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Beautiful formative-years tale of friendship and enmity.
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I remember this book distinctly because seldom have I hated a book more.
In addition to being a depressing piece of work, it is about as relevant to kids today as a 45RPM single (That's something we had before CDs, boys and girls Oh, and CDs were what we had before streaming). Why are they still putting it on reading lists? What fan of John Knowles has been paying teachers to force this on the kids?
In addition to being a depressing piece of work, it is about as relevant to kids today as a 45RPM single (That's something we had before CDs, boys and girls Oh, and CDs were what we had before streaming). Why are they still putting it on reading lists? What fan of John Knowles has been paying teachers to force this on the kids?
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As I write this review of ‘A Separate Peace’ by John Knowles, Israel has retaliated again against Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah for past and present exchanges of military attacks in trying to annihilate each other. Sudan is being torn apart again by warring generals, but this time it doesn’t seem to be about tribal ethnicity so much as it is about being the last man standing. Same same in Myanmar. The ordinary people of Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar and Sudan are caught between the warring antagonists like deer in headlights. The entire country of Ukraine is a deer in murderous Russia’s headlights. In Yemen, it is much the same story of innocents being murdered by military combatants. Iran and Saudi proxies are using the entire country as if it were a sport stadium where the game is who can spill the most blood from the Yemenites.
And there’s more! See the link below:
https://www.crisisgroup.org/crisiswatch
Why why why? What is behind all of the preliminary strikes on other people who have done nothing? Perhaps the answer is as simple as the one in ‘A Separate Peace’. Inner demons, fed by insecurity/jealousy, a feeling of not measuring up to minimum standards or to other people, enhanced by an ignorance of who one’s self is, leading to hatreds and thoughts of betrayal unconsciously projected onto an innocent other. Unexamined inner demons are dreadful in all cases, but especially when a powerful leader is beset with unproven suspicions. But perhaps such demons can be forgiven in adolescents?
Gene is the troubled narrator of this very elegiac novel. He makes the kind of coming-of-age mistake everyone hopes to never make while growing up and not yet an adult, confused about what he is and what he wants and what others want from him. He is a student at a private prep boarding-school for boys, near graduation. Everyone expects him to enlist or be drafted as soon as he has his diploma because it is 1943 and World War II is being fought overseas by Americans. But can he move past his horrible decision, done in a second of ignorant thoughtlessness and misunderstanding?
I have copied the book blurb:
”An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to the second world war.
Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.
A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.”
Gene feels he falls short in every way when in Finny’s presence. Phineas is a superb athlete, the talented kind who usually ends up competing in the Olympics. Gene wants to be Phineas as a result. At one point, he gets his wish because circumstances flip their relationship into one in which Phineas becomes Gene’s coach. But Gene slowly realizes he can’t ever be Phineas because he doesn’t have whatever is inside, not to mention outside, of himself, the same as whatever makes Phineas, Phineas! However, Phineas’ personality is such that Finny has no doubts Gene can develop the same skillset as Phineas. But before Gene begins to understand who he is and who he is not, what he can and cannot do, he is feeling similar to one of the two rivers which flow around the school.
The Devon River is clean, and the bottom of the river is visible. Everything to be seen can be clearly seen. The water is drinkable due to its purity. However, the Naguamsett River is murky and dark. Gene feels he is the Naguamsett, especially after the incident which irrevocably changes him forever. It takes him awhile though, to understand Phineas is similar to the Devon. Gene cannot understand Finny’s sunny mischievous nature, and he doesn’t believe Finny can be without any sense of competition. To his sorrow, too late, he discovers this lack of competiveness or guile is truly the case with Phineas.
The one thing that calms Gene is the grounds and setting of the Devin school itself. The school, which is also a character in the novel imho, given the way and how often Gene describes it, is an Eden to Gene, a place of innocence and recalled summer ease. He loves Devin even 15 years later, when he returns for a walkabout. However, for the first time he realizes when he was there as a teenager there had always been an undercurrent of fear he had been unaware of in himself. He also does not like that Devin has been fixed up, made shiny, in a manner it had not been when he was boarding there. He guesses the war delayed repairs and paint, something he had not guessed at the time. But it is not only the school which has changed.
