A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Entry by Blake Heaton (Lauryn's husband)

This was a fantastic novel.  It takes place during World War II.  But don't be fooled, it is not the conventional war novel.  Rather the setting of the novel is at a male boarding school called Devon in New Hampshire.  The story is told by a boy named Gene Forrester, and largely circles around his friend Phineas, or better known as Finny.  

The book begins with Gene returning to Devon.  While walking through the campus he recalls the summer of 1942, when he was 16 years old.  The book then takes on the form of a flashback.  Gene was an intellectual student who did well in his studies.  His roommate was Finny, who excelled at any type of sport.  Thourghout the summer Finny continually stretches the rules, but manages to avoid any type of punishment due to his abundant charisma.  Finny continually drags Gene with him, even when Gene doesn't feel like going.  They form a secret club called the Secret Suicide Society, and meet every night.  The club meets by the river, and every night they jump off a tree limb that protrudes over the river.  

Gene constantly struggles with his friendship with Finny.  The novel plays with jealousy, envy, and all the other emotions that lie just below the surface of true friendship.  One day, Gene has a conversation with Finny that makes him believe that the reason Finny continually drags him around is so that he will fail in his studies.  Gene believes that Finny is resentful of his good grades.  This realization emboldens Gene, and he redoubles his study habits.  He still continues to attend the club meetings, but makes a point to get good grades and work hard.  

Finny is incorrigible in his manner.  He continues to invent new games and stretch the rules.  Towards the end of the summer, on the night before a big test, Finny once again drags Gene out of their dorm to the tree.  Finny then comes up with idea that they both should jump off the limb at the same time while holding hands, thus cementing their friendship.  Once in the tree, all the bitter feelings that Gene has towards Finny rise to the surface and take hold of Gene physically.  Gene bounces the tree limb, and Finny falls breaking his leg.  

Gene struggles with the guilt of what he has done, and tries to confess to Finny on several occasions.  But Finny refuses to believe that Gene would have done such a thing.  Phineas appears to be in some sort of deep denial.  A few months after the fall semester begins, Phineas returns to school.  The two are roommates once again.  

The novel then explores the reality of the war to these teenage boys.  Finally a boy by the name of Leper enlists.  He then goes AWOL and returns a disillusioned young man who has lost all of his prep-school innocence.  Finny continues to be himself, but cannot overcome his limp.  The doctors say that he will never again be the athlete that he was.  Perhaps because of guilt Gene puts off enlisting, and opts instead to stay at school with Finny.

Towards the end of the book another boy by the name of Brinker Hadley decides to call Gene out into the open and put to rest all the suspicions that were circling Finny's injury.  In the dead of night they hold an inquisition.  It is during this inquisition that Finny remembers exactly what happened.  He runs from the room, and trips down the stairs, breaking his leg again.  

Gene waits until the doctors leave and then confronts Finny through the window.  He apologizes and sees the emotional suffering that he has caused etched on Finny's face.  The next day he is requested to take some of Phineas's things to the infirmiry.  Gene does so and once again confronts his friend.  Finny seems to lapse once again into a type of denial, asking if Gene had really had intentions to hurt him, or if it was just something that came over him.  Gene says that he didn't have intentions to hurt him, and Finny appears to try and convince himself that this is true.  Later that day Gene returns to see Finny, but the doctor tells him that he has died.  He claims some marrow escaped the bone while he attempted to set it, and made its way to Phineas's heart.

The book concludes with the army moving into Devon, and Gene and Brinker explaining what branches of the service they have opted to join.  

This was a great book.  It dealt heavily on the themes of friendship and trust.  I could analyze the characters of Phineas and Gene for hours.  I also liked how it portrayed the war.  It offered a new perspective of how the kids of that era grew up.  The war was a part of them, it helped define who they were as human beings.  Gene is a very complex character (as is Finny).  Throughout the book the reader knows Gene's darkest secret, and yet it feels like Gene is always holding something back, as though he is afraid to show true affection and love towards anyone, including Finny.  I loved this book, and I hope that all can read it.  While it won't keep your attention with fast-paced action, it will broaden your understanding of human nature with its deep-seeded philisophical anthropologic portrayals of the human character.