Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: This book was quite interesting, and it was a mandatory read for English 2 honors. It talks of a bunch of boys in a coming to age tale, living through problems, and figuring things out. The end was very sad. The book was okay, not the best, but not the worst.
Rating: 
Summary: powerfully moving
Review: A Separate Peace is a great story set at a boarding school during WWII. Knowles writes beautifully this story about friendship, tragedy, innocence, and war. Read it slowly so you can savor Knowles's words. You can get something from every page of this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Startling Masterpiece
Review: John Knowles's stunning masterpiece, A Separate Peace, is an exercise in youth, war, and the ignorance of the human heart.
This is a painfully beautiful novel set in a 1940s New Hampshire prep school for boys amidst the onslaught of World War II. Gene and Phineas, two complete opposites, yet *magnetically* drawn towards each other, and their beleagured friendship, are the foci of this story.
What starts out as a seemingly small, but startling, incident among the two friends ends with a meditation on evil, in general, and warfare in particular. A Separte Peace is really about the idealistic, nostalgic days of boyhood respite, shattered by the threat of war. In this sense, all the characters are metaphorical victims.
Knowles, however, not content to simply tell one of the most important tales of our time, about the evils of war, and the absconding of all innocence, does so with restraint and care, never becoming preachy or superior in tone. This is the story of the second of the Great Wars, and its first victims. The victims of lost innocence.
Knowles's beloved timely novel first published in 1959, has since remained a best-seller for more than 30 years, and is one of the most widely-read books among high school students. Knowles's vision and message will never be lost or become meaningless. They are lessons for all people, and all generations.
Rating:
Summary: a book that excedes all other books
Review: When I first picked up this book I had no idea of how big the book was going to be. The book takes place at a boarding school in New England during the World War 2 time period. Although it is not one of those ordinary war books, it weaves a story of strong friendship between the characters, Gene and Phineas(Finny), and how they act and respond durring the war. The friendship that is portrayed in the book is something that seems lost in our time, the friendship is something that is true and from the heart, with its ocasional ups and downs. The incident that occurs in the story starts out as a small scratch to the friends but later evolves into something soo deep and dark it will change everything. I recommend this book greatly because it will set the bar for you to determine wether the books you read is as good as this one.
Rating:
Summary: A New Perspective on World War II
Review: A separate peace is a novel about two boys coming of age during world war two. The story is set at boarding school in New England. Phineas or Finny to his friends was the extrovert, the most popular guy, the one person that everyone wishes they could be. And then there was Gene- quiet, reserved, intelligent; he is Finny's conscience- his inner voice. During a period of time in which the entire world was consumed by the turmoil of the war, Finny and Gene had their own peace a separate peace. A peace away from the harsh realities that were. Finny was always able to create a sense of safety and a calm that filled the air.
The book really is like no other- rather than focusing on the hard times of the war the book focuses more on the fun times when there was still actually lives outside of the war. The book helps the reader feel safe and entranced into the past.
I give the book two thumbs up!
