A Separate Peace

Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: I first read this book in high school about 10 years ago, and I re-read it periodically. It seems that it is very popular with males, but I think there are lessons here for females (like myself) as well. The story itself is relevant as long as you still question why you present yourself to the world in the way that you do, your true beliefs, and the motivations behind your actions, and your interactions. At 24, I find the story relevant in a different manner than I did at age 15. This is the definition of a true classic; timeless. Read it when you are young, and review it over the years. You'll probably change some of your interpretations, but the story itself never ages

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book of all time!!!!!!!!!!
Review: An amazing achievement: I have read A SEPARATE PEACE over thirty times since high school, and it remains fresh and vital with each re-reading. Knowles' compelling examination of the importance of love and the cancer that is war is timeless despite being set over fifty years ago. He has created characters that stay with you long after the heart-rending denouement. In spite of the tragic ending, this is ultimately a life-affirming work, one that has informed my world view more than any other book. A bookseller for nearly eleven years, I rejoice every time I can recommend and sell it

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Summary: Fascinating, poignant story of two boys growing to be men.
Review: This book inspired me in several ways when I first read it in school nearly 15 years ago. It is a touching story of two friends in a prep school who encounter personal tragedy caused by circumstance and war.

There are too many things about it that compelled me to list them all here, but perhaps the most memorable was a scene in which the protaginist tracks down a friend who deserted from the army only to find that the ravages of war have caused him to lose his mind.

This novel created an image in my mind of New England and prep schools to which I still cling today. Even though this novel was written decades ago, it is still a powerful and sobering reminder of the tragedies of youth.
Rating:
Summary: The loss of innocense - the dawn of war
Review: John Knowles captures the loss of innocense in his "A Separate Peace." Set on the eve of a larger conflict overseas in World War II, the book is a stream of consciousness writing, as the narrator reflects after the war the incidents at Devon that were a sort of rites of passage for him into adulthood.

But 'A Separate Peace' also reveals the deep twists of an unusual friendship between a scholar and an athlete. Their bond and the betrayal that follows. It is a moving drama on a human scale, the climax and conclusion being most unexpected, but reminicent of the tragedy of war, not the resoluution of Peace.

For looking at the youth that will fight the war, rather than the war itself, the author details the peace found between friends that will have to recreated on the battlefield. An agonizing book, it will live in your heart long after you have read the last page.

Rating:
Summary: a separate peace
Review: This book is a good book. in the beggining it starts slow but then it picks up the pace, it starts getting personal with the characters, and all the action happens after the introduction of the characters, when Finny and Gene become real good friends.
i like this book, and i think you will enjoy it too. and also watch the movie, but they act kind of gay but they are not, so dont take it the wrong way.
1love

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Summary: I never know what to put here
Review: Funny thing. I recently read Remembering the Good Times by Peck and I simply can't resist drawing a similarity between the two books. In fact, because the tone/style is so similar, I was somewhat able to predict the ending of Separate Peace halfway through the book. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful book. It's a story about the friendship between two boys. One is a bit on the envious side and hurts the other, who later on either ignores or forgive his confession. (Some psychological analysis may be inserted here, but I won't go into that.) In any case, I'm personally attracted to the character Phineas, whom the book describes/shows as a very charming fellow. The style in general makes me want to read the rest of John Knowles's books. :)

Rating:
Summary: Old But New
Review: I really liked this book. It's so weird that a book written as early in time as this one can be so relating and interesting to a teenager growing up in 2005. Even though it was written a long time ago it doesn't have the usual slang from that time. It is a very easy book to read and understand. Even though Gene is the one who jounces the limb to make Finny fall off, I feel bad for him throughout the story. It was a spur of the moment thing that he really regrets the further the story goes on. Finny just doesn't want to believe that his friend would ever do something like that and who could blame him this I one of the parts i can relate to. If one of my friends did something to ruin my life and I thought it was an accident I wouldn't want to believe them either. As if it's not hard enough for Gene to realize what an awful thing he has done his has to convince his friend he did it. I would recommend this book to anyone my age or not.

Rating:
Summary: More "vague" than "dark"
Review: What motivates these characters? What do they want? Do they succeed or do they fail? Why or why not? Sometimes ambiguity is a useful literary device, but here, I felt that the characters, their relationship, and the central conflict of the story were more confused than they were deliberately ambiguous.

The plot revolves around an incident between the two central characters, ostensibly friends, in which one may or may not have acted with malice aforethought toward the other. At the first, I didn't feel that the incident itself was especially shocking or egregious. One has this sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop, as the characters grope their way through the aftermath of the incident in a manner that doesn't seem to me to advance their respective understandings of themselves, each other, or their surroundings to any significant degree. They seem static and without clear motivation. Then the other shoe does drop, in a sense, at the very end of the book. The other shoe is more significant in it's import than the initial incident, but it's an act of god and it comes and goes so quickly that that too, leaves the reader confused as to it's impact on the other characters. It feels like it's just there as a way of magnifying significance (or maybe, just ending the book), and not for any other reason.

I don't think the central question of this book is, "Did he or didn't he?" I think it's fairly clear that we are to understand that he acted somewhat deliberately, but not with complete premeditation, nor totally out of hate, and without complete understanding of his own actions, and that's the limit of what there is to know about that. It's not a question with an answer; he doesn't even know himself- that's deliberate ambiguity, and that's fine. I think the central question would be more like "What is the nature of the relationship between these two characters that generates these feelings?" or "Why do we sometimes do malicious things when we don't mean to be malicious people?" But I don't think it's clear by any means, and I don't think the book suggests a lot of answers.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book
Review: I am reading this book in English 2. It is fairly interesting, and now that i realize that Gene isn't a psycopath, i'm starting to like him. Anyways, i was just wondering AP reader, do you happen to still have that metaphorical analysis? If you do, send me somethin and [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: John Knowles's A Separate Peace isn't called a classic for nothing. Admittedly, it can get slow at times, but the concepts behind this book are incredibly deep. I never understood how an ordinary guy, Gene, could be driven by such jealousy of his best friend, Finny, until I realized that Gene's jealousy had nothing to do with Finny's athletic ability or popularity or anything; he was jealous of Finny's goodness, and ashamed of how Finny extended nothing but pure, innocent friendship to him and he couldn't accept it. Had I realized this the first time, I would've understood the book a lot better. Because this is told from Gene's point of view, the reader will always be wondering about "the other side of the story", all the parts Gene left out, perhaps because he couldn't understand it himself. I even cried at the end of this book. Anyways, this book is incredible if you will give it the time to develop. It kind of grew on me; I wasn't very interested in the book until halfway through, and each time I read it over it I liked it more and more. All in all, a classic that I would definitely recommend.