John Knowles' A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age story that recounts the friendship of two boys during World War II. Gene is brilliant and introverted, while Phineas is charismatic and popular. As the two boys suffer under the pressures of war, their jealously will attempt to overcome their friendship. This book appears to be a simple story, but it's filled with symbolic meaning. While the book as a whole is fun to dissect at first, it becomes tiresome after a while, and the plot itself wasn't enough to keep me interested. I wish the superficial story carried more weight so that it was easier to dig for the novel's more profound meaning.
A Separate Peace
Nov 29, 2021