A Separate Peace

Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: A Separate Peace displays a tale of two best friends sharing the times of their lives while at boarding school. John Knowles displays the hardships that high school boys face away from home during World War II. The lessons learned, their independence, and the security they discover can never be forgotten in a time of war and fear. Many people can relate to Knowles' central theme of friendship. I thoroughly enjoyed A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. The fact that I also attend boarding school helped me relate to the novel. Although the plot is not filled with lengthy adventures and exciting climaxes, if one can read between the lines and view the book for its real meaning, he or she is sure to enjoy it. One must be able to see through that thin barrier that blocks the emotions from leaping off the page, and look into Gene and Finny's hearts. It's difficult to be dependent on oneself at such a young age. Finny and Gene form a unique bond and help each other survive tough times. While Gene doubts Finny on occasion, deep down he relies on Finny's constant support and humor to get through troublesome times. When Finny's love for sports and competitiveness ends in an accident, Gene is left to live with the reality of that eventful night. The book's controversy deals with Gene's battle with the truth and Finny's acceptance of it. A Separate Peace proves that trust and friendship can take years to develop and an instant to destroy.

Rating:
Summary: Sam's Review
Review: I liked John Knowles' A Separate Peace because Gene and Finny's relationship is similar to my own friendships. When Gene broke Finny's leg, Finny didn't want to believe that his best friend did it to him. Gene did almost everything with Finny because he didn't want to lose Finny's friendship. I hurt my friend's face and he now has a scar. Even though he had the right to say bad words and shout at me, he did not. Instead he forgave me. Our experience is related to Gene and Finny's. When Finny says, "We'll jump together to cement our partnership", (PG 24), he shows that he and Gene are very closely related and spend most of their time together. My friend and I always spent time together too. When I skipped the class, he did the same and we both spent our time playing while others were in school. He was always there for the important things in my life. It feels like my personality is made of elements from both Gene and Finny's characters. This book is nicely written, and I think that people should read it. Even though it does not have that much action, when you relate the book to your own life, it seems that you are in the book and experiencing the same emotions of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the time
Review: This book was assigned to me te beginning of my sophmore year. Perhaps because I'm a girl, maybe because I'm never experienced the war, or possibly because I've never been to boarding school, this book wasn't precisely life-changing. However, even with all the aforementioned incongruities, I still felt a sincere emotional impact when reading about Phinny and Gene. It was painful to see such a beautiful and carefree friendship fall into ruin. . .And it was a strong lesson in the human psyche. I would never dream of doing what Gene did (I'm trying not to give too much away here), and it was fascinating to live, for the duration of the book, as someone who would. I wouldn't purchase it for my own library, but neither would I call it irrelevant. The world so vast, and what I will experience in my lifetime will be so small. . .Why not live as someone else for a few days? It's something I would never do, a life I would never lead, which makes it a fascinating experience. Well worth the read, even if you walk away shaking your head. It will cause you to question what you believe in accordance with your friendships, and perhaps teach you something about yourself.

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Novel
Review: A Separate Peace is a novel by John Knowles about one man's fight to strengthen his character throughout his high school days. This story takes place at the Devon school, a prep school in New Hampshire during World War Two. This well - written book shows many great struggles in a relationship between two people. This is a good book in my point of view especially since I attend prep school and can relate to some of the same struggles as the main characters Phineas and Gene. Gene explains to his friend in the hospital after Finny has fallen from a tree and has broken his leg, " I jounced the limb. I caused it." "I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off." From this moment, this book becomes a battle of truth and conscience. A Separate Peace is a book worth reading for all ages. Any person could relate to Gene and Finny's common struggle between two friends.

Rating:
Summary: Good For Some People
Review: A Separate Peace is a book about a conflict between two friends at a New England boarding school during World War II. I didn't like the book as much as most other people. Although at certain points I could not stop reading, I more often thought, "why am I reading this?" A Separate Peace didn't have enough action. It focused more on conversation and thoughts. For example, at one point Finny takes up an entire page to try and explain his way out of trouble. I ended up skipping that dialog. I can relate to this book because I am attending a boarding school and have friends like Finny, one of the main characters. John Knowles uses symbolism frequently throughout the book. Several parts were too drawn-out and it took a long time to get to the point. The "up" side to this is you get a full picture of what is happening, but on the "down" side you may get lost in the midst of all the symbolism. Often I got lost and had to reread a few time to figure out where the book was going. This drew me away from it. It took me a longer time to read it and bored me. All in all, if you like emotional yet meaningful stories, this is the book for you. But if you like action-packed thrillers, keep on looking.

Rating:
Summary: A Frienship about envy
Review: I found A Separate Peace by John Knowles to be one of the best books that I have read. I recommend this book to all people who attend boarding school, even if he or she doesn't like to read. The novel is a page- turner about how envy can complicate a friendship. Throughout the novel, Knowles writes about the troubled Gene who comes to terms with his inner feelings about his friendship with Finny. This book was worth reading because it made me think about true friendship. Gene and Finny have to overcome the problem of envy that occurs in their friendship. In one scene, Gene is studying and his mind starts to wander when he says to himself, "I was more and more certainly becoming the best student in the school; Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even. But while he was a very poor student I was a pretty good athlete, and when everything was thrown into the scales they would in the end tilt definitely toward me. The new attacks of studying were his emergency measures to save himself. I redoubled my effort." Even though Gene has these feelings, he discovers throughout the book that he still cares for Finny and their friendship.

