated by a talented but unconspicuous boy who is jealous of his best friend, Phineas--who is athletic, beautiful, and kind. Phineas stands tall as the prodigy of American prep adolescence. He is simple; he is likeable; he has panache; and he is virtuous. His greatest crime to the narrator, though, is his love. For though the narrator is jealous and resentful that of his authentic golden-boy friend, he ...more

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Apr 02, 2011

The Library Lady rated it

Shelves: overrated-crap

I remember this book distinctly because seldom have I hated a book more.
In addition to being a depressing piece of work, it is about as relevant to kids today as a 45RPM single (that's something we had before CDs, boys and girls). Why are they still putting it on reading lists? What fan of John Knowles has been paying teachers to force this on the kids?

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Sep 04, 2008

Rachel rated it

Shelves: classics, srs-bzns, interpersonal, for-school, lady-author

I remember viscerally hating this - I found it incredibly boring and I don't think anything really happened except a whole bunch of wank about being a moron and running and a paragraph lovingly describing a side character's butt. I don't even know.

Furthermore, it was for eighth-grade English. My teacher gave us a quiz on some random detail-bits, and I remembered little things like how many years had passed between Point A and Point Boring, and that somehow meant that I wasn't actuall...more

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Nov 23, 2007

Monk rated it

Recommends it for: Lit-lovers, Those Coming of Age

Shelves: literature, required_reading

Most people would list the Catcher In the Rye as the ultimate coming of age story, but I beg to differ. For me, my coming of age book was A Separate Peace. It was required reading - we were not given a choice on reading it. Unlike prior assigned reading books, I actually READ this one.

I wish I could remember more of it.

What I do remember was that I liked it. It's about a boy growing up at a prep school, making friendships and planning futures provided the war ends and tha...more

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Jan 29, 2012

Callista rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: literature-esd, read-more-than-once

