Wednesday, December 10, 2008

On... a Separate Peace by John Knowles

I knew nothing about this book before I started reading it but it still managed to disappoint me.

Knowles enticed me at the beginning with well-written reminiscing about a long ago summer during WWII but as I continued to read I failed to discover Knowles purpose in writing this book.

The protagonist, Gene Forrester, narrated the story in a meandering, aimless manner that lacked the focus he supposedly had as a student. Even though at the end Knowles threw something unexpected in at the end I still could not see the purpose of the whole book. Gene seemed to make epiphanies throughout the book but sometimes those epiphanies contradicted each other and really made no sense at all.

On top of all of that Knowles felt okay with throwing in the occasional expletive although the frequency increased as the end of the book approached.

I do not recommend this book at all.

1 comment:

Laura said...

I had to read this book in Junior High and I didn't get it then. (I have always loved to read so it was rare to find a book I didn't like or didn't understand, but the teachers managed to dig them up somewhere.)
I obviously haven't felt the need to read it again so it is nice to see your review confirm what I remembered about the book.