Book Review #1

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Hey everyone, let me start off by apologizing for the late post! It's been a crazy first week back at work and I haven't had a ton of free time to sit down and write. Luckily I get a 3 day weekend, so now I can play catch up with everything else I've put off this week! 

I thought I'd make this post my first book review. I recently read A Separate Peace by John Knowles. At first glance, it looked a little dry for my personal taste. I had heard of some of my friends being required to read this in high school, but I didn't quite get a vibe of whether or not this book was enjoyable. Out of the required texts I read for high school English, I thoroughly enjoyed about half of them. I remember reading Romeo & Juliet, Speak, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and Hamlet. I absolutely loved Romeo & Juliet, Speak, The Crucible, Gatsby, and Canterbury Tales. The other books... I hated with a burning passion. I will say that the two teachers I read those other books with were not my most favorite teachers, but I just remember reading those books and not enjoying the plot at all. I know, most of you are probably thinking "how could you hate TKAMB?!"; but the truth is it just wasn't my cup of tea. I hated LOTF solely because they killed (spoiler alert) Piggy... an unnecessary death. Beowulf was written in another language, so the comprehension there was minimal. Plus, my teacher was a bit of a nut job and didn't do too much to try and make it relatable and understandable to a group of 30 high school seniors. This was also the same teacher that made us read Hamlet with two weeks left before graduation...

Anyway, the point I'm trying to get at is that I mostly enjoyed the books I had to read in high school, and I figured if this book was read by some friends in high school without much complaint, it may not be half bad.

Okay, enough rambling. Basically I chose to read this novel because I had read online that it was considered one of the great American classics, and I hadn't heard any terrible reviews on it, so I figured I'd give it a go and see for myself. Let me start with a plot description:

This book is set during WWII in 1942 at a boy's boarding school in New Hampshire. The story focuses on a set of friends, Phineas (aka Finny) and Gene. Phineas is an attractive, athletic, daredevil who can get away with whatever he wants. Gene is quite the opposite; small, quiet, and bookish. The two became friends because they were assigned to be each other's roommates at the Devon School (the boarding school). One day during the summer session at Devon, Finny shows Gene this large, intimidating tree with branches that dangle over a river near the edge of the school's property. Finny shows Gene how to jump off the branches and land into the deep part of the river. Gene is reluctant because the jump itself could kill a person. Finny ultimately convinces Gene to jump with him and the two decide to create a secret society with some of their other friends from the school - the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session - in which their meetings consist of congregating by tree on the river and jumping off the branches. One day, Gene almost falls from the tree and Finny grabs his arm at the last second, probably saving his life. After some thought, Gene feels as though he doesn't owe Finny much gratitude because he would not have been up in that tree in the first place place if it weren't for Finny. The boys and their Society spend the majority of the summer session playing made up games and bending the rules around the campus as a means to try and avoid thinking about the war happening. Finny thinks the war is a conspiracy, which causes Gene to question his own beliefs. One day, Finny convinces Gene to run away with him for a night to go to the beach, and Gene tags along, albeit with reservations. Finny expresses his gratitude towards Gene for his friendship, but Gene cannot bring himself to reciprocate the feelings. As the days go on, Gene starts to think that the reason Finny is always trying to pull Gene out of his studies and into trouble with him is because Finny feels threatened by Gene's academic abilities. Gene is as good at school as Finny is at virtually all sports and athletic activities. Gene sees Finny as trying to become the "alpha male" of sorts and thinks that if Finny can get him to drop his grades, Finny will have "won" because where he lacks in academic ability, he makes up for with athletic prowess. Gene is nowhere near as athletic as Finny, so without school, Gene feels as though he has nothing. Gene ultimately sees Finny as an enemy of sorts and thinks that their friendship is not genuine, but rather full of envy for one another. Gene, however, does not want Finny to realize this, so he continues to act as his best mate. One day near the end of the summer, Finny and Gene are about to jump out of the tree and into the river at one of the Society's meetings. As the two get ready to jump, Gene accidentally jostles the tree branch Finny is standing on, causing Finny to fall and shatter his leg, rendering him a cripple and. unable to participate in sports again. Gene begins to obsessively question to himself whether or not he intentionally meant to jostle that branch. Nobody else at Devon suspects him of acting maliciously, but Gene struggles with this internal battle. Finny spends the rest of the summer at home in Boston recuperating from the fall, and Gene decides to pay him a visit and confess his feelings of guilt. Finny refuses to believe Gene and his accusations that it was his fault and he acted out of jealousy and becomes furious. Gene leaves to return to Devon to start the fall semester while Finny stays at home. Midway through the semester, Finny phones Gene to ask him if he is still "crazy like he was when he visited" to which Gene replied no. Finny asks if Gene has gone out for any sports and is outraged with Gene also says no. Finny tells Gene he must play sports so he can live vicariously through Gene, and Gene feels delighted to ultimately be a part of Finny. Finny returns to Devon just before winter comes and promises to coach Gene to become a star athlete - one that can go to the Olympics. Gene thinks Finny has gone mad because the Olympics are not likely to happen due to the war. Finny, continuing to believe the war is a hoax, promises to have Gene ready for the 1944 Olympic Games. Gene, not wanting to upset Finny anymore, obliges. Finny trains Gene to be an athlete and Gene trains Finny to become a good student, and they both become surprised at at their own progress. Gene finds a sense of inner peace while entering this new journey with Finny. One day while at a winter carnival, Gene receives word from one of his friends at Devon who has enlisted in the army that he has escaped and wants Gene to meet him at a secret location. Gene goes to meet his friend Leper, only to find that Leper has gone insane and went AWOL from the army because he was experiencing vivid hallucinations. Gene, who had started to also wonder too if the war was a conspiracy, finally realizes what happens to some people who go to war. Gene returns to Devon to inform his friends of what has happened to Leper, and Finny finally admits that he does believe that WWII is happening. Soon after this, Gene and Finny's friends form a makeshift "trial" in the middle of the night in an effort to inquire what really happened that day when Finny fell and broke his leg. As it turns out, Leper had seen everything that happened in that tree and has come to say his part in this trial. Once he says that he saw Gene shake the branch, possibly deliberately, Finny storms out of the hall, refusing to believe anything that was said. Unfortunately, Finny falls again, this time down a marble staircase, shattering his leg again. The doctor says that the break is cleaner this time and can be set without any problems. Before the surgery, Gene visits Finny and they talk about the war. Finny had been writing to all the branches of the military begging to let him be enlisted some how, but he kept getting rejected because of his leg. Gene tells Finny he wouldn't have been any good in the war; he would have "gone over to the other side and made friends and made everyone forget why they were fighting in the first place". Finny becomes very upset and begs Gene to admit if he jostled that tree branch out of blind rage last summer. Gene says that some "crazy thing" inside him made him jostle that branch. Finny assures Gene he understands and forgives him. Gene leaves to go about his day as Finny has surgery. Later on when Gene goes to visit Finny again, he is given tragic news: Finny died during the surgery due to a piece of bone marrow traveling to his heart. Gene is numb. He doesn't cry at this news, or at the funeral. Gene says that in a strange way, it was like his own funeral too. As the novel comes to a close, Gene graduates from Devon and enlists in the military, but never sees action due to WWII ending shortly after. The novel ends with an older Gene reflecting on his time at Devon and musing that perhaps Finny had the best perspective of everything: he understood that the perceived enemy may not even be an enemy after all. 