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. First read in 1986. Re-read 21-28 Jan. 2012.
4 ½ stars--I can't quite bring myself to award it 5, perhaps out of a sense of sentimental injustice. …Or because Phineas doesn't have a last name. That bugged me, so I Googled it and turned up discussions of how Phineas is a symbol. Symbol or not, when everybody else has last names, he should've had one, too.
I'd convinced myself that I'd read this book more than once, but I realised quickly when I picked it up again that I hadn't. It made ...moreFirst read in 1986. Re-read 21-28 Jan. 2012.
4 ½ stars--I can't quite bring myself to award it 5, perhaps out of a sense of sentimental injustice. …Or because Phineas doesn't have a last name. That bugged me, so I Googled it and turned up discussions of how Phineas is a symbol. Symbol or not, when everybody else has last names, he should've had one, too.
I'd convinced myself that I'd read this book more than once, but I realised quickly when I picked it up again that I hadn't. It made such a strong emotional impression on me that I never forgot reading it…but I forgot most of the actual content. All I really remembered was likeable, seventeen-year-old Phineas' tragic death, coming when the worst seemed over, after his friend caused him to fall out of a tree. I didn't even recall the narrator's/Phineas' friend's name! I don't remember any classroom discussion of the book, just an assignment of writing a letter from Phineas to his friend.
For such a short book, it packs a hell of a punch and kept my brain spinning after I'd put the book down. It's personal, yet universal. The way John Knowles shows the personal warfare of friendship and rivalry in the context of a world at war is brilliant. Is it human nature to create conflict, to make trouble where there is none? The author seems to think so. I didn't get the full message when I was a teenager, that's for sure.
On the personal level, Phineas' and Gene's friendship made me think of a friend I used to have, someone who was more impulsive and charismatic than I, someone I was at times jealous of. So I understand Gene's feelings in general, if not the depth of them. What he does to Phineas in a moment of blind, paranoid, jealous rage is shocking. At that moment, he's too immature to see he could have refused any of Phineas' invitations and schemes and Phineas wouldn't have cared. Phineas could be a smartass, but he wasn't mean-spirited. Whatever chaos he caused was temporary and just in boyish fun. He considered Gene a true friend, incapable of doing something so cruel as making him fall out of the tree and shatter his leg. The betrayal is heartbreaking.
Their timid friend Leper's loss of sanity is obvious, but the portrayal of both Phineas' and Gene's attempts to cope with situations at times had me doubting both their sanity. I wanted to like Gene, or to pity him, but it was impossible to do so continually. His hostility toward Phineas and his focus on keeping his secret verged on sociopathic. His violent outburst against Leper, who knows Gene's secret, is almost as bad as what he did to Phineas.
Ultimately, though, Gene does feel guilt for what he's done, and it's clear he knows he behaved badly and will carry the scar for the rest of his life. Their classmate Brinker's desire to get at the truth, to make Phineas remember and/or Gene confess, turns out to be prelude to the final tragedy--Phineas' second fall and the surgery that kills him. …But, like Briony's "atonement" in Ian McEwan's book, apologies or good intentions will never be enough. A moment's action led to a permanent loss that can never be fixed or changed.
The book also made me revisit my feelings about warfare and people's attitudes toward it. It's an amazing depiction of ambivalence about war. The author presents Leper, who buys into the propaganda and enlists, only to lose his mind; Brinker, who doesn't really believe in war but whose father constantly pushes him to join up for the sake of having good war stories to tell; Gene, who's saved from the self-punishment of early enlistment by Phineas' return to school, only to later join the Navy in hope of staying out of combat while still feeling guilty about it; and Phineas, whose pretense of not believing in the war was only a cover for his thwarted hopes of joining up. While I respect people who risk their lives to protect others or uphold an ideal, I have a problem with the glorification of war. The black-and-white, us-versus-them idea of war is such a lie, when armies are made up of individuals. I love the part of the book in which Gene tells Phineas he wasn't cut out for warfare because he'd probably end up crossing enemy lines to organise an impromptu game with the Germans or the Japanese.
For the most part, the writing displays a nice economy in language. The author gets to the point without going overboard but manages to employ some lyrical, original turns of phrase. There were a few times I stumbled over some wording, sometimes for what I deemed lack of a comma or two. But the author realistically captures the lives people try to carve out for themselves when the "real world out there"--whether it's war or college or work--seems remote and almost imaginary or, at its worst, like a nightmare.(less)

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Apr 06, 2009

Ed rated it

My first novel.

Tiring of typical grade school fare I surreptitiously ordered A Separate Peace from the "other side" of the monthly Bantam book order form - unbeknownst to my Mother and my teacher. As grade school and high school books were shipped intermingled I plucked my order from the school shipment the moment the boxes were opened. Before I even opened the book I sensed that if I wanted to finish it, I better do so secretly.

I had no trouble reading the pi...more

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Mar 30, 2009

Rhonda rated it

I hadn’t thought of writing a review of this book until I read how many people disliked it. Far from wanting to simply "prove" others were wrong, I began thinking about why others might not like this book and its message. First, it is somewhat legitimate to dislike anything one must read in high school. However, if you never get past that point, life isn't much worth living. If you never come back and read some of the things on your own, you just aren't much of a human being. Rant ...moreI hadn’t thought of writing a review of this book until I read how many people disliked it. Far from wanting to simply "prove" others were wrong, I began thinking about why others might not like this book and its message. First, it is somewhat legitimate to dislike anything one must read in high school. However, if you never get past that point, life isn't much worth living. If you never come back and read some of the things on your own, you just aren't much of a human being. Rant as one will against the unpleasantness of secondary educational methods, sooner or one ought to recognize that explaining value the wrong way isn't a denial of the concept. With that said, I still don't care for the heavy handedness of symbolism in, say, Billy Budd.

Second, I began to think about all the people today who run away from hit and run accidents, ostensibly for selfish reasons, and I tried to see if there was some sort of parallel with issues of honor and accountability and the apparent plethora of irresponsible behavior. While there may be some grain of truth to this, I think this book's message evades the modern mind on still another level.

