Boyhood, Manhood, and Betrayal

A Separate Peace by John Knowles (1959) – In the early years of World War II, a different conflict takes place in a quiet, New Hampshire boys school. Gene and Phineas will come of age after a single event that explodes everything they think they know about themselves and their world.

The story is an extended flashback fifteen years after the central event of the book. Gene Forrester returns to Devon School to confront the events of 1942. He was a good student, but a born follower. His roommate is Phineas (we never learn his last name) is a natural athlete and leader. Finny is carefree and lives in the moment. He expects the best in all things and that things will go “the way they should.” He draws Gene into his world, and they become best friends.

The war affects everything around the two sixteen-year-olds. It required sacrifices to support the war effort. Older boys going into the army, and even some of their teachers disappear. The cloistered world of a boys private school is shaken by the events far outside its guarded world and worldview. The result is the end of innocence, changed friendships, shaken sanity, and one of their own will die.

This is one of those books that is taught in high school. A few students like it, many more find it incomprehensible and disturbing. I do not know why you would teach this book at that age. As adults, we can look back on our own naivete from a distance, and recognize the necessity of leaving it. At sixteen years old, we do not have the experience to objectively weigh the foibles of being sixteen years old. The most common reaction I hear among those who read it at that age is “Ugh, I hate that book”.

At the same time, Knowles is a wonderful writer. The smells, sounds, tastes and colors of the boy’s world at Devon are clear. From the dank stench of the Butt room, to the drab strangeness of the architecture of the school, and the sensual experience of a snow fight are crisp. So are the characters of Brinker, Leper, Gene and Phineas. Each represents a part of what it meant to be a man in that time and place. None of them are complete, to the detriment of them all. Each one skitters along the surface of the world in which they exist. When forced to face the reality below that surface, all of them will break in their own way.

This is one of a trio of books about young men behaving badly that have become popular literary pinatas. We bash “A Separate Peace”, “Catcher in the Rye”, and “Lord of the Flies” because most of us don’t like the vision of the world each carries. The stories are ugly, angry and without the pleasant ending we would like. I believe that each are books that push us away from the comfortable surface and into the depths of our own worlds. Thus, they are books of importance, and well worth reading.

Rating – ***** Highest Recommendation