A Separate Peace

Rating:
Summary: A Splendid Realness
Review: A Splendid Realness graced the pages of John Knowles' A Separate Peace. The book stunned the reader with unexpected turns on every page, and left him helplessly wanting to read on. Any reader of any age will enjoy A Separate Peace, as did my brother, my father, and I. Gene is a hardworking student; Phineas has a love for popularity and athletics. The two become a pair of unlikely companions in this masterpiece. The gentle heart of a high school student and the daring soul of his best friend collide, and both of their talents are shattered in an experience that would haunt them and many others during a lifetime of joy and sorrow. "What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace," John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace.

Rating:
Summary: A book that anyone can relate to.
Review: A Separate Peace is a great book which maintains the reader's interest. The book contains struggles and relationships that anyone can relate to. The protagonist, Gene, goes through many conflicts with himself about his friend "Finny", or Phineas. Gene envies Finny's athletic ability throughout the book. The book does a fine job of showing that friends can stick together no matter what happens with war and school. I highly recommend this book to anyone young or old.

Rating:
Summary: Fun Easy Read
Review: A Seperate Peace was an execelent read, and would recomend it for readers of any age. The book may seem large, but dont let that overwhelm or discourage you from reading it. The book is actually very easy to read.

Rating:
Summary: Pimped out Review
Review: A classic I would recommend to another person is A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The story is about two friends who go to the same boarding school. It tells about their problems between each other, their family, and with themselves. I think this book is good because it deals with problems that could really happen to you. For example, one person didn't believe in him. He finally decided to go because he believed in himself and realized that he had to believe in himself. I also think it was interesting to find out what would happen to the characters, as they went their separate ways. If you like books that have a lot to do with real problems that could happen to you, I recommend you read A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

Rating:
Summary: Good Lord! I hated this novel!
Review: GRR! I had to read this book for my 10th grade ACC.Eng.Class. It is one of the worst novels I have ever read. I know how that sounds, and everyones thinking, "stupid kid can't appreciate a classic" That is not the case. I read several books and am very open-minded and can look at a novel in depth. However, well to put it bluntly...this book was retarded. The book was confusing and the plot really wasn't that great. I don't understand why people like it so much. Honestly, in my opinion, I think that schools could stretch their reading curriculum. Just because it was a "great novel of it's time" doesn't mean that other stuff isn't written as well. I think we could read something maybe more modern, but with the same sort of general idea. I'm sorry, if anyone can't see my point of view, but I think there are better books out there. SMILE! and have a nice day :-)

Rating:
Summary: I have yet to read a good argument in favor of this book
Review: Why, Lord, WHY has this novel become required reading for today's youth? John Knowles' book fails as a powerful examination of guilt (if we're going to make high school students read this, then why not "Apt Pupil?"), of friendship and betrayal (try Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" for starters), nor of boarding school life (as if this remains a significant topic of study...but go ahead and read "Maurice"). You can also entertain your students with film adaptations of these alternate suggestions.

I'm quite surprised that so many people seem to have had emotional experiences with this book. I know I'm not alone in finding the characters of "A Separate Peace" thinly drawn- which makes it that much harder to care when Finny takes the big spill out of the tree. There was no affecting tragedy in this book as far as I'm concerned.

I think that for any of the numerous aspects of this book that are praised you can find much better examples elsewhere, perhaps even more relevant ones. How about Fitzgerald's beautifully written "This Side of Paradise?" We could also delve further into the gay undercurrent of Knowles's book and read Paul Monette's vastly superior "Becoming A Man: Half a Life Story," or the aforementioned "Maurice" by E.M. Forster. I'm sorry but as we all know there are so many wonderful novels, and I think it's a shame that so many students keep getting stuck with this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Separate Peace
Review: This book is very moving.The story of the two best friends that have their friendship end the way it did can make tears in your eyes. The end was very surprising, I totally didn't expect it. The conversations that Finny and Gene have. The feelings that are described bit by bit. It all makes the story more interesting and sad. I recommend this book to everyone. It kind of complicated but, still, it's awesome.

Rating:
Summary: Okay book...
Review: I needed cliff notes for my report, but all they do is help...

Rating:
Summary: Great book even though I HAD to read it.
Review: I liked this book very much. I wouldn't give it five stars though because some parts of it were hard to understand but the rest was great. It really teaches us a lot about peer pressure and friendship. For those of you who say this book is the worst you've ever read, that's great but I do think maybe you should read it when you are older, you'll grasp the theme better. It can teach you so much. It was required reading for me my freshman year in high school and I totally get what everyone says about it being the worst book to read, but, yes there's a but, I read it again a year ago just to see if there was anything I could get out of it. I was surprised at how far I had come with my thoughts in sixteen years. I say that if you think this is the worst book ever you should try reading it again, you'll get some great stuff from it.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic, and Deservedly So
Review: I try not to overuse the word "classic" but "A Separate Peace" surely is and will remain so. The basic plot structure is fairly simple and the characters, while well drawn, are not extremely elaborate outside of Gene (the main character/first person narrator) and his best friend Finny. What gives this novel its power is its imagery, structure and symbolism--precisely the elements that so many prior Amazon reviewers have disliked in the book. Methinks the English teachers aren't getting through to the students, or the students are being a bit obtuse on this one!

Knowles describes an elm tree as the most "Republican" of trees and the book is full of little gems like that. When you read this book for the first time, pay attention to the water imagery, including rain, ice and snow, and how they cleanse, liberate, and tie plot elements together. Pay attention to the interplay of purity and pollution, including the purity of the upper river and the pollution of the lower river, which serves as a metaphor for innocence and corruption. If you really want to get academic, circle the word "marble" every time it occurs.

At the same time, we have World War II going on as both an allegory of Gene's tumultuous adolescence and--this is important--an almost musical counterpoint to the emotional interplay between Gene and Finny. Very well done. Some critics have turned themselves inside out to find "homosexual" or "homoerotic" elements in the book. I disagree. Before one can have a heterosexual or homosexual identity one must have an identity and Gene is struggling to keep his identity throughout the whole book.

All in all, and for all its subtlety, "A Separate Peace" is a powerful and moving book. I hope the next generation of students comes to enjoy and appreciate this masterpiece just as the last several have.