I first read this book in high school, along with a number of other coming of age stories. The good ones, this among them, had a mystical quality for me. Like some adolescent Rosetta Stone, each one of these novels held a clue that would enable me to unlock the answers for growing into adulthood with integrity. I resist rereading these books as an adult because I know that when I bring them into the light of my reality some 40 years later, the mystical aura will dissipate. I am late reading this book group pick for that reason, but I finally gave in. I had remembered little of the details of this story set in a male boarding school in 1942, this story of friendship, of unspoken competition, of suppressed jealousy that can surface in an unguarded moment, but I did remember the major themes and the lessons I learned. As anticipated, the mystical aura is now burnt away but that does not mean that I disliked the book. I can still understand why this has had such enduring power. I think it is still found important themes worth exploring by an adolescent. 3.5 stars

[Edited for typos and pictures added 12/11/21]

A short review because I can’t add much to the thousands of reviews that are out there.

The story takes place at an elite all-boys New England prep school. (A thinly disguised Phillips Exter Academy in New Hampshire that the author attended.) The two main characters are opposites in many ways: an introverted, intellectual Southern boy and a Northerner who is outgoing, athletic, a risk-taker. The latter is a natural leader among the boys but he struggles with his studies. They become fast friends but impulsive horse-play leads to the death of one of the boys.



So it’s a male-bonding, loss of innocence, coming of age story set just before World War II, when the threat of the draft hangs over all the boys. One of the secondary characters is drafted and comes back psychologically wrecked.

I did not have to read this in high school as many folks did. It has a relatively low rating on GR: a 3.6 based on more than 150,000 GR ratings. That’s pretty low for a “classic.” In perusing reviews by others I am struck by how often someone leads off with “I hated this book” or “I loathed this book.” Maybe because it was required reading? LOL. Why out of thousands of books out there do we make millions of kids read this one?

Coincidentally, at about the same time that I was reading A Separate Peace, I also happened to be reading Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise, and I was struck by the similarities between the two: male bonding, coming of age (but at an elite college instead of a prep school); a war and the draft hanging over them (WW I for Fitzgerald; WW II for the prep school boys).



Good, but not great: I gave it a “3.”

Top photo of Phillips Exeter from businessinsider.com
The author (1926-2001) from fairmontstate.edu

I'm the kind of kid who always wanted to go to boarding school and be mischevious. This book is about as close as I ever got to fulfilling that dream. It takes place at a boy's preparatory school in New England in the early 1940s. Narrated by Gene Forester, a sort of Nick Carroway type but with passion, it tells the story of Phineas, a charismatic, good-hearted athlete who turns Gene's education into the sort of memory one looks back on with longing and maybe a tear. Phineas makes up new sports, denies the existence of WWII, breaks school records secretly just for the fun of it, and smooth-talks adults and peers alike. He sort of lives in his own reality. it is not a coming-of-age story, but more a character description. One day Phineas and Gene are jumping out a tree into a lake and Gene basically causes Phineas to fall, ending in a majorly broken leg. The central micro-conflict is Gene's guilt over deliberately hurting his best friend (who is thus unable to do sports or go to war) all the while Phineas is denying any wrong doing. Phineas is sort of too good for this world. Parelling the psychic conflict within Gene is WWII. I think one message of this book is about finding inner-peace in a world of conflict.

I read this book in high school and adored it. I think I adored it more the second time around. The prose of the book is thoughtful and full of simile. The characters, despite their micheviousness, are good at heart. It is thoughtful, interesting, and important.

5 stars.

I grew up with an old, yellowed paperback copy of this book sans front cover sitting on my parents' bookshelf. I remember seeing it there on that bookshelf for a decade and thinking to myself how stuffy and boring it obviously would be. It wasn't until I was 23 or 24 visiting my parents' house, inconspicuously stealing things to take home with me, that I decided to snatch it up from that bookshelf with a handful of other books it had never occurred to me before to read.

