Customer Reviews

A Separate Peace

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Walking down the aisles of a bookstore or a library and encountering a book called A Separate Peace, flipping open the cover and noting that the copyright is dated 1959, it would not be much of an intuitive leap for the reader to guess that the subject matter involved war. The reader would be right, though he or she could not possibly intuit the richly layered tale that unfolds as pages turn, one by one, between the front and the back cover.

Set in an all male and very exclusive high school academy (Devon), this boarding school drama takes place in late 1942 and early 1943. Though populated with a rich assortment of characters, the book revolves predominantly around only two, Gene and Phineas (Finny). Attending a summer session at Devon, Gene and Finny form the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, and the two charter members seal their friendship by leaping from a tree into a river. The tree, the origin of the cornerstone event that anchors the novel, is "tremendous, an irate steely black steeple beside the river." In this tree, while attempting the dangerous leap into deep water on two separate occasions, both Gene and Finny will lose their balance. In one instance, a steady hand shoots out to save the other friend. In the other, no hand is forthcoming, and the friend plunges downward towards an injury that will permanently alter the life course of both boys. This fall is the polar axis upon which John Knowles, author of one of the most unusual of all books written about wars, be they personal or political, allows his tale to revolve.

Only distantly related to the genre of anti-war books, A Separate Peace does not have the gritty and blasted geography of trench warfare in All Quiet on the Western Front, the brilliant cynicism and satire of Catch-22, or the surrealistic and all TOO realistic horror of Slaughterhouse-Five. Knowles' approach to human on human violence, be it two individuals in combat or millions against millions, is subtle, almost understated. After listening to two of his friends debate about the causes of WW II, Gene dissents: "Because it seems clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart." Why might Gene's statement be important? Because it disallows us the convenience of separating people that fight wars into good folk and evil monsters. Alexander Solzhenitsyn chimes in here "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

Knowles, a winner of the Penn/Faulkner Award, was a brilliant observer of human nature. It is somewhat eerie to see the close correlation of his observations with cutting edge 21st century advances in the nature of human memory and the biological roots of aggressive human behavior (including war). Recent research has made it compellingly clear that we humans are able to freely construct memories that are more consistent with the personal narratives that we want to tell ourselves than they are with accurate depiction of past events. In the recently published Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World, Potts and Hayden discuss the research that shows that our primate roots have left "something ignorant in the human heart", something uniquely male in nature. John Knowles, through simple observation, beat Potts and Hayden to the punch by a half century.

Several brief thoughts, if you are considering reading this book. This is a book about men, and the few women that appear are almost ghost-like. Though written more than fifty years ago, the level of craftsmanship and wordsmithing in A Separate Piece has not been surpassed in the 21st century. Although the story is engaging, connoisseurs of prose will find it much more to their liking than will aficionados of action novels. Historical fiction buffs will get a kick both from the powerfully nostalgic description of war-time America and from the fact that characters in the book are reportedly modeled on well known people, e.g. Gore Vidal (one of Knowles' classmates in real life) claims that he was the model for the Devon upperclassman Brinker. Not a page turner, but deeply evocative for those with the leisure to let the ebb and flow of Knowles' prose wash gently over them, A Separate Piece has become defined as a classic. This reader agrees wholeheartedly with that designation.

Too many grownups bypass this masterpiece--and that's what it is--because they consider it an adolescent's book. Don't ignore A Separate Peace simply because it's become required reading in high schools and middle schools and because book superstores display it in the juvenile literature section. If you love excellent writing; if you appreciate it so much that when you read a particularly well-written passage you read it again, to savor it; if you enjoy descriptive prose that puts you right there in the place and the moment, you must read A Separate Peace.

I wouldn't have heard of this book had it not been for my parents. And I probably wouldn't have read it had an illness not put me in bed for so long. But this book was a great way to spend my time. I was amazed at the complex issues in the story and how well it was written.

The best thing about this book was the feel of it. It takes place in a time period I've always dreamed about. Things were simpler, but a big event was unfolding and no one knew what the future held. The thoughts and feeling that run through Gene throughout the book are what it's all about and the author does a good job presenting the feelings to the reader.