This book is a bit heavy handed on the imagery also, beginning with a snotty group at a prep school. In a day when rich people appear somewhat vile to some, (perhaps because they must be forced to share their wealth with us,) perhaps a prep school doesn't serve as a good choice setting in which to begin. When I first read this book years ago, I recall feeling so alienated from the setting that I thought that whatever ills happened to anyone at this school, they all deserved it just because they were there. Unfortunately, all that feeling did was make me feel uncomfortably similar to Gene. I thought the Super Suicide Society was a bit silly too, perhaps an anachronism or even doing Hitler’s SS an extra letter for heavy symbolism. It was, at the same time, too juvenile and yet too replete with boyish bravado.

The two main characters are, nevertheless, interesting. I think that Gene is the kind of everyman with a touch more paranoia thrown in, suspecting that everyone must think pretty much like he does, even if it is done in secret. Finny (and how can anyone today admire someone named Phineas?) is the perfect antagonist. He is the one who can flaunt tradition but do so with such an open heart that he is automatically popular. From what I read about about John F. Kennedy, the two seem to have the same charisma, maybe even the same persona. Gene knows that if he tried half of what Finny did, he couldn't pull it off. The rest of us know it about ourselves too. This includes the elitist, Brinker Hadley. The book is worth reading just being able to watch people like Hadley squirm. Yet once again, perhaps we don't see these characterizations much any more in what has unfortunately become a PC society.

Further I thought that the underlying theme of the war doesn't work very well any longer either, perhaps society as a whole becoming so isolated from any concept of the necessity of war, individuals unwilling to sacrifice for any means beyond personal gain. When you are facing an impending great uncertainty, you tend to do things which negate that kind of looming doom, just like these boys did. That’s something which is uncomfortable in itself, but perhaps our era of irresponsibility tends to dissolve our fear by making such things less inevitable.

However the main reason I believe that this book doesn't really carry a strong message to the modern reader is beyond all the things I have yet considered: the difficulty with appreciating this book isn’t an itinerant selfishness, the desire to remain individual rather than a small part of the whole, nor is it about the inability to relate to prep school, inevitable deniability or even the heavy symbolism. I tend to think that the failure to recognize the importance of this book's message is our unwillingness to acknowledge in some very fundamental way, the pain we ultimately incur upon ourselves in life through the necessity of our actions. This book essentially pulls out our dirty laundry which we have hidden away, perhaps something we today brag about being natural and therefore no longer sinful. Perhaps it is our modern inability to acknowledge our living sin as having missed the mark in our daily lives.

I can certainly recall very easily my feeling justified in my actions when younger which purposefully hurt others only to acknowledge silently later that I was so very wrong. As I see it, that is what this book is about, not so much making the mistake, something irretrievably wrong, but learning to deal with the kind of repercussions which follow from our original loathsome behavior. I tend to think that this book might have been better titled, An Odious Wrong, A Separate Peace. Still, even had the author considered this, he knew that it was the conclusion which was the important part, the part which makes one a human being, being able to find a forgiveness of self rather than carrying the weight around forever. It is hard enough to face one’s mistakes.…and clearly this is an uncomfortable process for us, but it is a greater thing to be able to find a peace so that one can continue to not only exist but to live.
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Jun 15, 2008

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Chris by: one of my teachers, way back when

