Let's Bust a Recap : A Separate Peace

Okay, here's the thing: A Separate Peace was the first book I finished this year, and to be completely 100 with you, it's what threw this whole blog into a tailspin. How do you recap something so good? I've faced this problem before, but after ten years of blogging, getting the flu at the end of last year, and all the real life in between: I just wasn't up for the challenge. 

And I'm still not up for it. But we're doing it anyway because this book deserves its corner on the blog. 

On its face, John Knowles' 1959 debut novel is a young man's coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of World War II at a New England prep school. At the beginning of this novel, Gene Forrester returns to The Devon School fifteen years after leaving it and reflects on his time there from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943. At that time of his life, he's sixteen and living at Devon with his best friend and roommate Finny. Quiet, intellectual Gene and carefree, athletic Finny are about as unlike as two boys can be, but they are the closest of friends and in the summer of '42 they form a secret society with their friends, Finny seemingly doing his best to shut out the war and cling to their childhood for a few more precious weeks while the rest of the boys are trying to figure out how to grow up and get to the war. Gene in particular is going through a difficult process of self-discovery in regards to his friendship with Finny, moving from an envy and one-sided rivalry with his chum to the realization of Finny's quality and wanting to emulate him. 

It's heartbreaking. Like, I think my heart actually broke while I was reading this book. The National Review called it "a masterpiece", and truly it is nothing short of one. Much of this book is autobiographical in nature, and I think that's what makes it so successful. John Knowles went to a New Hampshire prep school during WWII and served in the US Army Air Forces at the very end of the war after finishing school. None of his other novels garnered the same success as A Separate Peace or continued to live in the public consciousness like this one did. It's still assigned reading in some school curriculums. 

I actually drew this title out of my TBR Jar last year and read about half of it before setting it aside to read some library books before they were due. This was a book that I could read slowly because every word stayed with me no matter how much time passed between the times I opened it. I put A Separate Peace in the same class with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Optimist's Daughter: I want to convey how good it is, but I'm at a loss for words. I want to recommend it to you, but maybe not if you won't appreciate it. It's just brilliant. I'll be sharing an excerpt that broke me on Wednesday. Maybe that will give you a sense. 

How do you feel about coming-of-age stories?