Maybe it was just the place I was at in my life at the time and the meaningful relationships I was then engaged in but I was immediately, profoundly, tragically affected by the simple accounts of the these boys and their experiences and interactions. I didn't relate to their time in a boarding school or their anxiety about the possibilities of going to war. What I did relate to was jealousy. I did relate to Gene, always feeling second-rate in all the things that really mattered. I know what it's like to be grateful for a best friend and love him in the way that friends do and still secretly wish him failure and embarrassment.

I've since come to realize that there are far more people who see themselves as being Gene than Finny. And whenever a Gene consciously or subconsciously "shakes a tree branch" if you will, it changes them. As Gene explains:

"Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person 'the world today' or 'life' or 'reality' he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever."

Gene mentions this in reference to the war and how it will always be his reality but, given his behavior regarding that tree, one can tell that there are more specific moments we all have etched into our memories whether from joy, fear, regret or fondness. This book is one of my very favorites not because of any deep or complicated wisdom but because it's a mirror that helps me reflect on my own reality and the unconscious envies and insecurities I harbor. Who knows what other treasures have been hiding on my parents' bookshelf...

A Separate Peace, John Knowles
A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel by John Knowles, published in 1959.
Gene Forrester returns to his old prep school. 15 years after he graduated, to visit two places he regards as "fearful sites": a flight of marble stairs and a big tree by the river from which he caused his friend, Phineas, to fall. First, he examines the stairs and notices that they are made of very hard marble. He then goes to the tree, which brings back memories of his time as a student at Devon.
From this point, the novel follows Gene's description of the time from the summer of 1942, to the summer of 1943. In 1942, he is 16 and living at Devon with his best friend and roommate, Phineas (nicknamed Finny). World War II is taking place and has a prominent effect on the story. Gene and Finny, despite being opposites in personality, are close friends: Gene's quiet, introverted, intellectual personality is a character foil for Finny's extroverted, carefree athleticism. One of Finny's ideas during their "gypsy summer" of 1942 is to create a "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session", with Gene and himself as charter members. Finny creates a rite of initiation by having members jump into the Devon River from a large, high tree. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و دوم ماه نوامبر سال 2018 میلادی
عنوان: ‏‫آسوده از جنگ؛ نویسنده: جان نولز‮‬‏‫؛ مترجم: امیر رئیس‌ اوژن؛ تهران: راه معاصر‏‫، 1396؛ در 232 ص؛ شابک: 9786006585390؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20 م
