A Separate Peace
3 journalers for this copy...
A popular book long ago when I was in high school. I think of it as a classic, don't know if it is still recommended reading anymore.
Sending to Marinaw. She didn't request it but I think she may like it.
Wow! Nice bonus! Yes, it is good to go back to the classics (I've missed many of them...time to dig out my "read these before college" list).
Description from back cover:
"Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace.
A great bestseller for almost a decade--one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence."
Description from back cover:
"Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace.
A great bestseller for almost a decade--one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence."
This is probably considered a classic, but I found that the "dark...brooding...torturous world" depicted here was too far under the surface for me to really mentally digest this thread of the novel. It may or may not be a hallmark of the either the "Greatest Generation" or of males in general, but I found it difficult to relate to this breed of angst.
Quotes and commentary:
" I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak."
--Well, this is the first clue as to Gene's role in the plot. This quote jumped out at me because I have been guilty of the weakness of sarcasm, but I don't understand why it is a sign of said failing. This may be something I need to put up for discussion within my network.
"Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever."
--So, is one's life colored forever by either one shining or devastating moment? Gene's seems to be, but it doesn't involve the war [well, not directly, see the later Irving reference]. Certainly doesn't bode well for personal evolution or salvation, whichever path one subscribes to.
"...never stumble through the confusions of my own character again."
--In my opinion, Gene's become pretty well destabilized, or at least he's manifesting it to himself to the point where he can't help but become conscious of his shaky mental health.
"I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved. And if it wasn't there...then I put it there myself."
--Now that's what I call an unhealthy obsession [see the later Irving reference for my take on why Gene's doing this].
"Putting aside soft reservations about...my duty to my parents and so on, I reckoned my responsibilities...and knew that I owed no one anything. I owed it to myself to meet this crisis in my life when I chose..."
--This reminds me of comments I'd made in another recent journal entry about not keeping knowledge to oneself, for one's own benefit. Knowles hammers this home for a more physical example: Gene's "separate peace" isn't his to have, he has to give it up for the sake of those left behind by necessity.
"[This war is]...like a test...and only the things and the people who've been evolving the right way survive."
--Well, here's a false assumption! Skill in survival tactics and worth of the lives that go on (or not) are unrelated as far as I'm concerned. Staying in the gene pool doesn't insure that one's progeny will be bulletproof when it's their turn to go up against the enemy of their generation.
"Winter's occupation seems to have conquered, overrun and destroyed everything, so that now there is no longer any resistence movement left in nature; all the juices are dead, every sprig of vitality snapped, and now winter itself, an old, corrupt, tired conqueror, loosens its grip on the desolation, recedes a little, grows careless in its watch; sick of victory and enfeebled by the absence of challenge, it begins itself to withdraw from the ruined countryside."
--No significance, aside from the apt, if violent, description of the season.
"I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me."
--Well, if it hadn't hit home yet, Gene is now certain that the world created by his mind is separate from the world in which he lives. He's noting the anomaly of his present, yet exiled existence among others.
After having read this book, I couldn't help but catch a glimmer of similarity to A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. [For those who haven't read this book, my apologies for the spoiler to follow] I found the parallel of rendering a character unfit for service a bit more than coincidental, and of course have to wonder about Knowles' influence (if any) on Irving, or if this is simply a theme we should expect to see in the occasional novel about wartime and how it affects the bonds of friendship.
Quotes and commentary:
" I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak."
--Well, this is the first clue as to Gene's role in the plot. This quote jumped out at me because I have been guilty of the weakness of sarcasm, but I don't understand why it is a sign of said failing. This may be something I need to put up for discussion within my network.
"Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever."
--So, is one's life colored forever by either one shining or devastating moment? Gene's seems to be, but it doesn't involve the war [well, not directly, see the later Irving reference]. Certainly doesn't bode well for personal evolution or salvation, whichever path one subscribes to.
"...never stumble through the confusions of my own character again."
--In my opinion, Gene's become pretty well destabilized, or at least he's manifesting it to himself to the point where he can't help but become conscious of his shaky mental health.
"I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved. And if it wasn't there...then I put it there myself."
--Now that's what I call an unhealthy obsession [see the later Irving reference for my take on why Gene's doing this].
"Putting aside soft reservations about...my duty to my parents and so on, I reckoned my responsibilities...and knew that I owed no one anything. I owed it to myself to meet this crisis in my life when I chose..."
--This reminds me of comments I'd made in another recent journal entry about not keeping knowledge to oneself, for one's own benefit. Knowles hammers this home for a more physical example: Gene's "separate peace" isn't his to have, he has to give it up for the sake of those left behind by necessity.
"[This war is]...like a test...and only the things and the people who've been evolving the right way survive."
--Well, here's a false assumption! Skill in survival tactics and worth of the lives that go on (or not) are unrelated as far as I'm concerned. Staying in the gene pool doesn't insure that one's progeny will be bulletproof when it's their turn to go up against the enemy of their generation.
"Winter's occupation seems to have conquered, overrun and destroyed everything, so that now there is no longer any resistence movement left in nature; all the juices are dead, every sprig of vitality snapped, and now winter itself, an old, corrupt, tired conqueror, loosens its grip on the desolation, recedes a little, grows careless in its watch; sick of victory and enfeebled by the absence of challenge, it begins itself to withdraw from the ruined countryside."
--No significance, aside from the apt, if violent, description of the season.
"I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me."
--Well, if it hadn't hit home yet, Gene is now certain that the world created by his mind is separate from the world in which he lives. He's noting the anomaly of his present, yet exiled existence among others.
After having read this book, I couldn't help but catch a glimmer of similarity to A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. [For those who haven't read this book, my apologies for the spoiler to follow] I found the parallel of rendering a character unfit for service a bit more than coincidental, and of course have to wonder about Knowles' influence (if any) on Irving, or if this is simply a theme we should expect to see in the occasional novel about wartime and how it affects the bonds of friendship.
Journal Entry 5 by marinaw at ABBC Bookbox in Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, September 30, 2004
Released 19 yrs ago (9/30/2004 UTC) at ABBC Bookbox in Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Finally mailing from Wine Country to fizzfred.
Finally mailing from Wine Country to fizzfred.
Came home in the Already Been BookCrossed bookbox. Read this one in school. I'll pass this one on.
This is going to scarlett1968 as a Holiday Wish RABCK.