A Separate Peace
Books | Fiction / Coming of Age
3.5
(14.6K)
John Knowles
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. 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 World War II.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.
Coming Of Age
World War 2
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More Details:
Author
John Knowles
Pages
204
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
2014-04-22
ISBN
1476777039 9781476777030
Ratings
Google: 3.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"It was a great book! Was not expecting the ending, but it was a very vivid and detailed story! I could picture everything - I still can’t get over the fact that the ending is not a cliffhanger since there is no sequel, but it is not a proper happily ever after ending either… I think the plot was a little different and unique since there were many points of major conflict which for me, confused me as to the location of the climax. All in all, loved the idea of it and it was an amazing read! "
"This is like something out of Dead Poets’ Society."
C F
Claire Freeman
"Once again, I had to read this during the beginning of my 12th grade year. In my opinion, some of the characters make stupid mistakes but then again I am a girl in the 21st century and this is written about boys, wrote by a boy, a long time ago. Our ways of thinking are just different. Besides that, It was still a good read. The end was sucky. *Spoiler* Everyone in my class thought that Finny and Gene were 💅 but no. We also weren't expecting Finny to end up the way he did."
"This is my favorite book from tenth grade, hands-down! It had all the drama of a soap opera mixed in with all the comedy of a sitcom. My favorite character, if I had to choose, would be Finny, because he is the one who keeps high hopes and is good guy. Even when he was in the hospital he was making jokes. Gene was my least favorite character, he was always only out for himself. Just thinking when the right moment to help himself was. He was a fool to believe that Finny was trying to sabotage him; Finny was just being a chum and trying to get him to open up and have a little fun before they are shipped off because before they know it they will be drafted. The most surprising part was AT THE END when finny falls down the stairs during the mock trial and he stays in the hospital overnight when Gene goes to apologize for what he has done, being the cause of Finny breaking his legs and Finny accepts his sincere apology. The surpising part was after that when gene is told to come back at 4:15 to see Finny and when he goes to see finny, he discovers Finny died because of bone marrow stopping his heart. I was very saddened by it. I still hate Gene for jouncing the limb of the tree. Because if he hadn’t done that, then Gene would not have broken his leg, therefore there wouldn’t be a need for a mock trial and overall, Finny would still be alive."