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آسوده از جنگ، روایتی ست فرسنگها دور از میدان جنگ؛ فارغ از تمام کشت و کشتارهای خونین و بمبارانهای بی امان. این اثر، داستان مردی میان‌سال است که از شانزده سالگی و از خاطرات خویش در گیرودار جنگ جهانی دوم مینویسد، و با وجود آن که این رمان، پیرامون جنگ دوم جهانی میچرخد، هیچ صحنه ای از جنگ را به تصویر نمی‌کشد، و تنها حضور مداوم آن، همچون سایه ای مخوف، بر سطر سطر کتاب سایه افکنده است. بهتر است بگوییم جنگ در این کتاب، نشان از ستیزی دوگانه دارد؛ یکی جنگ بیرونی و دیگری نبردی با درون. جنگ بیرونی بر کسی پوشیده نیست؛ اما نبرد درونی، نبردی ست، که از چشم همگان پنهان است، و انسان را بر آن میدارد، تا تیغ از نیام برکشد، و به ستیز با دشمن درون خویش برود؛ دشمنی که آدمی آن را به تدریج در درون خود مییابد، آرامش را از او سلب میکند و در نتیجه، آدمی برای به چنگ آوردن آرامش ربوده شده ی خود، علیه خویشتن که عامل این بیقراری ست، قیام میکند.نقل نمونه متن: «یکم: مدتی پیش به مدرسه ­ی دوون رفتم، و دیدم که به طرز عجیبی، نسبت به پانزده سال پیش که محصلِ آنجا بودم، نوتر شده است. تا جاییکه حافظه ام یاری می­کرد، فضایش در قیاس با گذشته، آرامتر و ظاهرش استوارتر جلوه میکرد؛ انگار به دانش آموزان بیشتر از گذشته سخت گیری می­شد. پنجره ­هایش کوچک­تر از قبل به نظر میرسید، و چوب­کاری­ هایش برق می­زد؛ انگار که برای نگهداری بهتر، لایه­ ای از روغنِ جلا، بر همه­ چیز زده بودند. البته، خُب، پانزده سال پیش در بحبوحه ­ی جنگ بود، و شاید از مدرسه به این خوبی نگهداری نمی­شد؛ شاید واکس و جلا هم مثل باقی چیزها به جنگ فرستاده میشد. راستش را بخواهید، از کف صیقلی مدرسه، چندان خوشم نیامد؛ چون مدرسه، شبیه موزه شده بود. آره، آنجا برای من همینگونه به نظر میآمد؛ منتها اصلاً دلم نمی­خواست، مدرسه­ ی ما مثل موزه باشد. ته دلم، جاییکه احساسات بر منطقم غلبه می­کند، همیشه این احساس ناگفته را داشته ­ام، که نطفه ­ی مدرسه­ ی دوون، از وقتیکه پای در آن گذاشتم، در زندگیم بسته شد. سپس، طی دوران تحصیلم به واقعیتی پرشور تبدیل شد و دست آخر، همین که آنجا را ترک کردم، در چشم به هم زدنی از زندگیم محو شد. همه­ ی اینها به کنار، حالا مدرسه به دست افرادی اداره میشد که شش دنگ حواسشان، معطوف به نه داری و جلا انداختنِ آن بود. همچنین، ترسی آشنا، که سراسر روز­های جنگ را آکنده کرده بود، همانند دیگر چیز­های که به خوبی از آنها محافظت می­شد، در آنجا باقی مانده بود؛ درست شبیه هوایی خفه، توی اتاقی دم­کرده، و حالا آن حس، به قدری برایم آشنا بود، که اصلاً حضور پررنگ آن را، نمی­توانستم احساس کنم. خب، وقتی که مزه ی نترسیدن را نچشیده ­ام، یا حال و هوایش برایم غریبه است، چطور حضور صلح و آرامش را می­توانستم احساس کنم. اکنون که به پانزده سال پیش برمی­گردم، فقط ترسی را به روشنی می­بینم، که در آن زمان، همه ی زندگی­م را سرشار کرده بود، و حالا این تصور، نوید آن را می­داد، که من در آن دوره توانسته ­ام کاری را با موفقیت، به سرانجام برسانم؛ باید هرطور که شده، راه فراری از آن ترس برای خود، پیدا می­کردم. ایستاده بودم و رعشه ­های ترس را، که همراه آن شادی بی اختیار و عنان گسیخته­ ای بود، در رگ و پی خود احساس میکردم؛ دو حالت متضاد که همواره با هم، به سراغ من میآمدند. این حس شادی در آن دوران، گاهی مثل شفق قطبی، آسمان تیره را روشن می­کرد. یکی دو جا بود که حالا دلم می­خواست، به آنها سر بزنم. هر دو جا، مکانهای ترسناکی بودند، و به همین دلیل، می­خواستم