Product Review
A Separate Peace is the quintessential coming of age novel. John Knowles' A Separate Peace has been a classic for forty years and has remained in print all that time. That is a good thing as it allows new readers to discover introverted Gene and that kooky handsome, athletic Phineas and watch their friendship change as the war throws its own shadows on them.
The friendship which develops between Gene and Finny is beautifully drawn, woven with skill into the mundanity of everyday existence. The tragic turn it takes sends the rest of the plot, though outwardly innocuous, hurtling toward disaster and a darkness beyond imagining.
A Separate Peace explores the evil in the human heart, using this tale of betrayal as a parallel to the war raging in the world at the same time. Humanity is shown to have a dark side, the cause of tremendous horror and suffering. And yet, there is hope offered in this book for humanity. Evil is not the be-all and end-all of our existence. In the author's own words, this book penetrates to "that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth."
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