This book is banned in schools in the southern states of the United States and in some midwestern states. It is a recommended read for teens in the sane and intelligent states and schools which tend to be primarily Democrats. Conservatives who have never read the book believe it is a novel about gay love between teenagers. I read the book. There are no gay lovers, or gay sex scenes. I will repeat: there are no gay lovers, or gay sex scenes, not even hints at such relationships. It is about exploring what might be a source in males of antagonism and hate towards others, which possibly is extrapolated into a hunger for war when young boys become men. I repeat, I have actually read the book, cover to cover, gentler reader. No sex scenes whatsoever, gay or hetrosexual or transgender. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Diddly-squat. Perhaps conservatives don’t like the fact the novel reveals to them their own sources of inner darkness, shameful behaviors and perhaps their sense of being lesser beings than others.
And there’s more! See the link below:
https://www.crisisgroup.org/crisiswatch
Why why why? What is behind all of the preliminary strikes on other people who have done nothing? Perhaps the answer is as simple as the one in ‘A Separate Peace’. Inner demons, fed by insecurity/jealousy, a feeling of not measuring up to minimum standards or to other people, enhanced by an ignorance of who one’s self is, leading to hatreds and thoughts of betrayal unconsciously projected onto an innocent other. Unexamined inner demons are dreadful in all cases, but especially when a powerful leader is beset with unproven suspicions. But perhaps such demons can be forgiven in adolescents?
Gene is the troubled narrator of this very elegiac novel. He makes the kind of coming-of-age mistake everyone hopes to never make while growing up and not yet an adult, confused about what he is and what he wants and what others want from him. He is a student at a private prep boarding-school for boys, near graduation. Everyone expects him to enlist or be drafted as soon as he has his diploma because it is 1943 and World War II is being fought overseas by Americans. But can he move past his horrible decision, done in a second of ignorant thoughtlessness and misunderstanding?
I have copied the book blurb:
”An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to the second world war.
Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.
A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.”
Gene feels he falls short in every way when in Finny’s presence. Phineas is a superb athlete, the talented kind who usually ends up competing in the Olympics. Gene wants to be Phineas as a result. At one point, he gets his wish because circumstances flip their relationship into one in which Phineas becomes Gene’s coach. But Gene slowly realizes he can’t ever be Phineas because he doesn’t have whatever is inside, not to mention outside, of himself, the same as whatever makes Phineas, Phineas! However, Phineas’ personality is such that Finny has no doubts Gene can develop the same skillset as Phineas. But before Gene begins to understand who he is and who he is not, what he can and cannot do, he is feeling similar to one of the two rivers which flow around the school.
The Devon River is clean, and the bottom of the river is visible. Everything to be seen can be clearly seen. The water is drinkable due to its purity. However, the Naguamsett River is murky and dark. Gene feels he is the Naguamsett, especially after the incident which irrevocably changes him forever. It takes him awhile though, to understand Phineas is similar to the Devon. Gene cannot understand Finny’s sunny mischievous nature, and he doesn’t believe Finny can be without any sense of competition. To his sorrow, too late, he discovers this lack of competiveness or guile is truly the case with Phineas.
The one thing that calms Gene is the grounds and setting of the Devin school itself. The school, which is also a character in the novel imho, given the way and how often Gene describes it, is an Eden to Gene, a place of innocence and recalled summer ease. He loves Devin even 15 years later, when he returns for a walkabout. However, for the first time he realizes when he was there as a teenager there had always been an undercurrent of fear he had been unaware of in himself. He also does not like that Devin has been fixed up, made shiny, in a manner it had not been when he was boarding there. He guesses the war delayed repairs and paint, something he had not guessed at the time. But it is not only the school which has changed.
This book is banned in schools in the southern states of the United States and in some midwestern states. It is a recommended read for teens in the sane and intelligent states and schools which tend to be primarily Democrats. Conservatives who have never read the book believe it is a novel about gay love between teenagers. I read the book. There are no gay lovers, or gay sex scenes. I will repeat: there are no gay lovers, or gay sex scenes, not even hints at such relationships. It is about exploring what might be a source in males of antagonism and hate towards others, which possibly is extrapolated into a hunger for war when young boys become men. I repeat, I have actually read the book, cover to cover, gentler reader. No sex scenes whatsoever, gay or hetrosexual or transgender. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Diddly-squat. Perhaps conservatives don’t like the fact the novel reveals to them their own sources of inner darkness, shameful behaviors and perhaps their sense of being lesser beings than others.
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I never read any of the assigned reading in English in High School. In 10th grade, we did this book. The teacher gave a test on the book, and I got an A. Unfortunately, the rest of the class did miserably, and the teacher was extremely disappointed. So she decided to give a True/False quiz to test whether people had actually read it. I failed miserably, and she was dumbfounded. When she asked me about this, I told her I never read anything that was assigned because I found it more of a challenge to get an A without doing the reading. She made me promise that I would do the reading in the future, and I did promise.
And now, I can say I have kept that promise. I did all of the reading in the future, just not when it was assigned. For example, I read The Great Gatsby sometime in film school. The Grapes of Wrath after that. And so on... And with this book, I'm pretty sure that I have now completed all of the required reading from high school. I can also say that I would never have done it, if I had picked this one up early on. This is one that easily validates my policy back then.
The book does manage to be both overwrought and trivial at once, which is no small achievement. Everything is supposed to have the weight of portentousness, but for all that, there's very little substance. So, the little merit that this book has depends on the voice of Gene, the narrator. And he's thoroughly unlikeable and fairly unobservant. He pretends to be smart and observant, but he is more likely to project his inner world onto the outside than he is to capture anything interesting about the outside.
On top of all of this, the book is completely gay, but refuses to come out of the closet. This is manifest, from the wrestling, to the Finny's pink shirt, to the endless admiration of Finny's body, to Leper's losing touch by imagining women's heads on men's bodies. I am dumbfounded that Knowles insists that homosexuality has nothing to do with this book. I guess that just proves that authors are not always the best readers of their own work, and that Knowles' lack of self-awareness mirrors Gene's.
In short, a small, not particularly interesting story, with unlkeable characters and a narrator who has a few nice moments but, for the most part, is annoying. I have no idea why this makes for a "classic."
And now, I can say I have kept that promise. I did all of the reading in the future, just not when it was assigned. For example, I read The Great Gatsby sometime in film school. The Grapes of Wrath after that. And so on... And with this book, I'm pretty sure that I have now completed all of the required reading from high school. I can also say that I would never have done it, if I had picked this one up early on. This is one that easily validates my policy back then.
The book does manage to be both overwrought and trivial at once, which is no small achievement. Everything is supposed to have the weight of portentousness, but for all that, there's very little substance. So, the little merit that this book has depends on the voice of Gene, the narrator. And he's thoroughly unlikeable and fairly unobservant. He pretends to be smart and observant, but he is more likely to project his inner world onto the outside than he is to capture anything interesting about the outside.
On top of all of this, the book is completely gay, but refuses to come out of the closet. This is manifest, from the wrestling, to the Finny's pink shirt, to the endless admiration of Finny's body, to Leper's losing touch by imagining women's heads on men's bodies. I am dumbfounded that Knowles insists that homosexuality has nothing to do with this book. I guess that just proves that authors are not always the best readers of their own work, and that Knowles' lack of self-awareness mirrors Gene's.
In short, a small, not particularly interesting story, with unlkeable characters and a narrator who has a few nice moments but, for the most part, is annoying. I have no idea why this makes for a "classic."
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Maybe I'm bias, but a little bit of bromance could've gone a long way here. A Separate Peace is essentially a story of the relationship between two boys, and if it went a little farther, I think the points it made would've driven much deeper.
The plot mostly revolves around a single character, Finny, and although he's lively and exciting, this story is far from. And as such, I can't imagine it being too enjoyable to the middle schoolers and freshmen it is regularly assigned to. But for older more-patient readers, there's plenty to enjoy. What it lacks in excitement, it makes up in every other way.
The prose, while pretty plain, is beautiful and flows so well it's easy to burn through this book in no time. The plot, while simple, has a few shockers--and with the story being so short--it almost comes off as a page-turner. Finny is simply one of the funnest, most interesting characters I've come across. And the way John Knowles relates the war to school, and the way the incidents in the story affect Finny's relation to the war and his best friend... It's just brilliant.
The plot mostly revolves around a single character, Finny, and although he's lively and exciting, this story is far from. And as such, I can't imagine it being too enjoyable to the middle schoolers and freshmen it is regularly assigned to. But for older more-patient readers, there's plenty to enjoy. What it lacks in excitement, it makes up in every other way.