آنها را ببینم. پس از اینکه در مهمانسرای «دوون» نهار خوردم، به سمت مدرسه، قدم­زنان برگشتم. آن وقت سال، هوا خشک و وصف ­ناپذیر بود؛ تقریباً چیزی به اواخر نوامبر باقی نمانده بود؛ از آن روزهای زمستانی و بارانی؛ وقتی که گِل و شُل همه ­جا را فرا میگیرد و آدم احساس بیچارگی می­کند. خوشبختانه، در «دوون» خبری از اینگونه هوا نبود - آب و هوای آنجا اغلب شامل یخ­بندانهای زمستان یا تابستان­های سوزان نیو­همپشایر میشد - اما آن روز، بادِ عجیبی می­وزید و تندباد داشت مرا با خود میبرد. در امتداد خیابان گیلمن قدم زدم؛ جاییکه بهترین خیابان شهر محسوب می­شد. تا آنجا که یادم می­آمد، مثل گذشته، خانه­ ها همچنان زیبا و غریب بودند. نوسازی­های ماهرانه ای، از خانه­ های استعماری قدیمی انجام، و اضافه­ بناهایی با چوب­­های ویکتوریایی ساخته شده بود. همچنین، معبدهای بزرگی با سبک معماری احیای یونانی بنا کرده بودند. حالا همه ­­ی آنها کنار خیابان صف کشیده بودند، و مثل همیشه هوش از سر آدم می­ربود، و ترس به جانش می­انداخت. به ندرت کسی را دیدم، که وارد یکی از این ساختمانها بشود، یا روی علف­ها بازی کند، یا حداقل پنجره­ ای را باز کند. امروز خانه ­ها با پاپیتال­های پژمرده، و درختان تن­ لخت که باد ناله ­ی آنها را بلند می­کرد، هم آنجا را زیباتر کرده بود و هم بی­روح­تر. مانند هر مدرسه­ ی باسابقه و خوبی، دوون دورافتاده بود، و پشت هیچ دیوار و دروازه­ ای بنا نشده بود. بسیار طبیعی از دل شهر سر برآورده بود. پس، با نزدیک شدنم، صحنه­ ای غافلگیرم نکرد. انگار خانه ­های امتداد خیابان گیلمن، کم کم داشتند مرا پس می­زدند؛ این بدان معنا بود که داشتم به مدرسه نزدیک می­شدم. وقتی که بیشتر از نفس افتادم، فهمیدم پا توی مدرسه گذاشته ­ام. سر ظهر بود و توی محوطه و ساختمانهای مدرسه، پرنده­­ ای پر نمی­زد؛ چرا که همه ­ی دانش ­آموزان، آنجا را برای ورزش ترک کرده بودند. حین عبور از حیاط بزرگی که معروف به محوطه­ ی دور بود، هیچ چیز حواسم را پرت نکرد. به سمت ساختمانی با آجرهای قرمز رفتم؛ یکی از همان ساختمانهای خوش­ ساخت بود؛ منتها سقفش را گنبدی شکل ساخته بودند و زنگی توی گنبدش آویخته بودند. ساعتی هم روی سر درِ آن نصب کرده و به لاتین نوشته بودند: اولین ساختمان مدرسه. از در بادبزنی که رد شدم، به یک سرسرای مرمری رسیدم. کنار پلکانی دراز و کنار اولین پله ی مرمریِ سفید ایستادم. با وجود اینکه پلکانها قدیمی بودند، هنوز رنگ و روی طرح ماهِ وسطِ هر کدام از پلکانها نرفته بود. جنس مرمر آنهم به طرزی عجیب سخت بود. بله، شاید خیلی سخت بوده، خیلی! به هر حال، با وجود اینهمه فکری که صرف سختی این پلکان کرده بودم، عجیب است که تا به حال، هیچ متوجه این موضوع نشده بودم، آنهم موضوعی به این مهمی! چیز دیگری توجهم را جلب نکرد؛ آره، قطعاً اینها همان پله ­هایی هستند که من در ایام بودنم در «دوون»، حداقل روزی یکبار از آنها بالا و پایین می­رفتم. اینها هیچ فرقی با قدیم نداشتند؛ اما خودم چی؟ خب، طبیعتاً پیرتر شده بودم - در آن لحظه احساساتم را به ورطه ­ی آزمایش قرار دادم تا ببینم چقدر تغییر کرده ام- قدم بلندتر شده و جثه ­ام نسبت به پله ­ها بزرگتر شده بود. همچنین، پول و موفقیت و امنیتِ بیشتری داشتم؛ البته در مقایسه با روزگاری که فکر و تشویش آینده، با من از همین پله­ ها بالا و پایین می­رفتند. رویم را برگرداندم و از ساختمان بیرون رفتم. محوطه ­ی دور همچنان سوت و کور بود. من هم قدم­زنان مسیر سنگفرش شده را طی می­کردم و از زیر درختان انبوه و سر به فلک کشیده، همان نارون­های قرمزِ نیوانگلند تا دور دور­های مدرسه رفتم. و...»؛ پایان نقل. ا. شربیانی

