In A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester reflects back on his life at the Devon School in New England, 15 years in retrospect. He shares memories about the jumping tree by the Devon River. Gene is set apart as the introvert while Finny is outgoing. He and Finny jump off of the tree together while others are too scared. Jumping becomes a nightly occurrence with the formation of 5S. Gene becomes stressed that 5S is taking him away from his studies, so he causes Finny to fall from the jumping tree.

Finny is away for the rest of the summer and part of fall and Gene can concentrate on school. Gene visits Finny once at Finny’s house to tell him that he caused the accident, but Finny refuses to listen. Once Finny returns, he says he’s going to train Gene for the ’44 Olympics as it was a dream for him. Later that winter, Finny sets up the Winter Carnival. At the carnival, Gene gets a telegram from Leper to see him. Leper said he’d “escaped” from the army after having enlisted earlier in the year. When Gene sees Leper at his Vermont home, Leper seems irrational and “psycho.” He talks about seeing objects as human body parts or putting a woman’s face on a man’s body.

After Gene returns, he spends time with Finny until Brinker and some other boys come get them late in the night. They take Finny and Gene to the Assembly Room in the First Building. They have an “inquiry” into Finny’s accident and after Leper’s testimony, Finny comes to the realization that Gene caused his accident. Finny rushes out of the room and falls down the marble staircase. He later dies during the operation to set his leg when marrow in his bloodstream stops his heart. Gene doesn’t mourn over Finny and realizes that he’s the one who killed Finny, his enemy.

A Separate Peace, full of potential but it lacked that push. The rising action kept me hooked, but it ended anticlimactically. The cause and abruptness of Finny’s death left me dazed and confused (I’m in a Led-Zeppelin mood right now). I wish that the author had given something more common to make the death seem real. I never bought into Finny’s illusions, but I found his death the closest thing to an illusion in the book.

If I could change anything, it would be the characters. The setting was interesting and well-described. The plot seemed finely crafted, if a bit lacking in the end, but God help the characters. I’ll tackle my least favorite first: Brinker Hadley. No one can stand to read this mean little boy. He is rude and it gets old. He is all politics and all his actions are based on making himself look better. I know that every book needs an antagonist, but there can still be likable qualities. For instance, the Emperor from Star Wars is a pretty bad dude, but everyone envies his power and the awesomeness that accompanies it. The Joker, also bad, yet he has this dark humor and wit that makes his character interesting. Even Peter from Ender’s Game is not entirely unlikable due to his guile and conniving ways. Brinker has none of this. He doesn’t have power, he only thinks he’s funny (which he’s not), and he lacks guile. Frankly, it’s annoying to read about him. It makes me angry when he walks into a scene, because he ruins it and adds nothing for being there but uninteresting conflict. As for Gene and his crazy compadre Lepper, I always felt that they had way too many yelling matches but that’s all I can pin on them. Finny was golden, but I think he charmed me into liking him.

I wouldn’t recommend this book, because the author, John Knowles, thinks he is smarter than you. It may be true as he’s an educated man. Nonetheless, there is nothing worse than reading a book written by a snobby, old man. It’s okay, perhaps, others enjoy this book more and I’m simply jealous and stupid.