The prose, while pretty plain, is beautiful and flows so well it's easy to burn through this book in no time. The plot, while simple, has a few shockers--and with the story being so short--it almost comes off as a page-turner. Finny is simply one of the funnest, most interesting characters I've come across. And the way John Knowles relates the war to school, and the way the incidents in the story affect Finny's relation to the war and his best friend... It's just brilliant.
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This was a more mild version of The Catcher in the Rye, but this book was better in my opinion. This is now one of my new favorite classics, and I think it is very underappreciated.
It was interesting to read about the boys at home during World War II, waiting to be drafted and how they dealt with the anxiety of it all. The war felt far away to them because they only saw it in newspapers but, at the same time, it felt very personal to them because they were going to a prep school which prepared them to go fight in the war.
The friendship between Gene and Phineas was complicated. They were both imperfect but became very close friends. Gene has to deal with his insecurities and jealousy of Phineas and this causes him to do something unthinkable, something he never imagined himself doing. Throughout the book, he tries to confess what he did but never truly owns up to it until the end and it is almost too late.
It was interesting to read about the boys at home during World War II, waiting to be drafted and how they dealt with the anxiety of it all. The war felt far away to them because they only saw it in newspapers but, at the same time, it felt very personal to them because they were going to a prep school which prepared them to go fight in the war.
The friendship between Gene and Phineas was complicated. They were both imperfect but became very close friends. Gene has to deal with his insecurities and jealousy of Phineas and this causes him to do something unthinkable, something he never imagined himself doing. Throughout the book, he tries to confess what he did but never truly owns up to it until the end and it is almost too late.
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John Knowles wrote this somewhat autobiographical novel about some young men in a boarding school when on the brink of being drafted or enlisted into the second world war. Like Brideshead Revisited, it focuses on two young men, one somewhat under the thrall of another, with tragic consequences. Along the way there is surprising action.
“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 that 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.”
This book is filled with quotable ideas and descriptions.
“Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.”
“It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.”
“It had, in one word, glamour, absolute schoolboy glamour.”
“Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.”
“Sixteen is the key and crucial and natural age for a human being to be, and people of all other ages are ranged in an orderly manner ahead of and behind you as a harmonious setting for the sixteen-year-olds of the world.”
“It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.”
When I was 16, there were high school seniors who felt a concocted exuberance as they were about to be drafted into the Vietnam War, and you could just substitute the year 1966.
For me, this book hovers between 4 and 4.5 stars, but as I examine all of the writing that caused me to stop and consider what was being said, I will settle on 4.5, which is pretty darn good.
“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 that 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.”
This book is filled with quotable ideas and descriptions.
“Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.”
“It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.”
“It had, in one word, glamour, absolute schoolboy glamour.”
“Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.”
“Sixteen is the key and crucial and natural age for a human being to be, and people of all other ages are ranged in an orderly manner ahead of and behind you as a harmonious setting for the sixteen-year-olds of the world.”
“It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.”
When I was 16, there were high school seniors who felt a concocted exuberance as they were about to be drafted into the Vietnam War, and you could just substitute the year 1966.
For me, this book hovers between 4 and 4.5 stars, but as I examine all of the writing that caused me to stop and consider what was being said, I will settle on 4.5, which is pretty darn good.
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So I just finished A Separate Peace and I have mixed feelings on it. It wasn’t a quick read and it forced me to think a lot, especially towards the end. Throughout the book I kept wondering why Knowles kept bringing up the war and how it contributed to the plot. Maybe while Gene and Finny were dealing with their own relationship, the rest of the world had their own sort of enemy. I took it as even after Finny dies, the world goes on. Gene moves on, and he feels this grand relief like he’s accomplished something great. In his narrative he talks about Finny taking the anger from him when he died, yet I can’t see what Gene could ever be angry about. Finny deserves all those feelings.
The title makes absolutely NO SENSE. I love that feeling when you’re reading, and halfway through the book you finally understand the meaning of the title, but for the first time, I have no clue what it means. There is absolutely nothing peaceful at all in this book.
Obviously no one is born inherently evil, but honestly Gene really contradicts that. I’ve honestly never hated a protagonist more than him. Sometimes I have to remind myself that there are people out there like him, who think and act like him. I’m still trying to understand how he could ever do that to Finny, when Finny had always been a good, genuine friend the entire time. I think Gene has a complex and he thinks the world is out to get him. The fact that he could ever think Finny envied him for being the best in his class just baffles me.
