A Separate Peace
by John Knowles
List Price:
Our Price: $3.75
You Save: $2.24 (37%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: John KnowlesEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1985-01-01
ISBN: 0553280414
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of A Separate Peace
Book Review: A Staggering Symbolic Journey
Summary: 5 Stars
It is quite a balancing act that John Knowles is able to pull of in his delicate novel, A Separate Peace. The novel manages to blend the issues of war, reflections, reality, change under stress, denial, innocence, rebellion, conformity, good, evil, memory, hate, love, and about everything else under the sun. The question is how does he manage to blend these wide array of issues into a simple parable of the dark side of human nature is a breathtaking feat of poetic beauty. I think towering above all of it, is how he is able to take an unlikable character for his narrator and make us care about his troubled soul. On top of that, somehow tying it all together with symbolism and metaphors of human nature characteristics that we all posses.
The story opens as a now older Gene revisits the school in which many of the life altering experiences occurred that shaped him from boyhood to manhood. Notice the vivid language, description, and memories being presented. It is cold, bleak day. Much of the weather will serve as symbols and foreshadows of things to come. As Gene takes walks around the campus his mind goes back in time and he begins his story.
Gene's story is centered on the friendship between him and his best friend Phineas. The two are completed opposites. Gene is shallow, intelligent, conforming, and at the heart of character, dark. Finny is outgoing, rebellious, popular, kind, and athletic. (Although most of the story is told from Gene's point of view which may, in a sense, over-exaggerate some of Finny's qualities)
The entire setting of the story is told on the grounds of Devon, which is a prestigious boarding school in New England. World War II is going on and seniors from the school are constantly being enlisted in the army. The war outside is a reoccurring theme for the war which takes place on the inside. Inside the soul of Gene. The central tragedy of the novel is a scene early on when the two boys are climbing a large tree to jump off together into a river below. At this point, Gene has begun to develop jealousy toward Finny. In a moment of rage he shakes the tree limb on which Finny is standing and Finny sails toward the ground below, shattering his leg, and more importantly, his life.
Finny eventually comes back to the school just as Gene is set to enter the war. Gene delays his enlistment, however, and attempts to become friends with Finny again. He attempts to help is friend so that he can somehow undo the wrong which he maliciously committed earlier. The divide now exists between them and both he and Finny are in a state of denial. For moments, the two enjoy peace together, but in the end the damage has been done and it becomes almost impossible to reconcile.
There is also a fine supporting cast of characters, such as Brinker, who feels the pressure of war constantly because of his Father's glory in combat, and Leper, who becomes mentally unstable after a brief enlistment in the army. These supporting characters are developed and have their own unique roles in relation to the novel, but it is obvious that the "show" belongs to Finny and Gene.
I won't reveal the ending, only the fact that Gene finally rids himself of his own worst enemy, and in way, receives his own lonely redemption.
A Separate Peace sounds so simple, and it is on the surface. Great novels always go beyond the surface and use emotions and symbols to create something deeper and more meaningful that the story itself. Beyond the simple tale of a friendship divided by a childhood incident, is undercut by a deep wave of innocence lost by the war on the outside and the war on the inside. War isn't the only parallel the story serves up, but it might be the most important one. This book hits the right chords on how all of us feel at times, when it comes to our reactions under stress, jealousy, or incompetence. It forces us to meditate on our own dark natures and weakness that lie deep within us all.
Knowles doesn't preach his story at us. He lets us come to our own conclusions about human nature and about the character who tells us his story. I was drawn in the entire journey. The description is flawless. From the hard, crunchy, snow, to the cold gray skies. Every sentence seemed to be thought of intensely before it was added to the final product.
The result is heartbreaking and staggering. Words put into proper form evoke powerful emotions. One of the main themes in A Separate Peace is how we remember things we feel more than things we think. Like all great novel, A Separate Peace causes us to do both things (think and feel) simultaneously and perhaps reveals to us a side of our own selves that we don't think about all too often, but is too important to be ignored.
Grade: A
Summary of A Separate Peace
Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace. A great bestseller for over thirty years--one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence.Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.82
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.21
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
Antigoneby Sophocles
Prestwick House, Inc.; Published: 2005-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.81
Price in other shops:
The Catcher in the Ryeby J.D. Salinger
Little, Brown and Company; Little, Brown and Company; Published: 1991-05-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaustby Immaculee Ilibagiza, Steve Erwin
PBS; Hay House; Published: 2007-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops:
The Crucible (Penguin Plays)by Arthur Miller
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1976-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Lord of the Fliesby William Golding
Perigee Books; Published: 1959-07-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.01
Price in other shops:
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Perennial Classics)by Thornton Wilder
Harper Collins Publishers; Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2003-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
April Morningby Howard Fast
Random House; Bantam; Published: 1983-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.08
Price in other shops:
A Separate Peaceby John Knowles
Scribner; Published: 2003-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.29
Price in other shops:
Knowles' A Separate Peace (Cliffs Notes)by Charles Higgins, Regina Higgins, Cary M. Roberts
Cliffs Notes; Published: 2000-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops: