Rating: 
Summary: I'm Glad I Picked This One Up
Review: When I got to college, I found that I was pretty-much the only person at the university who hadn't read this high school. For some reason, my teacher didn't use it. But this book kept coming up in discussions. It seemed to me that a lot of the people around me had been able to relate to Knowles's novel and it seemed that a lot had benefited from reading it. Anyway, I had to read it to see if I could see and feel what they fealt. I did.A Separate Peace is about a lot of things. It's about the deep, though fragile, friendship between Gene and Finny. It's about how we manage do create identity and how we should. It's about the battles we create, the jealousies we foster, and the people we destroy. Lastly, it's about the sacrifices we can choose to make. A Separate Peace is a wonderfully written book. I can see why it has been loved (an hated-the truth hurts) by so many. It's certainly a masterpiece that I'm so glad I went back and discovered.
Rating: 
Summary: A New Perspective on World War II
Review: A separate peace is a novel about two boys coming of age during world war two. The story is set at boarding school in New England. Phineas or Finny to his friends was the extrovert, the most popular guy, the one person that everyone wishes they could be. And then there was Gene- quiet, reserved, intelligent; he is Finny's conscience- his inner voice. During a period of time in which the entire world was consumed by the turmoil of the war, Finny and Gene had their own peace a separate peace. A peace away from the harsh realities that were. Finny was always able to create a sense of safety and a calm that filled the air.
The book really is like no other- rather than focusing on the hard times of the war the book focuses more on the fun times when there was still actually lives outside of the war. The book helps the reader feel safe and entranced into the past.
I give the book two thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: Fahrenheit 451
Review: I thought this book was very thought provoking. It made me realize the importance of books and also the importance of individuality. How lucky we are to live in a time when we enjoy such freedom and are allowed the priviledge of our own thoughts and ideas. I liked the author's idea of conveying how much mindless television Mildred and a lot of other people were watching in the future. I believe his idea was to make the reader take a look at how much television they are watching now and the content of the programs that choose to watch. I enjoyed the fact that Montag was fascinated with Clarisse being so open with her bold questions and her inquisitive nature. It was interesting when Clarisse asked Montag if he was happy. He was able to look at himself through someone else's eyes to see that he really was not happy. But instead like a robot mechanically drifting from day to day. This shook him to the core, as this realization would have done to anyone. It also made me look at my own life to consider what things really make me happy and what things I just automatically do. It was sad that his wife Mildred tried to commit suicide because of her unhappiness. I think she did this because she was unhappy but didn't understand why or how to change her life. In the future they were taught not to question, to just get through the mechanics of daily life. Life would be easier if you weren't too happy or too sad, just the same everyday. I didn't like that Mildred spent an afternoon reading with Montag and still didn't show any signs of facing reality. It made her sound mindless to have read the books and not to be affected by the knowledge. Although this reminded me of the many women that watch soap operas today. Montag was crying out to her for help and she was oblivious to him. I enjoyed the fact that Montag couldn't stomach the idea of burning books after he saw the importance of books to the old lady that set herself on fire after they burned her books. It was a nice touch to have the number 451 being in the title and also the temperature that paper burns. The fact that everyone seemed nonchalant about the anonymous man being used as a scapegoat and being killed so the police wouldn't look bad not finding Montag, didn't sit well with me. If someone died because of me, I would be devastated. It was ironic that firemen start fires in the future as opposed to putting them out now. It was disturbing to see that civilization destroyed themselves over and over again in the future. And I think it was a stretch that homeless intellectuals would be the survivors. All in all I really enjoyed this book, it was definitely worth reading. It was interesting and made you think about all the possibilities of the future. I liked the comparisons the author made with the future and some of the things that are apparent in today's society.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely a first novel
Review: John Knowles' 'A Separate Peace' is often taught in sophmore high school english classes as a comparison piece to Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye.' Why any reasonably well read english teacher should choose to do this is beyond me. 'A Separate Peace' has to be by far the most annoying story I've ever read.
Knowles tried to portray the horrible character of Gene as some kind of hero. He took his protagonist, had him do commit terrible acts, think depraved thoughts, and generally be an all around nasty guy. Then Knowles took that creation and attempted to make his readers like him, even pity him.
Dear lord...does not anyone else think this wrong?
Ever since I was first forced to read this work, I've wanted to gag on the words. The most interesting characters of the story were given the least amount of page time. The few aspects of the story that actually grabbed me were left to loose ties. By any and all means, this book of all books should NEVER be compared to Salinger's work. Ranting aside, Knowles did show a masterful command of the language. His descriptions were all clear and engaging. He actually had two round characters, which pleased me greatly as I was barely even expecting one from him. Knowles also did an excellent job of paralleling WWII and these boys' lives. Yea Knowles!
On the whole though, I would not recommend this book. I don't see how it's considered a modern classic.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good read, worth your time...
