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.

2024 reads: 145/250

2024 tbr: 63/100

gene, an introverted intellectual, and phineas, a daredevil athlete, are an unlikely match, but friends nonetheless. one summer, something happens at their boarding school that flips their worlds upside down.

i really did not know what to expect going into this, despite having it on my tbr for over three years. i have heard the term “dark academia” used to describe it, though i wouldn’t say that’s completely accurate as typical dark academic themes (perfectionism, elitism, etc.) were not explored. nevertheless, i really enjoyed this book, and especially the afterword written by david levithan. i’d recommend this to anyone looking for a short, yet impactful, classic.

I remember reading this book as a late middle-schooler, maybe 8th grade, and not that I wasn't aware of what death was, but I don't believe I ever considered it a possibility for me or any of my friends: This book changed all that. I believe I made a conscious decision to model myself after Gene, even though Phineas was the cooler one. Gene had an understanding of things by the end of the book, that I thought at the time was the right way to think. All these years later, I've read it again, and am a bit astonished at how much Gene reminds me of me. It really is a great upper MG read but no reason for adults to shy away. Knowles is a great writer and the WW II background is so fresh to him that it comes across completely authentic. 5 Stars still!

unpopular opinion time

ೃ⁀➷ gene needs some help. but props to him for being the biggest gas lighter and manipulator

I remember reading this book in high school and being the only one in my class who liked it. Loved it, actually. I just fell head over heels for Finny... I even named my guinea pig Phineas!

Now, 20 years later, I still love A Separate Peace and I still cannot understand why none of my classmates appreciated it. The character dynamic is so complex and the reader has such mixed-up, confused feelings about Gene that NOT appreciating this novel seems impossible to me.

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.

Gene and Finny represented that high school friendship I think/hope we all had. That person that would always follow your wild schemes. This bromance is established strong and quickly, which is why twist number one caught me by surprise.

I'm not sure how this materialized: was it written to depict the prep school jealousies? Was this first-step simple training drill for war supposed to show the incipient reach of 'war'?

The story is set in 1942/43 with the boys at age 17 as the fall semester starts in '42. This would be the exact same age as the author, John Knowles. The elite New Hampshire prep school setting is also a carbon copy of Knowles attending Phillips Exeter Academy in NH.

We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve.

Surely this is an anti-war theme book. We see Brinker undergo radical internal changes without even being drafted yet. We see Leper go off to war and get Section 8 without even going to battle. And we see that basic training exercises have their danger too. Some parents are nostalgic about war, wanting their sons on the front line. Some boys brag like they might want 'action', yet they seek to volunteer for an easier service prior to being drafted (into the tougher infantry).

I recall an interview in the mini-series "Band of Brothers" about how absolutely everyone wanted to be in the war. You need to be "1A" to be 'allowed'. If screening declared you to be "4F" and unfit to serve, boys committed suicide!

Finny said: I'll hate it everywhere if I'm not in this war!

But I also wonder about the anti-prep school thoughts here. These schools are depicted to always have boys over-reaching their authority as they strive for leadership positions. This leads late in this book to an inquisition late at night. I was not sure on why this needed to happen, except that with a hint of blame being found, there were forces that refused to just stop over-thinking.

The final twist late in the book really blind-sided me. I was one page away from it happening when I paused for dinner. I didn't feel the need to force myself to finish the book that night. But what happened next took a 4* book and sunk it to 3* for me.

Maybe this all is supposed to be this way - making me angry with the outcome. This is the classic anti-war theme. Had there been no war, there would have been none of the negative consequences that ruled this book. I was just watching Schindler's List last night and had to turn it off. Too truthful. Too brutal.

I just kept thinking that Knowles would do more with the boys' relationship, as there was very suggestive writing about the closeness of Gene and Finny. But even this had the war, and the prep-school inquisition take a crushing toll.

3.5* that I just can't round up. The clarity for the two twists in this book needed to be much more clearly rationalized for me. (but isn't that the irrationality of war?)

...three days after writing this...
I elevate to 4* purely BECAUSE I was angry. All the innocence lost here due to war, and they were still in school!
Additionally, I elevated this onto my lgbtq shelf. This is not a typical lgbtq, rather these two boys had that love for one another that goes unnamed or unrecognized in society where it is never spoken about. But as I chose quotes to save, I found multiple I had to file under 'bromance'. It was the kind seen in the camaraderie of soldiers, but a bit more.

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.