John Knowles' coming-of-age novel describes a combination of friendship, rivalry and possible betrayal against the backdrop of World War II. This is Gene Forrester's story, and he tells it from the standpoint of fifteen years later after having attended a private boarding school in New England in the 1940's. Gene is a quiet and intellectual teen, while his close friend Phineas (Finney) is the type of smart, daring, athletic young man envied by so many of his peers. Young men are being drafted, and the same fate probably awaits them and their classmates upon graduation. The two share a close and complex friendship at the school. The friendship endures strain and animosity as Gene tries to outdo Finney academically. Then things turn tragic after Finney falls from a tree and breaks his leg. Was the fall Gene's fault - what about all that follows? The story seems a metaphor for the tragic war, from which many young men never returned.

We read this book in high school and didn't find it boring - a strong compliment right there. It was easy to identify with Gene, to envy Finney, and to be moved by both their friendship and the story's turn of events. Some call this a great novel, while I'd probably say moving and well-written. Either way it's a winner.

As close to perfect wordcraft as a novel can be, A Separate Peace presents Gene Forrester's memories of his final year in a New Hampshire prep school. The boys' future service in World War II seems distant in the opening carefree chapters, then looms larger as the story explores darker regions of human nature. Gene clearly remembers his own observations and discovery of his mixed emotions toward his best friend Phineas as he recounts story after story during a visit to the old prep school a decade or so after graduation.

Some of the conflict in the friendship of Gene and Phineas stems from differences between the serious, rule-abiding student and the naturally gifted, confident goof-off. They also complement each other, enjoying those differences. But the tug-of-war between mutual admiration and mistrust is strong, and the betrayal of trust is painful. In the metaphor of WWII and their real prep-school happenings, Gene, Phineas, and their close friends all discover evil in the world and deal with it in their own ways, but Gene discovers the evil in his own heart.

A Separate Peace truly deserves to be a modern classic. I had a different heading for my review, Introspective Retrospective, until I read another Amazon review that pointed out what a shame it is that adults pass by this masterpiece because it involves high schoolers. I totally agree. Forty-some years ago, I didn't appreciate its metaphors, observations of human nature, or fine craftsmanship the way I do now. The other reviewer is so right; this is a masterpiece.

This is required reading for so many high-schoolers for good reason - it is one of a very few well written, complex novels dealing with important, weighty, and moral issues for teenagers. Books like this are called classics because they never lose their relevance.

This book contains a number of surprises that keep the reader engaged. It is also narrated by a boy named Gene, who the reader gets to know inside and out. He shares his personal insecurities with the reader such that he becomes a very real person, with trials and triumphs that will make you gasp in fear or sigh with relief as the plot unfolds. The other main character, Phineas, is one of those people who appears to be successful at everything he does. Gene gets jealous of this. The reader though, is distant enough to know that Phineas is far from perfect and as I read the story I was hoping that Gene would figure that out a little sooner than he did. I give five stars to this book for the realistic portrayal of the two main characters, who continue to interact in my head long after the story has ended.

P.S. I think they've got the wrong date on this title. My copy is from 1967 and it is the eighth printing. The copyright and first printing is dated 1959.

I think Knowles did some really interesting things with his story adapted from his own experiences in prep school. For one thing, he really got right the tension of the war as an analogy for the tension of taking on adulthood. Another thing he did well was capture adolescent narcissism. The boys in this book are completely self-focused at a time in their lives when they should be, but I worry that since this element is rarely interrogated in the many classrooms where it is read, young readers walk away with a false sense of entitlement. Teenagers who read this book really do like it, but I worry that there liking is born out of being able to feel better about looking down on everyone, including each other. In this sense, it is a very ironic book. A person should notice this by the ambiguity in the title. Is separateness what brings peace? Is separation a peaceful process?

One of my favorite classics. The relationship between phineas and gene is complex. One of the better examples of life not being black and white but various shades of gray.

Book was picked in a book club. Took me a little while to get into the book but then really liked the characters. Very surprised at one part of the book. Most in the book club didn't like Finny but I did, not sure why though.