A Separate Peace

Rating:
Summary: A Serarate Peace Review By Me
Review: Basicall, I did not enjoy this book at all, it was very, "olive drab". First off, the main character Gene, was one of the most boring characters I have ever read about. He always describes his surroundings for so long that it takes up multiple paragraphs so by the time he gets back to the story, you have forgotton what had happened. He idealizes Finny as if he was a god, now that I believe falls into the category of obseesion. Knowles should focus on different characters in the story such as Quakenbush or Prud'homme. They should become more vital to the story, not neccesarily as muchas Gene or Finny, but as important and as mentioned as much as Brinker is. The book flows well, but does not make you want to read it. There are maybe two chapters where there is some if any type of action in the story. If there was any type of action, it was barely noticeable. I did not like this book because it was just plain boring. The only parts that I liked in the whole book were when Finny fell off the tree, down the stairs, and died. Every other part in the book was extremely boring to the extent that I put the book down and stopped reading. Frankly, I give this book one star because it had a couple good parts, but the rest was a separate piece of junk.

Rating:
Summary: Great novel!
Review: I thought this book was excellent. It made me cry! Any book that makes you cry definitely gets 2 thumbs up from me! But I couldn't believe the outcome. So tragic, yet easy to overcome. It's hard for me to write a lot to describe my feelings. I thought Finny was a great guy, and Gene was wonderful too. Two great guys that are around my age as a reader, so I can understand some of their views, but as to the war...that's difficult to really understand. I've never had to worry about being drafted. I can't imagine having to worry about a war as serious as World War II. But the point of me bringing this up is, it was very realistic. It helped me see their views and how scary it would be to see the kids only a year older than you training to be in the war. It put a whole new perspective on teenagers and war. Plus, Finny and Gene's relationship went through what most friendships go through. Rough times. Plain and simple. Everyone has a difficult time at one time or another. I just really liked this book. It was challenging mentally, and emotionally. I cried! That should say it all! :) I recommend this book to all!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book I read in one sitting. Although I was not hooked on it by the first few pages *the main character Gene was reminicing on the past 15 years* What happened after that hooked me to it. I recommend this book mostly for people who are in high school, like I am. I enjoyed it more so that I could relate to it for the main characters were either one or two years older than me. The powers or forgiveness and the bonds of friendship are exemplified here to help the characters declare their own 'Separate Peace'.

Rating:
Summary: a good book about friendship
Review: a seperate peace deals with two friends going to school during world war two.one is very athletic while the other one is not.the one that isnt,gets jealous in a way,and accidentally breaks his leg.they soon become enemies and deal with the troubles growing up.its a book about friendship and psychological problems.

Rating:
Summary: A Symbolic Tree
Review: This is a book about two teenagers, who are completely opposite, but are the best of friends. The story takes place in New Hampshire at a boarding school called Devon. Finny, the handsome, athletic, popular, and not so smart friend, falls from a tree one night and breaks his leg while attempting to make a double jump with his best friend Gene. Gene is the smart, not so much athletic, and not so good-looking friend who is blamed for jouncing the tree limb on which he and Finny were standing on. At a mock trial of the falling one evening, Brinker Hadley, the boys friend, forced Gene to tell Finny that he deliberately made him fall. Finny got upset over this because he didn't believe that his best friend would push him from a tree and stormed out of the meeting and fell down the stairs and re-broke his leg. This creates a complicated plot and causes the ending to become more suspenseful. I rate this book a four because I don't quite get all the details that John Knowles goes into, so therefore I don't understand all the language and symbolism that he expresses. I liked this book a lot and would recommend it to anyone. One thing that really stood out to me was how the boys were so into going to the war and couldn't wait until they turned 18. I also liked how Finny and Gene were two completely opposite people, with totally different personalities, but were the best of friends. Together, they were the perfect person.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: For my 10th grade English class we were assigned to read A Separate Peace. I was not too thrilled about reading but I did the assignment anyway. I was so surprised when I started reading the book. It was one of the best books I have ever read. The story is about two boys, Gene and Finny, who attend Devon boarding school and they are the best of friends. Finny is athletic, handsome, and popular. Gene on the other hand is not so athletic, and not so popular. Gene and Finny are attempting to jump of a tree when Finny suddenly falls off and breaks his leg, wrecking his athletic career. They have a mock trial and Gene is convicted of making the limb jounce and knocking Finny out of the tree. Finny storms out of the room refusing to believe his best friend would do that to him and falls down the stairs re-breaking his leg. I liked the book because it was two different people brought together by their differences. They took the differences and tried to outdo each other. Knowles makes it quite obvious that Finny was jealous of Gene's intelligence and Gene was jealous of Finny's talent and charm. John Knowles uses really good description and the symbolism in the book is really great but at times is complicated to understand. I highly recommend this classic to anybody.