It was so much worse when Finny tried to make excuses for Gene, like, “I know you didn’t mean it” or “I know, I believe you.” It makes me so MAD that Finny will never get to see his twenties or his thirties, that he’ll never get to be an athlete and pursue his dreams. He deserved that happiness more than anyone in this book. I know one of the main themes in this book is jealousy, but the ending was so unnecessary and unfair and dramatic. Finny didn’t have to die. Actually I GET why he had to die, because Knowles was trying to portray the faults of human nature and how it almost never changes. I guess if he hadn’t made Finny die, the message wouldn’t be AS CLEAR but STILL, I think he could’ve found another way to convey that. I’m really sad because Gene deserved to die and I hate him so much but honestly WHO CAN BE THAT EVIL? That was his best friend, and I TOTALLY get it if you feel jealous because he’s so talented BUT YOU’RE SO SMART YOURSELF. THAT’S YOUR OWN INSECURITY AND YOU NEED TO GET OVER IT, NOT HATE ON OTHER PEOPLE, LET ALONE YOUR BEST FRIEND. Plus, I’ve never heard of anyone taking action from their jealousy. I couldn’t believe it when Gene started referring to Finny as his enemy, when he knew how Finny needed him and felt like he was “an extension” of him. I’d completely get it if the hatred was a mutual thing, but Finny loved him SO MUCH and that hurts my heart. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that, how you could hate someone even when they love you.
I think Finny is such a beautiful character. He didn’t understand how evil Gene was and how his friend could hate him so much, and I think that’s what hurt him in the end. He was so good and pure and he didn’t deserve someone so cruel.
The title makes absolutely NO SENSE. I love that feeling when you’re reading, and halfway through the book you finally understand the meaning of the title, but for the first time, I have no clue what it means. There is absolutely nothing peaceful at all in this book.
Obviously no one is born inherently evil, but honestly Gene really contradicts that. I’ve honestly never hated a protagonist more than him. Sometimes I have to remind myself that there are people out there like him, who think and act like him. I’m still trying to understand how he could ever do that to Finny, when Finny had always been a good, genuine friend the entire time. I think Gene has a complex and he thinks the world is out to get him. The fact that he could ever think Finny envied him for being the best in his class just baffles me.
It was so much worse when Finny tried to make excuses for Gene, like, “I know you didn’t mean it” or “I know, I believe you.” It makes me so MAD that Finny will never get to see his twenties or his thirties, that he’ll never get to be an athlete and pursue his dreams. He deserved that happiness more than anyone in this book. I know one of the main themes in this book is jealousy, but the ending was so unnecessary and unfair and dramatic. Finny didn’t have to die. Actually I GET why he had to die, because Knowles was trying to portray the faults of human nature and how it almost never changes. I guess if he hadn’t made Finny die, the message wouldn’t be AS CLEAR but STILL, I think he could’ve found another way to convey that. I’m really sad because Gene deserved to die and I hate him so much but honestly WHO CAN BE THAT EVIL? That was his best friend, and I TOTALLY get it if you feel jealous because he’s so talented BUT YOU’RE SO SMART YOURSELF. THAT’S YOUR OWN INSECURITY AND YOU NEED TO GET OVER IT, NOT HATE ON OTHER PEOPLE, LET ALONE YOUR BEST FRIEND. Plus, I’ve never heard of anyone taking action from their jealousy. I couldn’t believe it when Gene started referring to Finny as his enemy, when he knew how Finny needed him and felt like he was “an extension” of him. I’d completely get it if the hatred was a mutual thing, but Finny loved him SO MUCH and that hurts my heart. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that, how you could hate someone even when they love you.
I think Finny is such a beautiful character. He didn’t understand how evil Gene was and how his friend could hate him so much, and I think that’s what hurt him in the end. He was so good and pure and he didn’t deserve someone so cruel.
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i think this book might haunt my soul for a while.
i started reading this book while i was on a reading date with two of my close friends. they can both attest to the fact that i was not excited to start reading it, as it was a summer reading assignment that centered around a boys boarding school and world war two. within the first few pages, i was pleasantly surprised.
“wow. the two main characters are in love,” i said. “almost like a dead-poet-society, call-me-by-your-name sort of love.”