In sophomore year of high school, “A Separate Peace” was on the ‘required reading’ list. Thus, it was practically guaranteed I’d either never read it, or wouldn’t read it during my four years corralled with my peers being brainwashed with the same routine gibberish. I’ve never cottoned to the concept of someone telling me what I must read; I’ve always enjoyed the discovery of a new book outside the standard fare chosen by nimrods of school boards which is shoveled down the throats of the masse...moreIn sophomore year of high school, “A Separate Peace” was on the ‘required reading’ list. Thus, it was practically guaranteed I’d either never read it, or wouldn’t read it during my four years corralled with my peers being brainwashed with the same routine gibberish. I’ve never cottoned to the concept of someone telling me what I must read; I’ve always enjoyed the discovery of a new book outside the standard fare chosen by nimrods of school boards which is shoveled down the throats of the masses. Even if what I eventually selected was one of those stories, it was still more appealing actually choosing books which I thought I would appreciate instead of being forced to read some crap which would be completely insignificant in my own humble existence. Then again, I was never particularly fond of school in general and was pretty much a failure as a student. This should explain both the large gaps in my reading of ‘substantial/classic’ literature and my general stupidity and ignorance concerning erudite matters. If a review by this brand of loser seems like a worthwhile investment of your time, feel free to continue. If you’d prefer to read the assessment of “A Separate Peace” by someone clever and possessing an understanding of the English language, I’m sure there are many more worthwhile reviews tucked away in dark, dusty corners on this site.

So, ignore my ridiculous reasoning behind my opting not to read “A Separate Peace” when I was demanded to. However, I was aware I’d probably get around to reading it sometime in the future, so I purloined the school’s copy for good measure to assist in this unscheduled endeavor. And guess what, I did end up reading it, and found it rather enjoyable.

The book is told through the narration of Gene Forrester, who has returned to Devon School many years after his graduation to confront some of his personal demons. During an engrossing canvassing of the ground of his alma mater, Gene battles inclement weather and comes to the one place he feels will be the most difficult to face after all this time, a gnarled old tree which no longer seems as towering and menacing as it did in his youth. The proportions of the tree aren’t his driving force for his coming to the site for introspection; after this brief introduction, Gene launches into his explanation of the significance of the tree and the events surrounding it that made such a lasting impression on his life.

Gene’s last years at the renowned Devon School, a posh establishment in New Hampshire, in the years leading up to American involvement in World War II, are shared with his best friend and roommate, Phinneas. On the surface, it appears that the two are perfect complements to one another, Gene has the brains and Finny has the brawn, but beneath this veneer, Gene has some major insecurities, of which Finny is completely unaware. Finny competently cannonballs through life exuding self-confidence and an unbridled enthusiasm for life, adventure, and friendship; handsome, clever (though not much of a student), and an ideal physical specimen with an admirable love-muscle. Finny is a natural leader amongst the students, and his casual acceptance of his awesomeness allows him to toe the line with the authorities as well, who can’t help but like someone who approaches everything with optimistic bombast and daredevil fervor bordering on lunacy. With the war looming near and the boys approaching the age of ‘draft-bait’, Phinneas somewhat serves as the ideal for the soldier needed in this global conflict; if they could find a way to clone his ass, the war would already be over. Hell, if they could have sent him over as a delegate to meet with Hitler, the whole thing would have been settled with a ‘blitz-ball’ game instead of worldwide catastrophe. Gene, on the other hand, is much more reserved, although in his time with Finny he’s opened up and become a Big Man on Campus, if only by association, as his academic achievements aren’t as recognized as Finny’s spectacular physical abilities. The pair truly are strange bedfellows; picture the dashing star quarterback and the chess club captain ditching class together to grab some beers and laze on the beach together.

During a recently-reinstituted 'summer session' at the school, Finny decides for his entourage that they are forming a secret society, the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. It is during the course of their exploits that the resentment for Finny which has been innocuously festering within Gene has now blossomed. Gene starts to feel that their friendship has become a competition, and that Finny is winning the popular vote as to which is the more worthy subject. While Finny isn’t as scholarly as Gene, it’s apparent he isn’t stupid, and when their physical and mental strengths are added and averaged, Finny is still coming in on top. Additionally, Gene has to fight for every bit of recognition he can get for his accomplishments, while Finny is so adored he has to fight off laurels with a badminton racquet: Gene witnesses Finny break the school Freestyle swimming record and deny that he’d done so as not to embarrass the swim team that trains so hard only to be handily defeated by someone younger and, remarkably, untrained. This is an act that Gene can’t even imagine.