I'll make one comment about this book. For me, the heart of the story was the friendship between the two boys--Gene and Phineas. Gene is the introvert, the studious boy, Phineas the extrovert, the "natural" leader of the boys and, of course, a star athlete. I related to Gene and thought about relationships I've had with boys who have had elements of Phineas' personality. I can't say I've had such a close relationship with a Phineas type. I could see how such a friendship could also involve feelings of resentment and become rivalry at least at times.... A book to revisit time and time again.

3.5

“There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.”

Gene, you suck. It didn’t take long at all for me to despise you.

I had no idea what to expect going into ‘A Separate Peace’. I’d never heard of it before an enthusiastic friends-of-the-library volunteer recommended it to me when I was shopping at the yearly book sale. Since then I’ve learned it’s actually a classic that’s slipped under my reader’s radar. The length isn’t intimidating and the book reads quickly, accompanied by a slightly distant yet talented writing style that could just as easily been used pen a book of poetry with its technique.

The first chapter/story was difficult to get into - story didn't start off with much of a bang, more of a literary whimper. The author’s style didn't suit me much but now it's grown on me as the story has grown. This coming-of-age tale is set during WWII at a sheltered boy’s school. There the boys face themselves, each other, and their future. Before even entering the war, they are corrupted by it - psychologically, physically, spiritually.

It paints a glorified picture of WWII, where, if you can’t serve, it’s considered a disasterous, dishonorable, lifelong failure. The school is set in an isolated way, filled with talk of joining the war and enlisting when they come of age, and until then sheltered from parents and outside peers, joining in the world’s efforts from news bulletins, the radio, and encouraging professors. This classic takes the world war and instead focuses on the true war – that within ourselves, a silent war no others see but that an individual must face.

Gene is a king in the school, a brain who’s best friends with the brawn, the top athlete who excels so naturally at things he doesn’t always want credit for them. They have a unique friendship that Gene starts questioning, as the inevitable testosterone-filled challenging nature of males intertwines with the bonding of friends.

There is a disaster – a sad one - that happens. I could even forgive this, maybe, if Gene didn’t later turn from the tales of another tortured friend. I found little sympathy in the character, but there was thankfully ample growth. At the end, it’s so haunting, so consuming, that it’s poetic justice.

Overall this story didn’t get into my psyche immediately, but once it did, the painful rollercoaster kept speeding up. Slow writing didn’t make a difference since I couldn’t turn away from the crash I knew was coming. Such a bleak and brutal novel, I can see why it’s termed a classic. Little is uplifting; of course it’s never a rule a book must be, but the bleakness is painful to read, which is suitable for a novel set during the false glories of wars.

I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.

Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone. Other people experienced this fearful shock somewhere, this sighting of the enemy, and so began an obsessive labor of defense, began to parry the menace they saw facing them by developing a particular frame of mind, “You see,” their behavior toward everything and everyone proclaimed, “I am a humble ant, I am nothing, I am not worthy of this menace,” or else, like Mr. Ludsbury, “How dare this threaten me, I am much too good for this sort of handling, I shall rise above this,” or else, like Quackenbush, strike out at it always and everywhere, or else, like Brinker, develop a careless general resentment against it, or else, like Leper, emerge from a protective cloud of vagueness only to meet it, the horror, face to face, just as he had always feared, and so give up the struggle absolutely.

All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way—if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.

Regular readers of my reviews of classics know that I regularly used Cliff’s Notes in school. I had a library of them. I’d always (often? occasionally?) try to read the book, but when I got bored, I’d stop reading the book and just turn to my buddy Cliff. But every now and then, a book would grab my interest and I’d truly read it. A Separate Peace was one of those books.

A Separate Peace is mostly one long flashback. Gene Forrester has returned to his old New England boarding school, Devon, fifteen years after he graduated in 1943. He thinks back upon his last year in school, which was dominated by the fact that his class would soon be enlisting or drafted into the war. And he thinks about his best friend, Phineas. While Gene was bookish and a bit reserved, Finny (at least in Gene’s memory) was nearly perfect: not only effortlessly charming, gregarious, and athletic, but also kind and genuine. Gene plainly loves Finny—platonically if not romantically (there isn’t much textual support for a romantic interpretation, but I get why some people read it that way)—but Finny is such a bright light that he unintentionally leaves Gene feeling like he’s trapped in the shadow. And in a moment full of envy and jealousy, Gene does something that changes his best friend’s life.