“so they’re gay?” my friends asked.
“yes.” and that made me excited. because having grown up attending a catholic school, i wasn’t used to having any sort of homosexual subtext in any sort of assignment.
i continued reading and established that gene forrester was todd anderson and phineas was neil perry. in all of these types of stories there’s a reserved, quiet, smart boy and a wild, free-spirited, lovely boy, and they’re both very jealous of each other while simultaneously being in love with each other. one of the reasons why this book was so impactful for me was because i saw myself and a few people i knew in both characters.
which leads me to the plot of this book. this book delves into the friendship of gene and finny in their boarding school, and at the same time examines the theme of homosexuality, especially during the early 40s. the reason why the book was so impactful for me was in the way that i wasn’t even entertained all the way through. in a weird, twisted way, that made it more realistic. a girl can solely read about men while relating to them and feeling moved by the story, while also acknowledging that she can’t completely relate or find it exciting.
at the end of the book, something unexpected and symbolic happens. we end with gene contemplating life as it had been, and we close thinking about how much people’s lives can be affected by jealousy and love. i stopped to think about how one simple action, motivated by infatuation or jealousy, could ruin someone’s life completely. that’s why some things are better off left alone, because there are so many things that just aren’t meant to affect you.
i started reading this book while i was on a reading date with two of my close friends. they can both attest to the fact that i was not excited to start reading it, as it was a summer reading assignment that centered around a boys boarding school and world war two. within the first few pages, i was pleasantly surprised.
“wow. the two main characters are in love,” i said. “almost like a dead-poet-society, call-me-by-your-name sort of love.”
“so they’re gay?” my friends asked.
“yes.” and that made me excited. because having grown up attending a catholic school, i wasn’t used to having any sort of homosexual subtext in any sort of assignment.
i continued reading and established that gene forrester was todd anderson and phineas was neil perry. in all of these types of stories there’s a reserved, quiet, smart boy and a wild, free-spirited, lovely boy, and they’re both very jealous of each other while simultaneously being in love with each other. one of the reasons why this book was so impactful for me was because i saw myself and a few people i knew in both characters.
which leads me to the plot of this book. this book delves into the friendship of gene and finny in their boarding school, and at the same time examines the theme of homosexuality, especially during the early 40s. the reason why the book was so impactful for me was in the way that i wasn’t even entertained all the way through. in a weird, twisted way, that made it more realistic. a girl can solely read about men while relating to them and feeling moved by the story, while also acknowledging that she can’t completely relate or find it exciting.
at the end of the book, something unexpected and symbolic happens. we end with gene contemplating life as it had been, and we close thinking about how much people’s lives can be affected by jealousy and love. i stopped to think about how one simple action, motivated by infatuation or jealousy, could ruin someone’s life completely. that’s why some things are better off left alone, because there are so many things that just aren’t meant to affect you.
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"And the rays of the sun were shooting past them, millions of rays shooting past them like--like golden machine-gun fire."
Gene is a boy from the South attending an exclusive New Hampshire prep school. He becomes best friends with a New Englander from Boston named Phineas. Let me amend that, Phineas chooses Gene as his friend and any thoughts that Gene has of being friends with anyone else are quickly dispersed as he is pulled into the shimmering chimeric world creating and constantly maintained by Phineas.
"The winter loves me," he retorted, and then, disliking the whimsical sound of that, added, "I mean as much as you can say a season can love> What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love." I didn't think that this was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be much more false than true, but it was like every other thought and belief of Finny's: it should have been true. So I didn't argue.
Gene, maybe because he is going to school with boys from New England who have the advantage of generations of proper schooling drilled into their DNA, feels the insecurity of his origins acutely and feels the pressure to apply himself to his studies. In fact he is in contention for the top of class until Phineas's antics start to distract him too much from his academic endeavors.
Phineas is a prophet, a boy so convinced in his own convictions that he can persuade anyone to not only do anything, but also believe in why they are doing it. One such inspired creation was to convince his friends to follow him onto a slender tree limb and use it as a springboard into the lake. He forms a society around the event. To join, one must take the plunge.
