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EARMARKED | MESSAGES | SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
Shelf Comments
Finny is an unforgettable character - one that readers of this novella likely aspire to be. I do.
- shelved by cheyne
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    Separate Peace (New Windmill)
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    cheyne's Review
    review by cheyne
    Reader of classic lit and tech textbooks!
    overall book rating: 94%
     

    Probably unlike most readers of this novel, I was well past high school when I first met Phineas and Gene. 

    I mention these characters first and foremost because they are what make this novel great.  Phineas shines like a beacon of humanity -- happy, well intending, light -- and stubbornly/endearingly refuses to acknowledge the existence of ugliness in the world.  And Gene seems like an average flawed teen -- jealous, introverted, academic, but relatable.  Did anyone else read this novel and think:  "I should be more like Phineas?"  

    Getting into the story...I remember the first chapter begins with a fairly dull account by the book's narrator, Gene, of his visit to Devon.  Devon is the stuffy, elite boarding school where Gene and Phineas were schoolmates long ago.  He takes care to visit very specific places -- places with a certain significance the reader has yet to learn.

    (An aside: It's rumored the book is autobiographical, since Knowles attended the elite Devon-esque Exeter boarding school in his youth.)

    Anyways, midway through the first chapter, we're whisked into the past and the story picks up.  We meet a compelling cast of supporting characters, and, by the end, maybe (hopefully) we learn something about the nature of friendship.

    After the first read, I find it interesting how much more meaningful and emotionally-charged the beginning of the first chapter becomes.  Knowles' description of the fateful tree is iconic:   

    The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river.

    That imagery inspired a drawing from yours truly.  Here's a link -- it's the piece titled Knowles.

    I find that people have a love/hate reaction to this book.  I'm always surprised by the intense anti-Knowles fervor -- is it because this was compulsory reading in high school?  In any case, it's only 100 pages and change...go read it, then come here and sound off!

    Ratings (100 pt scale)
    Overall Rating - 94

    This review has (2) responses 

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    • response from cheyne
    • Wow, those are some interesting insights, and I think you're right -- it would make sense for someone to think Finny is "too good to be true". (I still believe in the ideal..). Glad you loved it -- that makes two of us.
      •  
    • response from sbarranca
    • I actually came across this novel later in life also. I went to an all girl high school and read things more along the lines of Jane Eyre.
      I loved it too though, I acutally listened to it and found myself sitting in parking lots to listen longer before turning it off.
      I think people must hate the book if they believe that Finny is really too good to be true. So they side with Gene and then feel horrified by Gene's actions. The guilt this causes in the reader who might have been championing Gene would cause people to hate the book becaue it makes one feel uncomfortable. I loved it.
      •  
     
    reviewer cheyne supports Creekside Books & Coffee, in Skaneateles, NY
    Excerpts
    "You mean that record has been up there the whole time we've been at Devon and nobody's busted it yet?" It was an insult to the class, and Finny had tremendous loyalty to the class, as he did to any group he belonged to, beginning with him and me and radiating outward past the limits of humanity toward spirits and clouds and stars.

    No one else happened to be in the pool. Around us gleamed white tile and glass brick; the green, artificial-looking water rocked gently in its shining basin, releasing vague chemical smells and a sense of many pipes and filters; even Finny's voice, trapped in this closed, high-ceilinged room, lost its special resonance and blurred into a general well of noise gathered up toward the ceiling. He said blurringly, "I have a feeling I can swim faster than A. Hopkins Parker."

    We found a stop watch in the office. He mounted a starting box, leaned forward from the waist as he had seen racing swimmers do but never had occasion to do himself - I noticed a preparatory looseness coming into his shoulders and arms, a controlled ease about his stance which was unexpected in anyone trying to break a record. I said, "On your mark -- Go!" There was a complex moment when his body uncoiled and shot forward with sudden metallic tension. He planed up the pool, his shoulders dominating the water while his legs and feet rode so low that I couldn't distinguish them; a wake rippled hurriedly by him and then at the end of the pool his position broke, he relaxed, dived, an instant's confusion and then his suddenly and metallically tense body shot back toward the other end of the pool. Another turn and up the pool again - I noticed no particular slackening of his pace - another turn, down the pool again, his hand touched the end, and he looked up at me with a composed, interested expression. "Well, how did I do?" I looked at the watch; he had broken A. Hopkins Parker's record by .7 seconds.

    "My God! So I really did it. You know what? I thought I was going to do it. It felt as though I had that stop watch in my head and I could hear myself going just a little bit faster than A. Hopkins Parker."

    "The worst thing is there weren't any witnesses. And I'm no official timekeeper. I don't think it will count."

    "Well of course it won't count."

    "You can try it again and break it again. Tomorrow. We'll get the coach in here, and all the official timekeepers and I'll call up The Devonian to send a reporter and a photographer --"

    He climbed out of the pool. "I'm not going to do it again," he said quietly.

    "Of course you are!"

    "No, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Now I know. But I don't want to do it in public." Some other swimmers drifted in through the door. Finny glanced sharply at them. "By the way," he said in an even more subdued voice, "we aren't going to talk about this. It's just between you and me. Don't say anything about it, to ... anyone."

    "Not say anything about it! When you broke the school record!"

    "Sh-h-h-h-h!" He shot a blazing, agitated glance at me.

    I stopped and looked at him up and down. He didn't look directly back at me. "You're too good to be true," I said after a while.
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