Originally written May 18, 2012

A Separate Peace is one of those books that a lot of English classes make kids read in high school. I got away without having to read it, but I knew a lot of people that did, and the general consensus was always that this book is really terrible.

While I definitely see why people would feel this way, I’m bringing up the “having to read it for school” argument. Having to read something for school always makes a book a lot less enjoyable, mostly because you have to analyze it and look for symbolism, which A Separate Peace is brewing with. Here is where I’d like to bring up The Great Gatsby…I hated it when I had to read it for school (in fact, I didn’t even read the whole thing), but later on when I read it at my own leisure, I found it to be not that bad.

A Separate Peace has a bit of a confusing plot for me, mainly because I don’t see a clear point to it. It centers around two best friends, Gene (the narrator) and Phineas and their time at their school, Devon. I feel like saying pretty much anything else about what happens between the two of them spoils the book. The story is set during World War II though, and that has a big impact on the plot (which is where the title of the book comes from).

The only reason I made such a big deal about the whole “books being more enjoyable when you don’t have to read them for school” thing is because of how everyone says this is one of the worst books they read. The book isn’t good in my opinion either, but it really wasn’t awful by any means. I think the book’s biggest problem is just that it’s very boring at times and doesn’t seem to have any clear purpose. Otherwise, the writing is good and the main characters have quite a bit of depth to them. It’s not bad, it just shouldn’t be considered a classic.

3/5