Phineas is a fine athlete and as Gene starts to weigh their relationship he starts to believe that Finny is intentionally pulling him away from his study to keep the scales of friendship out of balance. He feels his academic record compensates for Phineas's awards for athleticism. He wants to feel equal. He wants to deserve the friendship. When Phineas pulls him away from his French studies to attend a now ritualized lake baptism, Gene goes, but his mind is in a dark place.
n n
The results are a turning point in the book. Gene is so worried about his own insecurities he mistakes Phineas's confidence for worldly assurance. In reality, Phineas is the most naive of them all. In the enclosed environment of Devon School he can bend the world to fit his own kaleidoscopic. For a while he can even convince himself that the ongoing war is a hoax. "That's what this whole war story is. A medicinal drug...the whole world is on a Funny Farm now. But it's only the fat old men who get the joke. And Phineas of course.
Betrayal begets more betrayal and Gene and Phineas both discover they are not who they perceive themselves to be. They become straw versions of themselves, so shattered and shaken that they can barely remember joys experienced mere months before. A lifetime friendship is reduced to a fraction of it's intended span.
This book stands on the shoulders of Phineas. He is simply an amazing character who lifts a wallflower of a plot to the level of a masterpiece. I wanted to be his friend. I wanted to help him maintain his delusions. I wanted to breath life into the way he wanted the world to be. Highly Recommended!
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Gene is a boy from the South attending an exclusive New Hampshire prep school. He becomes best friends with a New Englander from Boston named Phineas. Let me amend that, Phineas chooses Gene as his friend and any thoughts that Gene has of being friends with anyone else are quickly dispersed as he is pulled into the shimmering chimeric world creating and constantly maintained by Phineas.
"The winter loves me," he retorted, and then, disliking the whimsical sound of that, added, "I mean as much as you can say a season can love> What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love." I didn't think that this was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be much more false than true, but it was like every other thought and belief of Finny's: it should have been true. So I didn't argue.
Gene, maybe because he is going to school with boys from New England who have the advantage of generations of proper schooling drilled into their DNA, feels the insecurity of his origins acutely and feels the pressure to apply himself to his studies. In fact he is in contention for the top of class until Phineas's antics start to distract him too much from his academic endeavors.
Phineas is a prophet, a boy so convinced in his own convictions that he can persuade anyone to not only do anything, but also believe in why they are doing it. One such inspired creation was to convince his friends to follow him onto a slender tree limb and use it as a springboard into the lake. He forms a society around the event. To join, one must take the plunge.
Phineas is a fine athlete and as Gene starts to weigh their relationship he starts to believe that Finny is intentionally pulling him away from his study to keep the scales of friendship out of balance. He feels his academic record compensates for Phineas's awards for athleticism. He wants to feel equal. He wants to deserve the friendship. When Phineas pulls him away from his French studies to attend a now ritualized lake baptism, Gene goes, but his mind is in a dark place.
n n
The results are a turning point in the book. Gene is so worried about his own insecurities he mistakes Phineas's confidence for worldly assurance. In reality, Phineas is the most naive of them all. In the enclosed environment of Devon School he can bend the world to fit his own kaleidoscopic. For a while he can even convince himself that the ongoing war is a hoax. "That's what this whole war story is. A medicinal drug...the whole world is on a Funny Farm now. But it's only the fat old men who get the joke. And Phineas of course.
Betrayal begets more betrayal and Gene and Phineas both discover they are not who they perceive themselves to be. They become straw versions of themselves, so shattered and shaken that they can barely remember joys experienced mere months before. A lifetime friendship is reduced to a fraction of it's intended span.
This book stands on the shoulders of Phineas. He is simply an amazing character who lifts a wallflower of a plot to the level of a masterpiece. I wanted to be his friend. I wanted to help him maintain his delusions. I wanted to breath life into the way he wanted the world to be. Highly Recommended!
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
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Updated review: After writing the first review below, I decided to reread it. It was as good the second time around. I can see why it’s a classic and taught all over the country (unless schools have banned it?). There are things I don’t remember recognizing back in high school (benefit of reading it as an adult), like the doctor’s all too brief self reflection of his decision/role relative to Finny’s tragedy and the self justification gymnastics all of us do everyday and how easy it is for him versus the burden Gene carries. I think if I taught high school, this book would be on my syllabus too.
