4 disco balls
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
First published in 1959
Required reading during my HS years (and I don’t remember if I ever finished it, but knowing my younger self…I probably read the CliffsNotes)
This past year I set out to read books from HS (1994-98) to: 1) read from an adult perspective and 2) actually read the ones I was supposed to and know I didn’t!
I want to apologize to my English teacher now, I should have appreciated you more. 😉
The story is of two best friends, Gene and Finny, at an all boys boarding school and one’s insecurity/hidden jealously over the other. Gene comes to believe that Finny is sabotaging his studies on purpose and his actions with Finny thereafter are less than noble. During this time Gene, Finny and the other boys are reaching a turning point in their lives. They are 1 year away from draft age with a war going on and dealing with the fact that this may be the last year they can actually be kids.
To read more on my thoughts/frustrations with the characters, which includes spoilers, view my goodreads.com review (got to figure out that spoiler button html, but until then I didn’t want to ruin the story for anyone who wanted to read it!)
Let me know what you thought of the book, in HS and/or as an adult re-reading it, in the comments below!
Saturday Nite Reader 
With so many new books being published all the time it’s easy to forget about the awesome older ones. Thanks for this post.
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I totally agree! There are so many classics that I have never gotten to but have always meant to read. Just not enough hours in my day!
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Great post and review
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I’ve never heard of this book. I have gone back and read some books I had to read in middle school and high school before. I definitely had a better understanding of them now than I did then. One book I re-read because I remembered I liked it in middle school and it had such a deeper meaning that I had overlooked as a 13-year-old. It’s interesting how we mature and “grow up.”
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I also reread Catcher in the Rye and it was such a different experience. I wasn’t looking at it as a 16 yr old, but someone that was 16 once…if that makes sense.
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I know exactly what you mean. Though I never read that book at all, lol. There are a lot of common “school” books I never read because I was always placed in the “low” English classes. I should go through some of those books and try reading them for the first time.
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I’ve never heard about this book.I’ll check it out!
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Going back and reading high school books actually sounds like a great idea.I relied on cliff notes way too much too. Awesome review.
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great review!
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I have never actually heard of this book before. When I was at school, our English work was set on Macbeth, Jane Eyre and Tom Sawyer.
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Great review and great idea! There are so many I didn’t and should have read in school! I think I may take a page from your book and do the same! What a great post!
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I kept Cliff Notes in business 😉
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I read this one in high school and I did not enjoy it. I don’t know if I have evolved enough to enjoy it now. 😉 I know my HS English teacher would be sad.
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Hey, your HS teacher may not have liked it either 😉 They had to have had favorites. That would certainly be a question I would ask my HS teacher now!
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Great review, I never read this book for my English class and it is actually the first time I heard about it as well. But it does looks and sounds absolutely amazing and very intriguing. Plus I love books that are friendship books. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post and putting this book on my radar.
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This was always a tough one to teach. I think because I was always so focused on reading it for ways to teach it, I had a hard time enjoying it.
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Plus, I am sure Gene made you mad 😉
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My high school book that I want to re-read from an adult perspective is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It’s the book that put me on my dystopian addiction path. Great review 🙂
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Wow… Its the first time i find a post about this book. A separated peace (or “una paz sólo nuestra” because i’ve only read it in Spanish) is one of my favorites books in the world (i would give everything to had the chance to read it when i were younger, but i got the chance to do it while I was in College. I also read your review in Goodreads, it was nice.
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