Rating:
Summary: "A SEPARATE PEACE FOR US ALL"
Review: When I was first assigned this book while attending highschool as a freshman, I have to admit I was not the least bit excited. Everyone else seemed to refrain from praise as well. However, this was a book which appeared to grasp me with impassioned determination, as if to beckon me to heed closely to its principles. The plot, I noticed, was without a turbulent adventure and a breathtaking climax, but was nevertheless a dramatic step to creating an important ordinance on the value of friendship. Here two very close friends attending a boarding school are involved within a struggle to overcome an evil adversary which could potentially harm their unification. This adversary instills itself deeply inside the mind of a young man who uses it to unfairly hurt the other because of a long-felt jealous insinuation. The bulk of the novel is woven with the teenage culture in occurence at that time, especially of young men. Along with the difficulties of young Gene and Phineas, there are the hostilities of war impending on every ripening man at that time. Friends are won and lost in the contest between the ignorance of world powers and innocent youth who are compelled to yield. The friendship existing between the two despite all the conflict, is extremely touching, which may sound a bit corny to most, but it is in fact a human quality that is rare and needs to be assembled within all of us. Gene's and Finny's story of amity, betrayal, and bittersweet turmoil, made me reflect back on my own life and some of its similar situations, and even altered the way I normally approached things concerning human nature and the tendencies of emotion. To put it simply I absolutlely adored this novel like no other I have ever read in the past. However, I soon came to realize not everyone felt the same way as I did of course. My peers and classmates utterly detested the work without thought, and exclaimed that it was "too wordy", "stupid", and "very boring". In addition to this was the hundreds of reviews which proclaimed the same criticism. I know personally, that you can't expect much out of a hoard of brainless, immature teenagers these days when it comes to literature or fine arts. Firstly, I would like to say that anyone who doesn't quite understand the moral of the piece should not conclude by saying it is "stupid". Only idiotic halfwits would do something like that. Secondly, the book was not at all "wordy". John Knowles's literary techniques are superbly ingenious and colorfully orchestrate the beautifully wrought narrative of the novel. Lastly, any reviewer or reader who condemned it to be boring or attacked it any way that was not necessary, should be smacked briskly over the side of the head in my honest opinion. I'm not saying that everyone who comes in contact with this book should immediately enjoy or praise it, but I only feel that overly critisizing a novel is unacceptable and is the sign of an unthinking, reckless individual. It is true, I have to say, that this particular work is not for everyone, but rather for those who are a little more sentimental and grown-up. Therefore I recommend to all those who submitted a single star or chastised the writing, to begin busily reading Dr.Seuss books. "A Separate Peace" is one of those few masterworks of literature that incorporates a story of purity and commiseration, written with a flawless realism and careful understanding of the inclinations of youth. It has certainly become one of my favorite stories of all time and I will never forget the flood of sensations it disclosed to me. John Knowles and his imperishable saga will inevitably stand the test of time and forever observe to all of us, of what we all may call, a separate peace.

Rating:
Summary: Not what you would think!
Review: This book was assigned to me this earlier on in this year as a freshman. I just wanted to say that when reading this I was thinking, I hope that all the books we read in high school arn't going to be this bad. The language in this novel was so boring. There was no action. I couldn't stand reading this book. I never really finidhed reading the book but we discussed it in class. Let me just tell you from the start, buy the cliff notes. I was lucky enough to get them and pass my final essay about the novel with a 95! Wooo Hoo! But let me tell you that this book is booring, unentertaining, and pointless! What kind of person would do some of the things that Gene did! It has no relistic meaning to it. My english teacher some how thought that this book was good. So to end it briefly, Stay far far far away from this book!

Rating:
Summary: The heck with you all..
Review: I find it disturbing that some people thought "A Separate Peace" was a "waste of time" but I guess everyone really does have different taste when it comes to reading books. I'm a sophomore and my class had to read this book during the beginning of the year. It is a good book and I know half of you would agree and the other half would disagree. I just find it insulting that some of you people didn't have the decency to recommend this book to other people who might find it interesting. You should be encouraging people to read and not turn them off by the mere mention of an uninteresting book. I think Phineas and Gene had a strange friendship but in a way it relates to how we treat our "friendships" with our peers and other people. People always take things for granted and we seem to end up learning our mistakes after the fall of others or after things are too late. Pity this world and the humans who live on it. I enjoyed this book immensely and give the book a try. I was just as skeptical as first when I started reading it but I changed my mind later on in the book.

Rating:
Summary: feelings
Review: I am not one to analyze books, but I still did enjoy this one. It was an emotional journey with Gene. Although Gene was jealous of Phineous, he seemed to love him. Perhaps even more than a best friend. The often descriptions of Gene studying Phineous's body and actions makes me wonder if Gene did not have homosexual feelings towards Phineous. At any rate, I did find the book exciting and readable, it wasn't a bore like so many of the books we have to read in school.