Each time I reread A Separate Peace I go into it with a fairly clean slate because a fair amount of story is not that memorable, which is an odd thing to say about a favorite book I’ve read multiple times. I always forget the fun details, the carefree portions of the story: the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, blitzball, Finny’s refusal to believe WWII was real, the Winter Carnival. Instead I always remember the constant presence of the war just beyond the horizon, and the novel’s dark core: Gene and Finny, the tree and the stairs, the sad story of Elwin "Leper" Lepellier, the inquiry and the ending.

Because it’s the dark parts of A Separate Peace that made such an impression on me all those years ago. Every teenager has a friend who they love in one way or another even while feeling inferior to, or envious or jealous of them. Seeing that kind of complicated relationship on the page, seeing Gene act on that shameful side of himself, and what it cost him, resonated deeply in my teenage brain. And not just with me. I had a friendship in high school that had some of this same tangled emotional energy, and when one of us did something accidentally (let’s be honest, sometimes intentionally) to sabotage the other, we’d talk about it later literally using shorthand references to Gene and Finny. The fact that Gene came through the other side changed, and seemingly a better person, was a hopeful sign that I too would eventually outgrow such petty thoughts.

Is A Separate Peace objectively a great book? Probably, as it was a finalist for the National Book Award. But like Gene returning to Devon, I can’t quite see it clearly. As much as I try to read it critically, it’s always more of an emotional experience. Highly recommended, especially if you somehow weren’t required to read it in school (or if you cheated your way through it then

1.5 Stars - Just not my thing

I don't have much to say about this book other than I was disappointed. The writing is good, but I struggled to engage with it. I couldn't relate to the characters. At face value the plot and themes can be considered universal, I just couldn't relate. A large part of that is due to the fact that I couldn't relate with the characters. I found them to be distant. I don't know if that's because of the writing or something else.

I'd recommend skipping this one.

Set in the exclusive The Devon School, in New England, this is a moving and evocative coming of age novel. Gene Forrester and his friend Phineas are both sixteen years old. It is 1942 and the spectre of war and enlistment loom over them, but the story begins in a gilded summer, when it seems as though nothing bad could possibly happen to them.

Academic Gene is both exasperated by his roommate Phineas (Finny) and yet proud he has been chosen to be his closest friend and confidante. Finny is effortlessly a natural leader, an organiser, the sports star and always popular with the other boys. Gene finds himself dragged along in his wake, desperate to study and compete with Finny in the only way he knows how, and yet unable to avoid inclusion in his schemes. One of these is ‘The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session,” which has a membership requirement of jumping from the limb of a tree and into the river. The jump is dangerous and Gene and Finny are required to make the leap before every meeting – something Gene never gets used to. One day, irritated and annoyed by Finny’s carefree behaviour, Gene climbs the tree and then does something he later comes to regret...

This is a story about friendship, competition, envy, unspoken accusations and the way closed knit communities, like schools, magnify and distort events. Of course, as the boys edge towards seventeen and enlisting becomes a real event in their lives, there is also the spectre of war and how that changes their lives and views of themselves. This is a classic I have never come across before, but I found it an intriguing and evocative read. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I always read my older brother's required reading books long before I was assigned them, and for some reason this book spoke to me even though I've never been to an ivy league prep school and I'm not a boy. I had this book memorized by the time I reached 10th grade.

A wonderful study of the conflict between a naturally gifted and well-liked young man and the jealous friend with low self-esteem. A great book that teaches a moral code that one should live by and the ability to finally let go of the past and "come in out of the rain."

I hope when my son is a teen he will enjoy this book as much as his mother did.

This is one of those "required summer reading novels". In fact, while I am sure they are out there, I don't think I have ever met anyone who read this and it was not required for school.

But, it was an enjoyable required read. Focusing on coming of age, schoolboy friendships, etc. Not too much else I can say without spoiling it, but it was kinda rough on the teenage spirit at the time. We think we can all survive anything when we are young . . .

If you were never required to read this one for school, it is worth the read!