A Separate Peace

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Summary: A realistic friendship torn by a common moral, jealousy
Review: A Seperate Peace combines the tale of an everlasting friendship torn by jealousy. John Knowles crafted an exquisite novel telling the story of a boy's struggle with his friends and mind during World War II. Gene, the main character, is broken by his love and jealousy for his freind, Finny. He experiencesthe trails and tribulations of true friendship as he fights himself over his kealousy and acts against his friend. Knowles portrays an excellent image of teen life and freinship. I felt I understood what the characters were going through which helped my impression of the story. Helping me relate to the story and its characters. I would recommend this book to any teenager with desire to discover the friendship of two boys and the troubles they find along the way. All and all, A Seperate Peace is an excellent book.

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Summary: A Separate Peace gives wake up call to "best friends".
Review: I consider the widely acclaimed novel, A Separate Peace, to be one of my favorite stories. John Knowles portrays the friendship of Gene and Finny like no other story. Although hurdles present themselves throughout the story. Knowlse also uses carefully plotted character revelation and vivid setting to form a lifelike world. Even though the war rages on two thousand miles away, Knowles uses it to expose the characters true personality and character. I also like the mood Knowles sets in the book. There is an aurora of darkness and jealousy in Gene's mind, but one of naivety and childlike innocence in Finny's. Knoles' novel is deep, containing many symobols and metaphors, but also the basic plot interests the reader. This is a classic that should not soon be forgotten.

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Summary: A Splendid Realness
Review: A Splendid Realness graced the pages of John Knowles' A Separate Peace. The book stunned the reader with unexpected turns on every page, and left him helplessly wanting to read on. Any reader of any age will enjoy A Separate Peace, as did my brother, my father, and I. Gene is a hardworking student; Phineas has a love for popularity and athletics. The two become a pair of unlikely companions in this masterpiece. The gentle heart of a high school student and the daring soul of his best friend collide, and both of their talents are shattered in an experience that would haunt them and many others during a lifetime of joy and sorrow. "What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace," John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace.

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Summary: A book that anyone can relate to.
Review: A Separate Peace is a great book which maintains the reader's interest. The book contains struggles and relationships that anyone can relate to. The protagonist, Gene, goes through many conflicts with himself about his friend "Finny", or Phineas. Gene envies Finny's athletic ability throughout the book. The book does a fine job of showing that friends can stick together no matter what happens with war and school. I highly recommend this book to anyone young or old.

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Summary: Fun Easy Read
Review: A Seperate Peace was an execelent read, and would recomend it for readers of any age. The book may seem large, but dont let that overwhelm or discourage you from reading it. The book is actually very easy to read.

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Summary: Pimped out Review
Review: A classic I would recommend to another person is A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The story is about two friends who go to the same boarding school. It tells about their problems between each other, their family, and with themselves. I think this book is good because it deals with problems that could really happen to you. For example, one person didn't believe in him. He finally decided to go because he believed in himself and realized that he had to believe in himself. I also think it was interesting to find out what would happen to the characters, as they went their separate ways. If you like books that have a lot to do with real problems that could happen to you, I recommend you read A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

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Summary: Good Lord! I hated this novel!
Review: GRR! I had to read this book for my 10th grade ACC.Eng.Class. It is one of the worst novels I have ever read. I know how that sounds, and everyones thinking, "stupid kid can't appreciate a classic" That is not the case. I read several books and am very open-minded and can look at a novel in depth. However, well to put it bluntly...this book was retarded. The book was confusing and the plot really wasn't that great. I don't understand why people like it so much. Honestly, in my opinion, I think that schools could stretch their reading curriculum. Just because it was a "great novel of it's time" doesn't mean that other stuff isn't written as well. I think we could read something maybe more modern, but with the same sort of general idea. I'm sorry, if anyone can't see my point of view, but I think there are better books out there. SMILE! and have a nice day :-)

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Summary: I have yet to read a good argument in favor of this book
Review: Why, Lord, WHY has this novel become required reading for today's youth? John Knowles' book fails as a powerful examination of guilt (if we're going to make high school students read this, then why not "Apt Pupil?"), of friendship and betrayal (try Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" for starters), nor of boarding school life (as if this remains a significant topic of study...but go ahead and read "Maurice"). You can also entertain your students with film adaptations of these alternate suggestions.

I'm quite surprised that so many people seem to have had emotional experiences with this book. I know I'm not alone in finding the characters of "A Separate Peace" thinly drawn- which makes it that much harder to care when Finny takes the big spill out of the tree. There was no affecting tragedy in this book as far as I'm concerned.

I think that for any of the numerous aspects of this book that are praised you can find much better examples elsewhere, perhaps even more relevant ones. How about Fitzgerald's beautifully written "This Side of Paradise?" We could also delve further into the gay undercurrent of Knowles's book and read Paul Monette's vastly superior "Becoming A Man: Half a Life Story," or the aforementioned "Maurice" by E.M. Forster. I'm sorry but as we all know there are so many wonderful novels, and I think it's a shame that so many students keep getting stuck with this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Separate Peace
Review: This book is very moving.The story of the two best friends that have their friendship end the way it did can make tears in your eyes. The end was very surprising, I totally didn't expect it. The conversations that Finny and Gene have. The feelings that are described bit by bit. It all makes the story more interesting and sad. I recommend this book to everyone. It kind of complicated but, still, it's awesome.

Rating:
Summary: Okay book...
Review: I needed cliff notes for my report, but all they do is help...