The initiation rite into the Suicide Society is to leap into the river from the weathered old tree mentioned in the introduction, an act which the Senior class has been doing, an act which remains unchallenged by the younger students. Nobody has the nuts to do this, except Finny of course, and in order to keep stride with his pal, Gene naturally has to follow suit. Gene almost loses his balance, which would result in a disastrous fall, but Finny comes to his rescue. When Gene realizes that this is belittling to his own prowess, that he couldn’t make the leap without the aide of Finny, instead of gratitude for helping him, he’s determined that if it wasn’t for Finny’s damn-fool ideas he wouldn’t have been in the tree to begin with.

As Gene inspects the dynamics of their friendship, things get worse. When Finny invents ‘blitz-ball’ (basically ‘Smear the Queer’) and it becomes a school-wide success, Gene begins questioning whether or not he didn’t tailor the game specifically to his unique strengths. Gene also begins suspecting that all these goofy activities are an attempt to derail his studies, in effect, making it so that while Finny is applauded for all his endeavors, Gene won’t even end up getting the accolades which he rightfully deserves as the school’s top student.

Gene’s suspicions and doubts eventually get the best of him; when Elwin ‘Leper’ Lepellier, the class coward, proclaims he’s prepared to jump from the tree, Gene firmly states he has no interest in abandoning his studies just to watch Leper chicken out once more. And that’s when the dam bursts. Phinneas embarrassingly apologizes, telling Gene that he didn’t know his good friend needed to study; he just assumed it came as naturally to Gene as his own physical excellence did. Gene is momentarily overwhelmed, stunned. It has now become apparent he cannot compare to Finny, as his best takes grueling study and preparation, and everything Finny does comes naturally, spontaneously, and the result is even more awesome. Despite Finny’s protests that Gene should take his studies seriously, and he’ll go watch Leper pussy-out alone, Gene insists to tag along, and when the idea for a double-jump is suggested, with Gene and Finny leaping together, the cork which has thus far contained his envy and resentment pops. Once in the tree, Gene shakes the limb which Finny is precariously poised upon, resulting in a crippling fall, the “first clumsy physical action” he’s ever seen Phinneas make. Basking in sureness that his treachery has forever swung the balance of their worthiness to his favor, Gene joyously leaps into the river alone.

All of this is just the first quarter of the book. The rest concerns the long recuperation Finny must undergo to mend his shattered leg and Gene’s internal turmoil over his responsibility for what he has done, and also his fear of being exposed for intentionally ruining the dreams of such a promising young man. I personally prefer the first part of the book to the rest of the story, in which Finny returns as an intentionally deluded shadow of his former self, Leper becomes the first of their class to be shipped off to the war, and Brinker Hadley becomes Gene’s new friend and rival, with Brinker possessing the ace up his sleeve of suspecting the truth behind the event at river, and Brinker isn't the kind of guy to surpress this knowledge just for Gene's peace of mind.

I certainly wouldn’t say this is mandatory reading, but if you’re looking to check out a decent book, and somehow managed to escape reading this during your school years, I suggest you embrace Finny’s attitude and dive right in.

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Mar 24, 2007

mary rated it

this book devastated me.

i read it in high school, like most people. it was the year with all the "classics" that everyone has read at some point in schooling, all depicting young adults in various stages of angst or 19th century high drama or epic poems. whatever.

but this book gave me such a strong physical reaction - i sobbed and felt ill through so much of this story. i think i related too much with the characters for my own good, and the psychological slap-a...more

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Nov 30, 2007

Logan Loring rated it

Recommends it for: people who enjoy reading

Shelves: done

Book Review: A Separate Peace
By Logan Loring

The book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, isn’t a book that I think is worth reading.
Throughout the many parts of the book there aren’t many scenes that are exciting or jump out at you. If there are any exciting scenes, then there are very few of them. If you’re thinking about reading a book with the school story genre then A Separate Peace isn’t the book you should choose. In this book there are some new scenes every now an...more

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Nov 27, 2007

Koeeoaddi rated it

If I read this now, I might agree that it's a fabulous book. But, see, it's about kids at a boarding school. When I was required to read it I was a kid at a boarding school. I reserve the right to nurse my nearly four decades of hatred for that reason alone.

