Rating: 
Summary: Fowles' Modest Beginning
Review: This was Fowles' first novel and, for those who admire his fuller, later works, there is no mistaking the embryonic stages of his considerable gifts in this tale of friendship and resentment at a New England boarding school. The narrator, Gene, returns to the school some 15 years after the principal events of the book. A walk along the river and the foreboding sight of a tree overarching it is young Fowles' rather self-forced trigger to relive his summer of 42 and a fated friendship with a charismatic room-mate, Finny. Looming about that year and the one that follows is the mysterious awaiting future of World war II. There at Devon, the students are only partially sheltered from this prospect but, largely through Finney's creative and mischievous inventions find a very temporary and fragile "separate peace". The interaction between the narrator and Finney, the interlaced jealousies of two youths whose gifts each other resents, plays out, however, as less of a peace than a subtle, sometimes Hobbsean war of one against the other... with brutal consequences. So why just two stars? To me, despite the short, almost novella length of the book, Fowles fails to stay on course throughout, straying to rather easy cliches about pretentious, upper class adolescence. Some of the petty incidents have the taste of filler though I suspect young Fowles saw them as integral elements of a grander design which, unfortunately, never fully emerges. The denouement is most unsatisfying: the older Gene is forever left stranded on that riverbank within those opening pages and we, therefore, have to surmise what it has all meant to him. I mean, if you're going to use a flashback device, use its full power. I have this hunch that the author was fresh from a reading of Brideshead Revisited when he wrote this, full of ideas, but just hadn't the skill(back then) to pull it all off. Nostalgia can be potent stuff but not if one fails to utilize its power in terms both of learning and forgetting. Fowles did not miss similar opportunities in such later works as the French Lieutenant's Woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Whole new view
Review: This was by far The best book I've ever read. ( my last one being His dark Materials) My friend convinced me to pick it up after her 8th grade class read it in her 8th grade english class.
Even just as it starts out, I knew I'd love it, with the great wit and style the author has.
Throughout the whole story runs the ever impending setting of the second world war. I wouldn't characterize it as Dark, but more in the way of shadowy. Its basically about boys in their last few years in school, in peace, and seperate from the war around them.
But it's a book thats so much more than basic. Its leads into how the boys learn to have to accept the inevitable growing up an loss of such a simple, seperate lifestyle, and move into drafting, leaving the school, and the world changing around them.
The two main characters are a perfect symbolism, Phineas, a perfect leader, respected through the school for his athletic skill and way with words. Yet he is also a symbol of innocence, and sometimes even ignorance. His roomate, Gene, was the shadow to Finny's athletic skill, but also the one aiming for valedictorian, in trying to match his friend. He is more plauged with experience, and continuously overanalizes his world.
I dont want to tell everything that happens, because it's much more enjoyable if you dont know, but this is a beautifull novel, and I love every word of it.
When I finished it, I was left with grim, yet hopefilled and refreshing views. Its a wonedfull book that makes you think. I would recomend it to anyone that likes looking at the world and people, and all sorts of deep thinking, but dont ruin it by overanalizing the symbolism. The overall mood is what's really important.
Even though the reading level is set for people twelve and up, I would say reading it in highschool would be you're best bet. Maybe seventeen and up, though I read it when I was 14, and loved it. Depends on who you are. Just make sure you read it.
... This book is fantastic!
Rating: 
Summary: Envy and Hatred under an Idyllic Surface
Review: This novel stands the test of time. Although some young readers may find it to be out of date and filled with references and feelings they cannot relate to, I believe it is relevant and does encapsulate some of the darker, internal struggles of adolescence. Gene is a teenager at a private boys' school who is searching for an identity and finds himself forging one from emotions and responses that come easily to him- sarcasm, jealousy, hatred, and fear. As a boy on the brink of manhood in a time of war, Gene knows he is supposed to represent all that is good and peaceful in the world, but in fact he realizes that he has the potential for great ugliness within himself. He strives for the greatness, grace, and exuberance that practically ooze from his best friend Finny, but finds that he is in many ways empty and frightened of his reality and the consequences of his own actions. This is a coming of age story, but simultaneously a novel of complex introspection and depth. The character of Gene is not pretty, but he does feel real in his attempt to deal with the ghosts of his past and the guilt that resulted from hurting the one he loved. (I also suggest watching the film The Talented Mr. Ripley after reading this book...I think that there are some interesting parallels between the characers of Gene and Tom and Finny and Dicky.)