First read in 1986. Re-read 21-28 Jan. 2012.
4 ½ stars--I can't quite bring myself to award it 5, perhaps out of a sense of sentimental injustice. …Or because Phineas doesn't have a last name. That bugged me, so I Googled it and turned up discussions of how Phineas is a symbol. Symbol or not, when everybody else has last names, he should've had one, too.
I'd convinced myself that I'd read this book more than once before now, but I realised quickly when I picked it up again that I hadn't. It made such a strong emotional impression on me that I never forgot reading it…but I forgot most of the actual content. All I really remembered was likeable, seventeen-year-old Phineas' tragic death, coming when the worst seemed over, after his friend caused him to fall out of a tree. I didn't even recall the narrator's/Phineas' friend's name! I don't remember any classroom discussion of the book, just an assignment of writing a letter from Phineas to his friend.
For such a short book, it packs a hell of a punch and kept my brain spinning after I'd put the book down. It's personal, yet universal. The way John Knowles shows the personal warfare of friendship and rivalry in the context of a world at war is brilliant. Is it human nature to create conflict, to make trouble where there is none? The author seems to think so. I didn't get the full message when I was a teenager, that's for sure.
On the personal level, Phineas' and Gene's friendship made me think of a friend I used to have, someone who was more impulsive and charismatic than I, someone I was at times jealous of. So I understand Gene's feelings in general, if not the depth of them. What he does to Phineas in a moment of paranoid, jealous rage is shocking. At that moment, he's too immature to understand he could have refused any of Phineas' invitations and schemes and Phineas wouldn't have cared. Phineas could be a smartass, but he wasn't mean-spirited. Whatever chaos he caused was temporary and just in boyish fun. He considered Gene a true friend, incapable of doing something so cruel as making him fall out of the tree and shatter his leg. The betrayal is heartbreaking.
Their timid friend Leper's loss of sanity is obvious, but the portrayal of both Phineas' and Gene's attempts to cope with situations at times had me doubting their sanity. I wanted to like Gene, or to pity him, but it was impossible to do so continually. His hostility toward Phineas and his focus on keeping his secret verged on sociopathic. His violent outburst against Leper, who knows Gene's secret, is almost as bad as what he did to Phineas.
Ultimately Gene does feel guilt for what he's done, and it's clear he knows he behaved badly and will carry the scar for the rest of his life. Their classmate Brinker's desire to get at the truth, to make Phineas remember and/or Gene confess, turns out to be prelude to the final tragedy--Phineas' second fall and the surgery that kills him. …But, like Briony's "atonement" in Ian McEwan's book, apologies or good intentions will never be enough. A moment's action led to a permanent loss that can never be fixed or changed.
The book also made me revisit my feelings about warfare and people's attitudes toward it. It's an amazing depiction of ambivalence about war. The author presents Leper, who buys into the propaganda and enlists, only to lose his mind; Brinker, who doesn't really believe in war but whose father constantly pushes him to join up for the sake of having good war stories to tell; Gene, who's saved from the self-punishment of early enlistment by Phineas' return to school, only to later join the Navy in hope of staying out of combat while still feeling guilty about it; and Phineas, whose pretense of not believing in the war was only a cover for his thwarted hopes of joining up. While I respect people who risk their lives to protect others or uphold an ideal, I have a problem with the glorification of war. The black-and-white, us-versus-them idea of war is such a lie, when armies are made up of individuals. I love the part of the book in which Gene tells Phineas he wasn't cut out for warfare because he'd probably end up crossing enemy lines to organise an impromptu game with the Germans or the Japanese.
For the most part, the writing displays a nice economy in language. The author gets to the point without going overboard but manages to employ some lyrical, original turns of phrase. There were a few times I stumbled over some wording, sometimes for what I deemed lack of a comma or two. But the author realistically captures the lives people try to carve out for themselves when the "real world out there"--whether it's war or college or work--seems remote and almost imaginary or, at its worst, like a nightmare.

One of the few assigned books in high school that I actually liked. It helped that I was in a school much like the one mentioned. Finny supplied us with several tricks that were perfect for bored, boarding school students, which added to the interest, of course. What drew me most to this book was that it captured the experience so well.

I've heard the novel disparaged because it's about a bunch of whiny rich kids. Obviously there's a lot of truth there, but these people miss the point. While privileged, the kids don't realize it. It's as natural to them as water to a fish, so it has to be ignored to see the real story which is the fragile identity of the kids & their struggles with it.

We're told the story from Gene's POV as an adult, although he obviously still harbors a lot of insecurities & isn't as accurate as he thinks in his reporting. He's still trying to decide where he stands. During the book, he's best friends with Finny who is as carefree as anyone can be, but he's torn between his friend & the conservative respectability that the school embodies, the expectations of his world. They're pretty much summed up in another school mate, Brinkman.

Added to Gene's confusion is his jealousy of Finny, who is a natural athlete. Gene can't measure up to his friend. He doesn't like himself for feeling this way, but the fact remains.

Not my normal reading, but I've re-read this a couple of times over the years, getting something a bit different out of it each time. The war time setting dates it a bit, but not too badly.

 As I had to do whenever I glimpsed this river, I thought of Phineas. Not of the tree and pain, but of one of his favorite tricks, Phineas in exaltation, balancing on one foot on the prow of a canoe like a river god, his raised arms invoking the air to support him, face transfigured, body a complex set of balances and compensations, each muscle aligned in perfection with all the others to maintain this supreme fantasy of achievement, his skin glowing from immersions, his whole body hanging between river and sky as though he had transcended gravity and might by gently pushing upward with his foot glide a little way higher and remain suspended in space, encompassing all the glory of the summer and offering it to the sky.

i'm so incredibly moved by this story about innocence and tenderness, truth and love, and overwhelming desperation. wow. there's such magic in finding that in a book that's been sitting under your nose your whole life. i'm so envious of the people who were introduced to this in school! what an invaluable treasure.