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Apr 21, 2009

Jim rated it

Shelves: general-fiction

One of the few assigned books in high school that I actually liked. It helped that I was in a school much like the one mentioned. Finny supplied us with several tricks that were perfect for bored, boarding school students, which added to the interest, of course. What drew me most to this book was that it captured the experience so well.

I've heard the novel disparaged because it's about a bunch of whiny rich kids. Obviously there's a lot of truth there, but these people miss the...more

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Feb 24, 2009

Becky rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2009, reviewed, young-adult

I remember this book, as so many others do, as being Required Reading in 8th or 9th grade, I can't recall which. But I never read it in school. I read surprisingly little in school, it seems. That's alright though, more time for reading what I enjoyed.

I'm glad that I read this as an adult. If I had read this in school, there probably would have been a week-long analysis of the book, which I think wouldn't have been necessary. An afternoon discussion would have sufficed.

...more

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Apr 10, 2008

Manuel added it

I LOATHED this book. I was required to read this piece of crap when I was a sophomore at Carmel High.
When you are in high school, you are required to read many books as part of a required reading list. Often times, you groan when you pick up something that looks like it will be a chore to read, but in the end the book will have a semblance of value. Many books will entertain you or at least you can say you learned something new. I didnt enjoy reading the "The Scarlet Letter"...more

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Oct 20, 2007

HRH rated it

Recommends it for: thoughtful folks

I'm the kind of kid who always wanted to go to boarding school and be mischevious. This book is about as close as I ever got to fulfilling that dream. It takes place at a boy's preparatory school in New England in the early 1940s. Narrated by Gene Forester, a sort of Nick Carroway type but with passion, it tells the story of Phineas, a charismatic, good-hearted athlete who turns Gene's education into the sort of memory one looks back on with longing and maybe a tear. Phineas makes up new sports,...more

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Sep 05, 2008

Amanda rated it

Recommends it for: nobody

Recommended to Amanda by: TPR

Shelves: read-in-2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 20, 2008

Tressa rated it

Shelves: teen, general-fiction

I always read my older brother's required reading books long before I was assigned them, and for some reason this book spoke to me even though I've never been to an ivy league prep school and I'm not a boy. I had this book memorized by the time I reached 10th grade.

A wonderful study of the conflict between a naturally gifted and well-liked young man and the jealous friend with low self-esteem. A great book that teaches a moral code that one should live by and the ability to finally l...more

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Jun 02, 2008

Jake C rated it

Recommends it for: knowone

Recommended to Jake by: Mrs.

This book was very boring and hard to pay attention to. It was mostly taken back in World war two. It conflicts with envy and jealously. I really didn't like this book because it was hard to get into it and the whole plot of the book was very dry and empty.

I suggest this book for people who really get into books easy and like books about childhood maturity and about stupid mistakes. This book does not have any intense parts. The climax is very weak. A very random even happens which i...more

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Aug 10, 2008

Jonathan rated it

A friend recommended this and even loaned me a copy to read, so my expectations were high. Unfortunately, it did not come close to my expectations. What could have been a story of the transition from adolecence into adulthood and the acceptance of responsibility (as I know some people see it), I just saw it as a story of a selfish boy. Rather than taking responsibility for his own actions, Gene chose to follow every whim of Phineus, yet still secretly loathed him.

In my opinion, a muc...more

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Jan 19, 2009

Jemmuel rated it

A Separate Peace was a great read from beginning to solemn end. It captured my attention and brought a giant foreshadow right from the start. I felt that this book would be a great read from its introduction.