Review: I read this book my freshman year of high school, and I love it. It's wonderfully written, and the story keeps you wanting to read more. It's full of action, suspense, emotion, and drama. The morals and symbolism contained in the book are fascinating, and it provokes thought about human nature. Definitely a better read than Lord of the Flies...
Rating:
Summary: A Very Enjoyable Book
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It wasn't a breath taking suspense but the characters were
extremely well written. The personality of each character is so easy to picture that it
makes the book that much more enjoyable. The way Leper changes after he goes to the
war is a part that really made the book good. Also, all the things that you find out about
Phineas at the end are so surprising but it still all makes sense. Each character is so
important that the story would not have been a classic without one of them.
One of the best things is that the ending is so unpredictable. Throughout the book
many times, things would happen when I least expected it. From the very beginning when
Gene pushed Phineas off the tree to the sad ending of it all.
All of Gene's thoughts on his and Phineas's friendship are also very interesting like
how he thinks that they in some sort of competition with each other and that the thought
of that never even crosses Phineas's mind. They both thought very differently and were so
different altogether but they were still best friends. Also, it was very hard for Gene to
figure out how Phineas could break the school's swimming record and not want to tell
anyone.
The entire setting of the story fits very well. It is hard to imagine it at anywhere
else but Devon and during the time period of World War 2. The book doesn't seem very
relevant to the time period until you see what it does to each of the boys. Even though
none of them but Leper actually saw any of the action it was amazing how much it
effected each of them in their own way.
I enjoyed this book very much and would definitely recommend it as a book
everyone really should read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read.
Review: I chose this book to read for a report last year, and ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would. The characters seem life-like, as they have traits similar to real people. Even after finishing the project, I still pick it up and read it all the time. I've even recommended it to several other people. Wonderful book. (I'm 14, but I don't want to subscribe to this website. Er, pretend I'm 12, alright?)
Rating:
Summary: A Separate Peace
Review: A Separate Peace is set in New England in a prep school for boys. World War II is going on in Europe and is always in the background for these young men who will soon be old enough to fight. The story centers around the friendship between two of the boys, Phineas and Gene, who are in their last year at Devon School for Boys Gene is a quiet introvert, and Phineas is the popular athlete who can do everything better than anyone else and is the model for the boys. The story also centers around the group of boys who are their friends, and their coming of age, grappling with growing up and becoming men, and facing the prospect of war. Some of them are: Leper, the gentle nature lover, who is the first one to enlist, Brinker, the 'hub of the campus', and Quakenbush, a nosy troublemaker, yet he is respected by the other boys, and he is considered their friend.
The writer, John Knowles explores the various reactions of the boys to their coming graduation and possible enlistment in the military. There is a 'junior suicide society', invented by Phineas, which meets every night, and the 'suicide' is jumping off a tree into the river by the school. They also play lots of blitz ball(yet another game invented by Phineas)---football patterned after the blitzkrieg from the war in Europe. The boys try to find their way amid the competition and putting each other down. The main thing in the book is a drama between Phineas and Gene. One night at the suicide society Phineas is hurt in a bad accident and suspicion falls on Gene. It is not clear what happened so all the boys wonder if Gene really meant to hurt his friend. Gene even begans to not know if he hurt him on purpose or not because it is so threatening to everyone's sense of safety to think that they would hurt each other. Finally one of their friends Leper, the first to enlist, returns. The war has driven him crazy and yet he is the only one who can see and tell the truth about what happened. The story takes a startling turn and all the boys have to grow up, more than they ever expected.
This book is a great character-driven novel. It may start off a little slow, but as the book progresses you feel as if you know the boys personally and you seem to feel the sadness of the boys at the end. This may be a sad book, but I enjoyed it a lot, and I feel that at some point in time for everyone this book is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Classic
Review: Vivid surreal imagery and detailed character descriptions are the two main strong points of John Knowles' epic novel. His depressing tone and unreal metaphors directly reflect the emotional problems he has experienced in his lifetime. These tragic experiences helped him create one of the most captivating and engrossing contemporary novels of our day. The Book was very well written with many plot twists and unexpected occurances. I enjoyed the style that Knowles used to portray his characters and really paint a vivid image of what being a student at Devon School was really like. I could relate to the things Gene and Finny were going through which just made this book even more interesting. It is easy to see why this book won many awards and evolved into a timeless classic. An overall great read, and I would recommend this to anyone, even if you are not a fan of the Coming of age / Youth Fiction genre.
Rating:
Summary: i thought this was supposed to be like a classic?
Review: usually, i like reading classics, and i thought this sounded like a fairly good book. i was actually assigned to read it as one of the many novels i have to read for my advanced 10th grade englsih class. i was in no way impressed w/ this book. the whole time i was reading it, i was wondering why this was classified as great literature. i have come across VERY few books that i dislike, and am an avid reader, so this is saying something.
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