Whew! I tried to keep that short as possible, but there are a lot of small details in this book that intertwine to create the bigger story. One can read just about every analysis there is about this story on the internet, but that's not why I'm writing. I want to write about why I liked/disliked the book. I liked the depth of the story and how it creates the story of how friends can secretly become enemies due to unseen envy. It also poses a great question of how we perceive our "enemies" in life. I loved how the name of the book came into play when Gene said he had found an inner peace while training with Finny. My take on this is that this peace he speaks of is separate from the war happening as well as separate from anyone else. It was Gene's inner peace, not Finny. Gene had found his inner identity, one that was not attached to Finny. This part of the novel, in my opinion, was the most beautiful. It's the classic coming-of-age story of how one found their true identity. I disliked how there were times throughout reading it became a little dry, but that can happen when the novel was written in 1957. I also disliked how masculine the presence was throughout the book; not a single major or minor character was female. There were barely every mentions of females throughout the book. Maybe it's just part of the story and how it ties in. I'm sure some great analyst out there has an in-depth explanation as to how the lack of a female presence in this book contributes to the story. The major dislike I have is that Finny ultimately died in the end. I am glad he and Gene reconciled and ended on decent terms with one another, but I feel as though the main internal conflicts in this story could have been resolved without killing Finny.

Lastly, I want to share a quote from this book that really resonated with me. I'm not sure I can whole-heartedly agree with it, but something about is kind of beautiful and thought-provoking in my opinion.

"(...) when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love" - Finny, p.111

What do you think about this quote? I'd love to see your thoughts about it and anything else about the story below in the comments! 

All in all, I did enjoy this book. I think it is well written and exposes deep personal conflicts in a unique way. I can see why it is a favorite amongst high school English teachers! 

Overall rating: 4/5 stars

Until next time!

~ Tara