Rating:
Summary: A Recommended Novel
Review: I read this novel in my tenth grade English class, and I enjoyed it very much. I thought that it was a great showing of friendship, and it was also a book that many people-both young and old-can relate to. Finny's and Gene's friendship with all its ups and downs was so true to real life, and I thought that no one could have done a better job than John Knowles at writing this. I also enjoyed Knowles's vivid descriptions that filled the novel. His descriptions made everything come alive, and it was like I was actually there in the book seeing all of the things happening. I could picture the sunset on the beach, Leper's house in Vermont, the Winter Carnival, and the snowball fight between the boys at Devon. He also left many things in the book open to speculation, such as whether Gene purposely made Finny fall from the tree. It made me think and I really enjoy a book that can do that to me. John Knowles's storytelling skills were superb, and the plot of the novel was marvelous in my opinion. Therefore, I strongly recommend A Separate Peace to people who have not read this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: Left to the Imagination
Review: I read John Knowles's A Separate Peace as an assignment for my tenth grade English class. Overall I thought the book was very good. Knowles describes each setting and background to the smallest detail. However, he doesn't go into great detail when describing the main events of the story. He doesn't put a concrete image in your mind about what happened between Gene and Finny on then limb of the tree. While most people would say that Gene purposefully jounced the limb to knock Finny off, I don't believe that he jounced the limb at all. I think that Finny just lost his balance and fell. This is why I like the book so well; different people can interpret the information that John Knowles gives us in different ways. You should read the book and see what you think about the scene on the tree between Gene and his best friend Finny. Knowles truly leaves it to your imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Pointless and Boring
Review: I understand it's supposedly a "classic" but I do not consider it to be one. A novel worthy enough to be studied in school and tested on, should be deeper than A Seperate Peace. Yeah, so it has a lot of symbolism. BIG DEAL. This book was horrible. I couldn't relate to the main character, because he was just nasty and unlikable. It has been commpared to the Catcher in the Rye, but it's nowhere near as poignant as that novel. (my fav btw). I love to read but this book was stupid and I got NOTHING out of it.

Rating:
Summary: A let down
Review: I recently had to read "A Seperate Peace" for school and I gradually began to regret the experience. The book looses steam as it chugs on. In the beginning, Gene and Finny are mildy interesting characters, but as Knowles begins to flesh out Finny, he becomes too perfect (aside from his grade problem) and too eccentric to be interesting. His views and attitudes become very tiresome. Midway through, Gene succombs to just sitting around and wallowing about all his problems while making an occasional reference to the war, bashing us over the head with "subtlety." A few major plot points go unexplained. When Gene "jounced" the limb of the tree so Finny would fall, we never get a satisfactory explanation of why he did it. When Leper, one of the calmest characters in the book, enlists in the army, all I could ask myself was "Why?" I would be willing to accept these manufactured aspects of the plot if the novel could manage to be a more interesting. The novel does pick up a little speed in the end, but it can't make up for this dull and tritely themed novel (We Are Our Own Enemies). Stay away from this book--its guarunteed to bore the pants off you.