Rating: 
Summary: A definate yawner
Review: This book is extremely boring. I am not A.D.D but all I read through the whole book was blah blah blah .... phineas... blah blah blah. Maybe this book related to teens back when it was written, but not anymore. I do not know any seventeen year old boys who are sooo infatuated with their best friend that its like they are in love with them. Sometimes I start to feel sick while reading this book! It is sooo boring it makes me want to weep. Anyway, if you ever have to read it for school, Happy reading... err... sleeping.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book to force kids to read.
Review: This has to be one of the most depresing books I have ever read. Basically nothing good happens the entire time and the main character has some serious head problems.. While this book might provide an interesting look into the thought patterns of an adolescent male, I do not see why it is hailed as a classic by our literary society. The best thing I found about the book was that it was short. If I had been forced into spending much more time on this piece, I do not think I would have finished it. If high school teachers want to influence kids to enjoy reading, there are much better books than this one (Ender's Game, The Belgariad, to name a couple). I think a major reason that lots of young people are convinced that they hate reading is because they were forced into reading "intellectual" books like this one in school. A bad practice I say.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the timeless novel it's touted to be...
Review: I finished up A Separate Peace last night, and I've come to the conclusion that I did not enjoy that novel. In the beginning, I was enjoying A Separate Peace, but by the end, John Knowles tried to make the book too moving and tried to make it too much of a political book. The book lost its charm when the war became its primary focus, and unfortunately, it lost too much of its charm. Or maybe my generation cannot identify with the looming fear of being drafted and war such as in WWII, or even more recently, Vietnam. My generation does not have that defining moment that gives the precedence for a political novel. All we have is the war on terror, which really isn't anything special in terms of war. One part of the novel that I really have problems with is the scene where Gene and Brinker are talking to Brinker's. The scene just seems pasted in just to get a point across about the differences in thought between adults and teens. The scene is more like an afterthought that Knowles just had to put in--like a Hollywood movie. The book tries to hard.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: "A Separate Peace" has a great plot. I had to read this for school, and I though that it was going to be horrible, but it was actually very good. I sympathized with the characters.
Rating:
Summary: think while you read
Review: this is the kind of book where you have to reread a couple of times to fully understand everything that goes on. it's all about a student who pushes his friend and roommate off a tree and by the end of the book he pushes his friend off a flight of stairs. the best part of the book is when a minor character, leper, goes insane because of the emotional stress he obtains from going the military, he almost gets an honerable discharge or something like that. knowles dosn't describe his charecters that well, either. he only tells us their accomplishments , and their personalities. nothing about their facial features or anything along those lines. this is one of the worst books that i have ever read. and i had to read it, it was maditory summer reading.
Rating:
Summary: A really good book
Review: This book is the best book I have ever had to read for school. Most books for school are boring but this one is real and I could relate to it.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting book of betrayal
Review: I read this book as a sophomore, and I must say that I don't like it at all. It's said to be up with "Catcher in the Rye," which I enjoyed and read several times, but I must say that I don't agree with the comparison. The symbolism in the book is great, but the storyline is aweful and depressing. Gene begins to hate his friend (I think his name was "finny") because he feels that everything turns out for the best in Finny's life, and Finny must do things on purpose to make his life miserable. An example of this is when Gene and Finny spent the night at a beach, having fun, and they were late for class the next day. Another example is when Finny asks goofy questions while Gene is studying for a test. This is occurring during World War II, by the way. Gene somehow gets it in his mind that Finny is a conniving, horrible person who plans to make Gene's life miserable to make himself appear better, but the truth is, Finny is just a funny, sweet, lovable guy who does not try to hurt ANYONE. Gene is so jealous that one day, while he, finny and some other friends are jumping off a tree into water, Gene wiggles the branch of the tree so that Finny falls off, crippling himself. Finny used to be an awesome athlete, but no longer! I just find the book to be cruel and upsetting.
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