A Separate Peace

Rating:
Summary: "Masterful", "A Great Book"
Review: A Separate Peace is one of the most exuberant books I have ever read. I read it for my freshman english honors class and I loved it. Once I started, it was quite hard to put it down. The book is about a group of high school boys who struggle between war and peace. The choices they make cause bitter rivals or affectionate relationships. Most of the conflict occurs between the two main characters. Throughout the book they change from either being friends or enemies. They reach their harmony when they find their "separate peace".

Rating:
Summary: The struggles and tragedies of two students during WWII
Review: A Separate Peace is about the struggles and tragedies in the lives of some students at Devon, a fictional boys' college, during World War II. The story is written in a 1st person point of view as a flashback of the main character, Gene Forrester.

Gene is an intellectual, the class valedictorian, quite the opposite of his best friend, Phineas. Phineas, or Finny, as his friends call him, is quite popular and is the best athlete at Devon. These personality differences are a major source of conflict as Gene's jealousy of Finny becomes more apparent. Finny, however, is the perfect friend and never feels angry towards Gene.

Overall, it was a good story, and the characters were well-developed and realistic. I enjoyed it, but if you're looking for a happy, exciting story, this isn't one. The plot is sad in itself, and the atmosphere of winter and the war doesn't brighten it. Still, it had all the elements of a good story, but a bit more action would have helped.

Rating:
Summary: Great writing but lack of point.
Review: A Seperate Peace is a wonderful book about two young men growing up in the middle of World War II. It is basically a story focused on betrayal and competition between these two students. The story begins very content. Finny and his followers are jumping about and playing in a very exuberant manner. Finny then decides to jump off of a tree into the river with his best friend, Gene. But little did Finny know, the very same tree he was jumping from, would soon be his fate. The story goes on, always revolving around that tree. Gene, Finny's best friend, is always forming thoughts of competion towards his friend. He is constantly thinking of Finny always trying to be the better of the two, and one day Gene loses it...the rest is up to you to read. I liked and at some points disliked the book. At some points I could not put it down. There was much suspense and thrill to the story, but the ending was disappointing. The novel was really making a short story very long. At the end I looked back in the book and I noticed how long it took me to read such a short point (Even though I never actually found a point.) But overall, it was really brilliant writing.

Rating:
Summary: A startaling book about conflict between friends
Review: This book showed me that inside, at some time, all of us want to hurt those dear to us. I found a lot of what Gene thought and did reflected my own life. While reading this story i lived along side the characters laughing and crying with them. I hope this book touches you as much as it tuched me.

Rating:
Summary: I Don't Understand
Review: I thought that the book was kind of interesting. It lost me though at some points. At the end of the book I didn't understand what it was all about. I have sat and thought on it and it still doesn't click. I thought that it had pretty good content and was written well. It kind of had an impact on me because I have a verry close friend but we get along good and I would never do something like that to her. That is the part of the book that I didn't really under stand. How did he come to the conclusion that finny wanted to make him fail. I have no clue but over all the book was hind of good and held my attention for a little while but not for long.

Rating:
Summary: Good.
Review: This book is about two boys who go throught the dilemma of one of the boys being crippled. This is about how the boy tries to live with himself and how he reflects on everything around him. I think that this book is not a humerous book but a book that is of real life dilemmas and how we try to get over our defeats. This book has some good points and some bad points. Some of its stronger points are the emotions in the book. This whole book is full of raw emotions of teenage boys. It takes the emotions of happiness, sadness, hate, jealousy, and forgiveness and makes them come alive in the characters. This is a very dramatic book. The book also has some bad points. The bad points throught this bookare how the book ends up and how they never really explained what happened on that limb that day. The bad points are how some things are resolved and how the characters deal with situations. These are some of the good and bad points throught A Seperate Peace.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, it really captures the mood of WWII.
Review: A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is a spendid story of friendship, war, and trust. This story takes place at an all boy school during World War II, and is told in the first person point of view. The narrator is Gene, an intelligent young man who's best friend is Finny, an athletic boy who can talk his way out of anything. The two have an inseparable friendship, until jealousy tears them apart. What I find brilliant is that you can see into the mind of Gene, but you never do really discover what Finny is thinking. There are several other intriguing characters, mainly Brinker and Leper, but you also are never fully aware of their emotions. The whole story revolves around World War II, and most incidents relate to the war. In other words, there is more than just one war in the story, and not all of them occur on a battlefield. Like most true wars, they all start and finish with one deep impact. I hold high regard for this novel, and I believe John Knowles made a great impression on me. The language itself is fascinating, and the use of metaphors is incredible. This is truly a book no one will want to pass on reading. It is simply an extraordinary tale in every aspect, and a novel that can be enjoyed for a lifetime.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Interesting and Realistic Book
Review: I enjoyed the novel A Separate Peace by John KNowles. He presents the main characters Phineas or Finny and Gene togethor in an all boys senior class. Their final year of childhood is upon them as the mystery and fear of WWII looms ever present beyond their 18th birthday. Knowles creates realistic characters in Finny and Gene, because of the way he allows the reader to glance into the the mind of GEne. Finny seems realistic because of the emotions, actions, and dialogue we see or hear from him through Gene's interpretations. I took delight in this style of writing. I also took pleasure from the surplus of conflicts readily available in the book. These seem to imitate true human life and give the book it's special tint of authenticity. Also, the backdrop of WWII gave a keen tinge to the story, which added both more stress among the boys and knowledge of the times to the reader. Although I won't reveal it presently, I also relished the ending, as it was clear and definite. I particularly enjoy endings of that nature. To heighten the lifelike qualities already present, Knowles adds characters such as Brinker who is smart and social, or Leper, who is more of a weak person but a good friend. Knowles adds these people as frioends because they bpoth rely on Gene and Finny as friends, increasing Gene's and Finny's importance. Overall, the style and content were quite enjoyable. Although not a thriller, A Seperate Peace was in its own subtle way enthralling.

Rating:
Summary: A story about the conflicts and illusions about friendship
Review: The novel A Seperate Peace, an involved book, tells a story about the conflicts and illusions about friendship. Personally I hated the characters and the plot and by association I have come to hate john Knowles as well. If I set out to write a book I would at least try to make it interesting. Please send me e-mail if you agree with me or disagree. I want to know everyone else's opinion and if I maybe read a different book.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting Novel that has a good moral.
Review: My review of John Knowles', A Seperate Peace, is a fairly favorable one. I rate this book as one of the best I have ever read. This book was good because it deals with many events and situtations that many kids in high school have and will encounter. I myself have gotten in fights with my best friends and have made up with them. This book hits many of lifes occurences. I liked how Knowles involved the war in this story. The war is a symbol to me of what might happen later in the book, foreshadowing maybe. There were many symbols besides the war, such as: The tree Finny and Gene jumped off of, Leper Lepellier's "crackup", and the two rivers. I also enjoyed Brinker's role in this novel. It was a minor one, but an important one. He was the class leader and representative and felt partly responsible for Leper's little episode. He also felt the need to investigate the Finny/Gene incident. Overall, this book was enjoyable. On a scale of 1-5 I give it a 4.