Prior review: Read this in high school. I think it was the first time I started understanding the role of the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex in adolescents. It made some of the teen sexual harassment I received make sense, as well as the mimicking of their parents' voices regarding their very limited and xenophobic worldview (e.g., taunting me and telling me to go back to China, though I'm not Chinese), as well as other forms of bullying. I don't blame their semiformed brains for all their poor choices, but I can see now how influenced they were - their executive functions, their ego, and their hormone driven emotional imbalances all at war and coming out as expressions of aggression, resentment, and such. However, it gave me some solace and hope that maybe they'd grow up into decent human beings who would remember their cruelty and teach their future children to be better. (That hope felt like the only choice I had to survive it all.)
It was also one of the first books I'd read where consequences and guilt were reconciled by the death of a star that was too bright for this world.
I'd like to reread the book. It was fairly influential in my life back then. It feels like something that could be comforting now too.
Prior review: Read this in high school. I think it was the first time I started understanding the role of the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex in adolescents. It made some of the teen sexual harassment I received make sense, as well as the mimicking of their parents' voices regarding their very limited and xenophobic worldview (e.g., taunting me and telling me to go back to China, though I'm not Chinese), as well as other forms of bullying. I don't blame their semiformed brains for all their poor choices, but I can see now how influenced they were - their executive functions, their ego, and their hormone driven emotional imbalances all at war and coming out as expressions of aggression, resentment, and such. However, it gave me some solace and hope that maybe they'd grow up into decent human beings who would remember their cruelty and teach their future children to be better. (That hope felt like the only choice I had to survive it all.)
It was also one of the first books I'd read where consequences and guilt were reconciled by the death of a star that was too bright for this world.
I'd like to reread the book. It was fairly influential in my life back then. It feels like something that could be comforting now too.
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The usual dilemma with any kind of classic novel: what to say about this that hasn’t already been said? A Separate Peace is told almost entirely from the perspective of a teenage boy at a New England boarding school during the Second World War (there’s also a brief – powerfully evocative – introductory section in which the narrator returns to his old school as an adult). Concentrating on the friendship between the narrator, Gene, and his best friend, Phineas, it’s a story of how these children of privilege navigate the effects of war as well as the paradox in which they are now contained: they will imminently join the fight, so they’re expected to grow up fast, but adults also treat them as paragons of precious innocence, to be indulged and coddled. The writing is so clean and smooth and lucid. It rolls along wonderfully; it’s emotionally resonant. I found it beautiful, and well deserving of its status.
Two favourite passages:
‘... One summer day after another broke with a cool effulgence over us, and there was a breath of widening life in the morning air—something hard to describe—an oxygen intoxicant, a shining northern paganism, some odor, some feeling so hopelessly promising that I would fall back in my bed on guard against it. I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this.’
‘Here the road turned to the left and became dirt. It proceeded along the lower end of the playing fields, and under the pale night glow the playing fields swept away from me in slight frosty undulations which bespoke meanings upon meanings, levels of reality I had never suspected before, a kind of thronging and epic grandeur which my superficial eyes and cluttered mind had been blind to before. They unrolled away impervious to me as though I were a roaming ghost, not only tonight but always, as though I had never played on them a hundred times, as though my feet had never touched them, as though my whole life at Devon had been a dream, or rather that everything at Devon, the playing fields, the gym, the water hole, and all the other buildings and all the people there were intensely real, wildly alive and totally meaningful, and I alone was a dream, a figment which had never really touched anything. I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.’
TinyLetter | Linktree
Two favourite passages:
‘... One summer day after another broke with a cool effulgence over us, and there was a breath of widening life in the morning air—something hard to describe—an oxygen intoxicant, a shining northern paganism, some odor, some feeling so hopelessly promising that I would fall back in my bed on guard against it. I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this.’
‘Here the road turned to the left and became dirt. It proceeded along the lower end of the playing fields, and under the pale night glow the playing fields swept away from me in slight frosty undulations which bespoke meanings upon meanings, levels of reality I had never suspected before, a kind of thronging and epic grandeur which my superficial eyes and cluttered mind had been blind to before. They unrolled away impervious to me as though I were a roaming ghost, not only tonight but always, as though I had never played on them a hundred times, as though my feet had never touched them, as though my whole life at Devon had been a dream, or rather that everything at Devon, the playing fields, the gym, the water hole, and all the other buildings and all the people there were intensely real, wildly alive and totally meaningful, and I alone was a dream, a figment which had never really touched anything. I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.’
TinyLetter | Linktree
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