This book, written by John Knowles, is beautifully written, and tells a story about Gene, a boy of 17, at the time of the Second World War, and reaching the age of enlistment with his other pals at a boarding school called Devon. He is best friends with Devon's most outgoing, a...more

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Feb 11, 2009

9charlottes added it

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a book with ongoing struggles of the war and friendship. A Separate Peace is unlike any book I have ever read. It demanded a complicated understanding of two characters and the relationship between them. As the war continues on, their friendship changes as well. John Knowles created an extremely interesting plot and wrote it with such detail that it was never dull. The way John Knowles wrote was descriptive and alluring. John Knowles' writing was effective on ...more

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Mar 29, 2008

Julie rated it

Recommends it for: no one

This is the only book I had to read in high school that I hated. Usually I could find something to enjoy in all the books we read, but I hated this book. I'm not exactly sure why but to this day I get a shudder down my spine when I see a copy.

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Apr 11, 2008

angrykitty rated it

Shelves: classics-smartypants

i don't remember when i read this, but i know that i've been lucky in that i haven't had to teach it. i do remember it being very boring, and that even though it creates an opportunity to show dead poets society, it's not worth it.

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Jan 31, 2008

Kristy rated it

I had to read this book in 11the grade English. I hated it. I had to read it again in college. I still hated it. I don't know why everyone thinks it's so great. Please, explain the appeal to me!

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Mar 30, 2008

Corinne rated it

Shelves: ward-book-club

I've known about this book for such a long time. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school, or maybe a junior, the other English classes read it. Everyone said it was pretty good - but all I ever knew about it, was that it was about teenage boys during WWII. So, I never had any desire to read it. Book club to the rescue, yet again.

I loved it - and it broke my heart. The book is not half so much about war, necessarily, as I had thought it would be. Really, it is the story of tw...more

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Aug 17, 2011

Melissa Rudder rated it

Shelves: teach-it

There's something about John Knowles' A Separate Peace that makes me not review it. When I reread it to teach it last year, it was already after I had started the tradition of book reviews, but I never did one for it. This year, I finished it over a month ago and have yet to review it. Even as I start this belated review, I'm not enthused. And it's sad. Because A Separate Peace is a stunning book: it's painfully honest, with magnetic prose.

A Separate Peace conveys a complex theme...moreThere's something about John Knowles' A Separate Peace that makes me not review it. When I reread it to teach it last year, it was already after I had started the tradition of book reviews, but I never did one for it. This year, I finished it over a month ago and have yet to review it. Even as I start this belated review, I'm not enthused. And it's sad. Because A Separate Peace is a stunning book: it's painfully honest, with magnetic prose.

A Separate Peace conveys a complex theme through its dynamic and compelling characters. With World War II raging in the back of their minds, these nearly draftable young men must fight their own wars, with reality and with themselves. The cast of characters is fantastic: Leper, the naive outcast who lives in his own peaceful world as long as he can; Brinker, the politician and leader who is always passionate about his ever-changing views; Finny, the embodiment of youthful innocence, love, and peace, wrapped up in an attractive, charismatic, and athletic frame; and Gene. Who seems vaguely familiar. And whom the reader may start to hate. Until they come to realize where their war is truly fought.

This novel of friendship and conflict also stands up to an alternate reading. My students, with their very self-conscious and sadly homophobic fear of any overt acts of affection between boys, always ask if Gene and Finny are gay. And I wish I could just say no and move the conversation back to metaphors and dramatic irony, but I think that there's enough evidence to make the argument that Gene is attracted to Finny and confused by this attraction. It also helps explain Gene's very strange behavior. I'm not saying that that's Knowles' intention, but I am saying that it would make a pretty interesting analytical paper.

Reading the book, for the most part, is very entertaining and engaging. Finny's character, as it should, draws the reader in. Gene's internal monologue, while occasionally annoying, is insightful and colors the narrative. Situations thick in dramatic irony and foreshadowing are both amusing and thought provoking. The plot unfolds at a good pace for the most part. Toward the middle, it seems to stall. But that makes sense, thematically, because of a crucial absense.

A Separate Peace is a good read. And it does its job. As the reader is dragged through the darkness of Gene's mind, the mindful reader realizes that he/she might need to better explore his/her own.

