A Separate Peace

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional book for most ages.
Review: A Seperate Peaace by John Knowles depicts a fictional story between the two bestest of friends, Gene and Phineas{fin-e-us}(Finny). Gene, the intellectual finds himself thinking that Finny, his athletic roommate at Devon, an all male boarding school, is trying to sabotage his chances of becoming valedvictorian of his class. However, it finally hits him that no, Finny is not that kind of person and just didn't think Gene had to work all that hard to make his grades--Gene is just good at it like he is at sports. One night during a meeting of a club that Finny had founded Gene jounces a limb and causes Finny to fall and crush his leg... Ok, that's enough of a synopsis, probably wasn't really necessary seeing that the Webster's Literary Dictionary said all that and MORE. Didn't want to give away the ending or anything..., but that's ok. A Seperate Peace should appeal to those who like a book with some realism to it. One can easily identify with the more "realistic" character, Gene but ends up admiring the near perfect Phineas. I've noticed some of the reader comments asking how could Gene knock his best friend off a limb like that even after knowing that there was no real competition between them. My class has discussed this and we came up with somewhat of an explanation: deep down, well maybe not that deep, all humans are savages. Everyone has sadistic temptations and sometimes they're hard to surpress, thought we like to think that wer're always surpressing these feelings, wer're not. In other words, Gene jounces the limb because of a tempation, it just happens. For those of you who didn't like the book maybe your're not the type who likes this kind of book. Everyone has their own personal oppinion; however, as to the fact of this plot being real, it's very real. I can name a modern day incident like this that recently occured: two cousins, age fifteen and sixteen, were playing with a gun--Texas Draw. Don't ask me what they were doing playing with a loaded gun, but they were. The gun accidently goes off, while the fitten year old is holding it, and shoots the sixteen year old in the neck. The sixteen year old's paralyzed from the neck down and the fifteen year old's receiving psychiatric treatment. It may be a hard book, so keep a good collegiate dictionary at hand, the electric ones are a real nicety.

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Summary: phineas's fall
Review: phineas's fall.how Gene become more matur

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Summary: Gene Forrester is Cool
Review: Hey Everyone...I thought that a Separate Peace was a REALLY good book! I mean Gene Forrester was so cool! So was Finny, Leper, and Brinker, etc.... I thought it was hilarious how Gene pushed Finny out of a tree! Too bad he didn't live. I guess his "spirit" was broken by his broken leg. And I guess Gene just couldn't control his "savage" nature. HEH HEH. I think it would have been better if Leper was killed in the ski troops.

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Summary: This book is overall confusing for someone my age.
Review: This book had its good points, but i really didnt like it

Rating:
Summary: An Honest and Beautifully Tragic Novel
Review: John Knowles is a genius! His use of the seemingly unimportant details to reveal the many smaller philosophies, which are all connected to the book's broader meaning, makes this novel a masterpiece. Though he reminds me a little of Golding, Knowles has his own brilliant method of writing which surpasses many others I have read. He provokes thought like Socrates through his often overlooked comparisons, asking us what we think of it all. There are many tributaries leading off of the book main philosophical vein, a vein of black but pretty matter. The section where Gene feels ghostly unattached to his surroundings while walking brings to mind the Smashing Pumpkins' song "Blank Page". The final comparison of youth to the military jeeps makes one go "aha!" in a strangely passive way. 5 stars! Never a boring book.

Rating:
Summary: it was boring and wasted my summer.
Review: this book was boring,went into detail on subjects that didn't matter to the story and if i didn't have too read this book i wouldent have.

Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: I would recomend this book to everyone who enjoys a good book. I had to read this book 4 my summer reading and I thought it would be really boring..it turned out to be one of my favorites. It really gets you into the story and when your finished it makes u think about it along time!

Rating:
Summary: It was well written and easy to get into
Review: It was a good book and actually made me shed a tear towards the end the characters were playful and the script was well written thankyou for your wonderful job writting it! I will recommend it to my friends it was a summer reading assignment for school and I wasnt bored with it.

Rating:
Summary: Overall, it's ridiculous
Review: This book is full of the flowery, unnecessary sort of detail that I'm used to seeing in these so-called classics. I found myself just turning the pages it was so boring. And I have to say that the plot was upsurd; what kind of sixteen year-old knocks their best friend out of a tree because he's jealous??? If Gene was a real person, he would be a total psycho. Lastly, no teenager would ever talk or think the way these characters do. This book makes me wonder what the heck kind of world John Knowles lives in.

Rating:
Summary: Can You Say: BORING?
Review: I found this book to be incredibly boring and pointless. The author goes into topics that I believe he knows little about and therefore cannot understand. Also, there is way too much detail. When you write many pages describing something insignificant and unimportant, face it, you have a problem. To tell you the truth, if I could have given this book zero stars I would have. Those who classify this book as a "classic" definately overestimate it. Sorry John.