Customer Reviews
Excellent 
2008-11-30
I was well pleased with the product I ordered and received. It met my expectations and timeline I requested. I would definitely order from this site again.
fast delivery 2008-11-17
My daughter needed this book asap for school. She received it in 4 days....and in good shape too!
A Separate Peace 
2008-10-30
When I first read this book back in High School, I can remember how some in my class said they'd rather read something else while I actually enjoyed the work. This book is Knowles's masterpiece. Yes there are times when you'd rather put the book down and watch TV but those moments are few and far between. The characters are well developed, the plot is strenuously executed but in the end you feel better for reading it because you came through this journey into adulthood and friendship with the narrator.
Knowles crafts his story as a flashback to 1942 when War was declared and the boys of Devon School were making the tough choices that would define their lives. And in 1942 this meant either going to College or going into the military and fighting in WWII. This coming of age story is ideal for High School students which is the reason why it is widely required in most School Districts and Parochial School systems because it speaks of the end of innocence and realism of adulthood.
If you are an adult and wish to read or re-read this classic I recommend coming to it not as a schmaltzy read but as a serious work or fiction you'll find yourself connecting with the characters and the situations.
I do not completely recommend this novel but do think it is a good read.
A Different time, a Different Place 2008-09-18
This book is one of several that is most memorable from my youth. The main character is one that you easily like, his spirit is pure. Like Siddhartha he has his Govinda who follows him around. The spirit that the main character embodies is what makes this book special to me, that and the fact that it is set at Andover or Exeter, which ever one, during a more innocent time. This book to me is about innocence. Innocence is wonderful, people like that exist in the world. I think it is OK to fall in love with fictional characters to some extent. Maybe you will too. I highly recommend this book.
Schoolbook 
2008-08-18
You can see this title on the required summer reading tables in bookstores, and I guess schools have been assigning it for almost fifty years. It is easy to see why. Its characters are all adolescents, engaged in the usual struggle for self-definition, subject to sudden mood-swings between intense affection and crippling self-doubt. And being set in 1942-43, the years following America's entry into the War, it offers a new and valuable perspective on this important period in the nation's history. It is, in short, a teachable text.
But it is a text that requires teaching. For one thing, I am not sure how easily most young people can relate to the hermetic world of a single-sex boarding school, let alone an elite New England prep school (the Dover School of the book is surely modeled after Philips Exeter, which the author attended). Although there is no hint of the homoerotic attractions that were a significant issue at the similar English school I attended a decade later, the book demands some understanding of the emotional impact of a closed world, where one's friends are everything, and every feeling is intensified. The central character, Gene Forrester, though physically no slouch, is primarily a scholar; he is drawn into the magnetic ambience of his roommate Phineas (Finny), a natural athlete for whom no feat is impossible and no scheme too audacious. The plot turns on Gene's inability to discern his own motives, or even to work out whether Finny is his best friend or most jealous rival. A moment of ambiguity early in the novel triggers an event which, though apparently soon laid to rest, will resonate throughout the book, leading to much more serious consequences. A good teacher might profitably discuss questions of truth and perception, motive and blame, on a chapter-by-chapter basis, but Knowles is a subtle and balanced writer who avoids primary colors. The lone reader who does not stop to question the text might well be left with the impression that this is merely an elegant memoir in which little of consequence happens.
The title phrase occurs about two-thirds of the way through the book during an unofficial Winter Carnival that Finny has organized in the snowy fields: "It wasn't the cider that made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace." The peace really is momentary; the very next paragraph introduces the first Devon casualty of the war, not fatal but nearly as devastating. Indeed, the war has been almost imperceptibly in the background for some time, but it now moves to the foreground, as the members of the graduating class move to enlist in one of the services. In the epilogue, Knowles has Gene take the war as a metaphor for the psychological battles fought at school over the past year. I am not certain that this works. But the brief moment when the two worlds, school and war, are temporarily balanced against one another is very poignant indeed.
The Nihilist Proposition: Negative & Repugnant 
2008-08-08
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 over twenty years, it is one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence.
Great Buy 2008-07-29
I'm usually concerned about purchasing items on line, especially books. I can honestly say that this experience was worth it. I would recommend this seller to anyone interested in purchasing good quality books at extremely reasonable prices.
Buy with confidence, I did!
A great seller 2008-06-02
Product is exactly as described, shipping just took a little longer than anticipated. Otherwise a wonderful buying experience!
Great book! 2008-06-01
Needed book for required reading for school. Really enjoyed the read. Would recommend for anyone.
"In our free democracy, even fighting for its life, the truth will out"' 2008-05-27
Sixteeen-year-old Devon Academy students Gene and Phineas "Finny" are two among 200 private high school students in attendance at a rural New Hampshire boarding school as the story begins in the summer of '42. WWII is raging on other continents, but the best friends and their classmates are a world away. Serious, studious Gene is amazed and often envious of his friend Finny's spontaneous rule-breaking antics. And even more so by his ability to evade punishment and even obtain a smile (or more) from even the most staid faculty member as he dodges punishment with seemingly logical explanations and excuses for his ever-impulsive behavior. Athletic golden boy Phineas seems almost too good to be true, convincing the most reluctant student to participate in his crazy activities, made-up games and clubs. He even goes so far as to contend that the war is not real. But Gene begins to wonder if there might be a more sinister reason for Finny's follies: preventing him from showing up his friend by winning an award for academics. All it takes is one little well-timed jounce to change both lives forever.
With its perfect descriptions of the surroundings, superb character development, and not entirely predictable plot, A Separate Peace will draw the reader in to a remarkable story of friendships between privileged, intelligent young men at the brink of manhood and involvement in the war. Both a life lesson and clinic on how to write descriptively, this novel is likely to stay with readers for a very long time. Also good, The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, better, and An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.