(This book review is from 2008 or 2009. I've since revisited the book.)(less)

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Oct 27, 2007

Josh Feinzimer rated it

Recommends it for: to readers who appreciate colorful language

This was my favorite book in high school until I read To Kill a Mockingbird. Though I like a simplistic style more than colorful language, I really appreciated Knowles' style and liked how he painted a picture.

Knowles writes about young men during a time when they were more or less stripped of their youth and forced to grow up a lot faster than high school kids have to today.

Not only were Gene and Phineas, two high school students, faced with the daunting task of fitting...more

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Feb 15, 2009

Dacia rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Teachers, parents, historians, and all middle-school students

Recommended to Dacia by: Mrs. Barber - my 6th grade GT teacher

Shelves: notsooldclassics, young-adolescent, veryemotional, thoughtplay

I first read this book as part of a GT assignment in sixth grade. I remember being so absolutely captivated that even though we had several weeks to finish the book, I simply couldn't put it down. Strange as it may seem, this book made me fall in love with boy's prep schools. I hated being a girl because it meant I could never, NEVER, have the types of relationships that were shared by the boys in the story. Considering how completely dysfunctional all those relationships were, I'm not sure ...moreI first read this book as part of a GT assignment in sixth grade. I remember being so absolutely captivated that even though we had several weeks to finish the book, I simply couldn't put it down. Strange as it may seem, this book made me fall in love with boy's prep schools. I hated being a girl because it meant I could never, NEVER, have the types of relationships that were shared by the boys in the story. Considering how completely dysfunctional all those relationships were, I'm not sure what this says about me.

Of course, at 11, I couldn't fully comprehend everything this book had to offer. I understood the story, and I laughed and cried with the characters. I understood the toils and the trauma, but I could not fully grasp the meaning of the experiences the boys had. I didn't yet have enough experience or the intimate knowledge of history to be able to completely apply the experiences of the boys with my knowledge of the world in general. In subsequent readings the story became both more and less powerful.

It was less powerful, partially, because I already knew the ending. However, it was also less powerful because my knowledge of society and history meant that I could no longer fully sympathize with the boys. What did it matter, the trials of these children in a prep school, compared to all the horror of the reality of the time? It became harder to respect Phineas as I now realized just how juvenile and self centered he really was. And yet, in some ways the story was more powerful. I now better understood the world in which the story was set. Lepper's plight, rather than being a vague problem I barely comprehended, now took on an entirely new meaning. Instead of being just himself, just this one minor character in one part of this one story, he became an entire subset of this generation of boys - the essence of innocence shattered rather than gradually weaned away. While I can never FULLY understand what it is like to face a draft or to be a soldier, I now had a more powerful understanding of the deadline looming above the boys. My knowledge filled out many parts of the story that had only been shadow before.

Perhaps most importantly, however, is how this story colored my later learning. Because I had the experiences contained in this story in my mind and heart when I later learned the more in depth history of the time period, I was able to understand history differently. Even though this is a work of fiction, the characters it creates are just as "real" to me (personally) as any particular name in any history book. Having a picture of what real people (children) leading semi-normal lives in this time felt, I was able to put history into a better perspective. It was easier for me to realize that even though great events were sweeping up nations, those events did not blot out the individual lives people were living. It also helped me understand exactly how distorted the "truth" regular people received actually was. It is much easier to understand how the world can ignore tragedy when you understand how foggy those pictures of foreign events were compared to the full fledged daily troubles people still faced.

I think this is one of the must-reads of early adolescence. (less)

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About John Knowles

John Knowles (September 16, 1926 - November 29, 2001), b. Fairmont, West Virginia, was an American novelist, best known for his novel A Separate Peace.

A 1945 graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, Knowles graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1949W. A Separate Peace is based upon Knowles' experiences at Exeter during the summer of 1943. T...more

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Quotes from A Separate Peace

“I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.” — 55 people liked it

“Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever.” — 52 people liked it

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