Rating: 
Summary: Fahrenheit 451
Review: I thought this book was very thought provoking. It made me realize the importance of books and also the importance of individuality. How lucky we are to live in a time when we enjoy such freedom and are allowed the priviledge of our own thoughts and ideas. I liked the author's idea of conveying how much mindless television Mildred and a lot of other people were watching in the future. I believe his idea was to make the reader take a look at how much television they are watching now and the content of the programs that choose to watch.I enjoyed the fact that Montag was fascinated with Clarisse being so open with her bold questions and her inquisitive nature. It was interesting when Clarisse asked Montag if he was happy. He was able to look at himself through someone else's eyes to see that he really was not happy. But instead like a robot mechanically drifting from day to day. This shook him to the core, as this realization would have done to anyone. It also made me look at my own life to consider what things really make me happy and what things I just automatically do. It was sad that his wife Mildred tried to commit suicide because of her unhappiness. I think she did this because she was unhappy but didn't understand why or how to change her life. In the future they were taught not to question, to just get through the mechanics of daily life. Life would be easier if you weren't too happy or too sad, just the same everyday. I didn't like that Mildred spent an afternoon reading with Montag and still didn't show any signs of facing reality. It made her sound mindless to have read the books and not to be affected by the knowledge. Although this reminded me of the many women that watch soap operas today. Montag was crying out to her for help and she was oblivious to him. I enjoyed the fact that Montag couldn't stomach the idea of burning books after he saw the importance of books to the old lady that set herself on fire after they burned her books. It was a nice touch to have the number 451 being in the title and also the temperature that paper burns. The fact that everyone seemed nonchalant about the anonymous man being used as a scapegoat and being killed so the police wouldn't look bad not finding Montag, didn't sit well with me. If someone died because of me, I would be devastated. It was ironic that firemen start fires in the future as opposed to putting them out now. It was disturbing to see that civilization destroyed themselves over and over again in the future. And I think it was a stretch that homeless intellectuals would be the survivors. All in all I really enjoyed this book, it was definitely worth reading. It was interesting and made you think about all the possibilities of the future. I liked the comparisons the author made with the future and some of the things that are apparent in today's society.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely a first novel
Review: John Knowles' 'A Separate Peace' is often taught in sophmore high school english classes as a comparison piece to Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye.' Why any reasonably well read english teacher should choose to do this is beyond me. 'A Separate Peace' has to be by far the most annoying story I've ever read.
Knowles tried to portray the horrible character of Gene as some kind of hero. He took his protagonist, had him do commit terrible acts, think depraved thoughts, and generally be an all around nasty guy. Then Knowles took that creation and attempted to make his readers like him, even pity him.
Dear lord...does not anyone else think this wrong?
Ever since I was first forced to read this work, I've wanted to gag on the words. The most interesting characters of the story were given the least amount of page time. The few aspects of the story that actually grabbed me were left to loose ties. By any and all means, this book of all books should NEVER be compared to Salinger's work. Ranting aside, Knowles did show a masterful command of the language. His descriptions were all clear and engaging. He actually had two round characters, which pleased me greatly as I was barely even expecting one from him. Knowles also did an excellent job of paralleling WWII and these boys' lives. Yea Knowles!
On the whole though, I would not recommend this book. I don't see how it's considered a modern classic.
Rating:
Summary: A Good read, worth your time...
Review: I read this book my freshman year of high school, and I love it. It's wonderfully written, and the story keeps you wanting to read more. It's full of action, suspense, emotion, and drama. The morals and symbolism contained in the book are fascinating, and it provokes thought about human nature. Definitely a better read than Lord of the Flies...
Rating:
Summary: A Very Enjoyable Book
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It wasn't a breath taking suspense but the characters were
extremely well written. The personality of each character is so easy to picture that it
makes the book that much more enjoyable. The way Leper changes after he goes to the
war is a part that really made the book good. Also, all the things that you find out about
Phineas at the end are so surprising but it still all makes sense. Each character is so
important that the story would not have been a classic without one of them.
One of the best things is that the ending is so unpredictable. Throughout the book
many times, things would happen when I least expected it. From the very beginning when
Gene pushed Phineas off the tree to the sad ending of it all.
All of Gene's thoughts on his and Phineas's friendship are also very interesting like
how he thinks that they in some sort of competition with each other and that the thought
of that never even crosses Phineas's mind. They both thought very differently and were so
different altogether but they were still best friends. Also, it was very hard for Gene to
figure out how Phineas could break the school's swimming record and not want to tell
anyone.
The entire setting of the story fits very well. It is hard to imagine it at anywhere
else but Devon and during the time period of World War 2. The book doesn't seem very
relevant to the time period until you see what it does to each of the boys. Even though
none of them but Leper actually saw any of the action it was amazing how much it
effected each of them in their own way.
I enjoyed this book very much and would definitely recommend it as a book
everyone really should read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read.
Review: I chose this book to read for a report last year, and ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would. The characters seem life-like, as they have traits similar to real people. Even after finishing the project, I still pick it up and read it all the time. I've even recommended it to several other people. Wonderful book. (I'm 14, but I don't want to subscribe to this website. Er, pretend I'm 12, alright?)
|
