- A SEPARATE PEACE
- by John Knowles
- rated by pbs readers as #67
- 204 pages
Wow. It feels quite amazing to go straight from a ridiculously exciting read into a small, very elegant one.
A Separate Peace has the feeling of a short story that just happens to have 200 pages to it. All the reviews talk about the economy of John Knowles’ writing and that is clear. He is almost Hemingway-esque in his reporting of the facts, ma’am, just the facts, with occasional evocative descriptions that don’t take away from his pacing – a point I deeply appreciate.
The story is of two boys, who are seniors in 1942 at a small boy’s academy. They are going to be seniors and then could, for all intents and purposes, die in the war directly after that.
But that isn’t in the invincible mind of a high school senior who has a whole world to explore ahead of him.
The two boys are very different but they really complete each other – one being great at sports and one being a great mind. Below the satisfaction that the two friends seek out in one another in friendship, lies a troubling amount of conflict and competition.
This all leads to one moment of deception that changes everything (squeamish girlfriends reading this: you can handle this moment. It isn’t gross!).
I am not quite half way through it and have no idea where it will go.
But the elegance in the writing isn’t just in the way it unfolds. It is also that short story plot, where one classic story gains and holds more and more underpinnings till the story becomes about all sorts of things we all feel and wonder and doubt about.
More on this when I know it. But lovely writing….
DONE. JUST PUT IT DOWN
Wow. This was a book that people read in high school a ways back. In my mind, it got linked up with Catcher in the Rye, in the sense that you can viscerally feel what their impact must have been.
Where they part is that I can only imagine the impact of Catcher. With A Separate Peace, I am there. This story would impact absolutely anyone. It is a true classic – a simple perfectly told story about one incident that summarizes two lives and that has infinite repercussions. Anyone and everyone has felt these themes and pangs of love, idolatry, competition, distrust, insecurity.
What a blessing it is when one simple story contains the whole world.
Almost every review mentions the restraint in the writing but I’m not sure I would see it as that. Emotional details pop through with great economy and at the exact moment they should. Yet it also feels like the tempo and way that boys at a private school would experience emotion. It is told with a perfect authenticity.
Every one of these boys is mentioned casually initially but then grows to embody layers of questions and bless them, severe contradictions. In the end, they stay close not out of choice but because the looming war is the only evil that can be dealt with at that point.
I will remember this story for the rest of my life. And I’m often can’t remember what my phone number is. So you get the import of what I’m saying!
Lastly, I love the title and love the fact that we never know if he meant to shake the tree or not. Wow.
Hi Cyn,
Way to tease us with the moment of deception we shouldn’t be squeamish about! Now you are going to make me read it. And on that note, I am reading “Ready Player One” based on your review. I am about 50 pages from being done. I believe you are right about the genre being sci fi (though I suppose it could be dystopian? Is that an actual genre?) I loved books like the Hunger Games and this one has much of the same appeal, though WAY more intricate, detailed and unique. I agree that it is a very good read even though, like you, I am not a real gamer or cyber-geek. I am really glad you read this and reviewed it and that I am now reading it. Like you, I never would have stumbled across it. Makes you wonder how the movie turned out, doesn’t it? It seems like it would have been hard to capture all the details, but it was Steven Spielberg! Thanks for the recommendation!
I read this in high school, and I know it made a deep impact on me, but I can’t really remember much other than one thing… no spoiler alerts though, for those that haven’t read it. I should go back and reread it! Thanks for the reminder! (in fact, I think I still have the original paperback I read oh so many moons ago!)