Knowles, John

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It could be better
Decent Classic
Times Eternal
A Class Unto Itself
Good but I didn't like it.

A Separate Peace
John Knowles
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0743253973

Book Description

Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles's crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.

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While adolescence is never easy, during wartime its difficulty is more pronounced.

This story of a boy's growing up and floating between identities is filled with moral dilemma.

Customer Reviews:

It could be better.......2007-06-12

A Separate Peace was written initially as a means of describing the loss of innocence in youth and the way that loss shapes them when they grow older. It did a satisfactory job in doing so. Yet, I feel as though the book didn't completely grasp me and I didn't feel anything beyond simple sympathy towards any of the characters.

The plot essentially went like this (without the ending). Teenagers Gene and Finny go to a prep school in Devon during WWII. The war serves as the representation for the loss of innocence ready to take fold. While Gene is the quiet overachiever, he viciously envies his best friend Finny as Finny is more popular, social, and athletic. The envy explodes one day when Gene accidentally-on-purpose shook the branch that Finny was swinging on, causing him to fall out of the tree. Finny is paralyzed, as a result of this, and the rest of the novel serves to examine Gene's reaction to this and how his newfound guilty shapes his future.

I enjoyed how Knowles used the ongoing war as a representation of the violence and despair that would rip these friends apart. It added an extra depth to the novel, since the events of the story relating to the war coincided with the experiences of friendship, or damaged friendship, between the two boys. Ok, I felt sympathetic for Finny because he was suffering due to the detrimental jealousy of his closest friend. I'm not an apathetic person. But I didn't like this book mainly because, it was extremely boring. The plot dragged on, and for me, it just got to the point where I gave up caring for any of the people.

If you have to read this book, I'm guessing it won't be bad comparing to the other books they make you read in school. But if you want to read a book that brilliantly analyzes the loss of innocence within humanity, read The Lord of the Flies.

Decent Classic.......2007-06-08

This was a good, thought-provoking novel. Some of the emotions and mental processes of the characters were hard for me to identify with, but I think that adds to the experience in a way. This isn't the greatest book I've ever read, but it definitely presents some fascinating thought-processes, which I admired.

Times Eternal.......2007-06-04

// Spoiler Below //

Notes: Finneas doesn't have to try to be good at things; his friend Gene needs to work hard. Gene resents this fact and begins to hate his friend's seeming perfection and unconquerable innocence. Soon his resentment blooms into an almost irrational hostility. He becomes almost paranoid, he thinks Finny is trying to keep him from his studies, the one thing at which he excels. Meanwhile, Finneas lives a free life, breaks school sports records without making official records, lives a life above the rules. Finny has an innocence partially divine. But all childhoods must end, and Finneas' perfection must fall.

Gene describes Finneas as part of himself, as an extension of his own person, and when Finneas dies a part of Gene also dies; he is transformed. Finneas represents a pure side of Gene and that is usurped at school's end by the encroaching real world as war looms. And he must be shed as all the boys begin to each adopt a new, grownup face. A face of fear -- a face to confront the enemy of Europe and Asia, and the grown up world.

At the beginning of the novel, Gene visits Devon and sees things as an adult; yet he has not forgotten what it was like to see them as a boy. He is a sleuth, a visitor looking in at the gates of his childhood. He observes the fabled tree, the things once magical but now soberingly real. He notices the fateful marble stairs outside the First Academy Building: how hard they are, he now realizes, edging closer to that long lived with truth.

All the boys are, as the narrator says, "imprinted with the spirit of the times" in which they met life at that time of special terms. When life was to be invented, questioned, when everything was possible. Those times, the narrator reflects, will always be a part of us. They are what is the truth, what we always return to. A seperate peace.

A Class Unto Itself.......2007-04-10

Aubrey Menen wrote that "A Separate Peace" was the "best-written, best-designed, and most moving novel" he had read in years - which begs the question...who is Aubrey Menen? ("Was" is more appropriate, as the satirist died in India in 1989, after a career as an ad exec and novelist.) His observations were on target, though, and some of Menen's best writing is observed in his cover-blurbs for John Knowles' 1959 coming of age story.
As a title that appears on a number of high school required-reading lists, it might be easy to dismiss "A Separate Peace" as another tedious assignment bent on beating the life out of students. The presence of sixteen-year-olds in the story likely reduced it to an assignment to begin with, but the quality of the writing is what keeps it there.
Although generations removed from the time when general conscription filled the ranks of the armed forces, "A Separate Peace" is able to recapture the uneasiness of that era, and the distinction between those old enough for the WWII draft, and those who have another year of relative innocence. Gene and Phineas are in that latter class, attending an underpopulated summer session at an exclusive New England boy's school. Gene is an intellectual who tends to read between the lines, while Phineas is athletic smooth-talker who has the ability to get away with anything.
The two wind up as roommates and unlikely best friends, although Gene can scarcely contain his jealousy of Finny's winning ways. He alternately views his friend as naive and crafty, and in an instant of competitive retribution, Gene bounces on the tree limb on which they are balanced, causing Finny to fall and shatter his leg.
The emotions Knowles touches on in dealing with Gene's resulting guilt, and the shame of knowing he has permanently changed the life of his friend, are eloquently stated, and certainly identifiable as part of the angst-ridden years of growing toward adulthood. Without giving away details of the story, later complications compound the situation, and Gene - already burdened with intellectual introspection - forces himself to reason or rationalize the ordeal.
Part of the joy of the book is Phineas himself, the sort of character some are fortunate to meet in real life, among those treasured acquaintances who seem to streak like wondrous meteors across the skies of our lives, before disappearing forever from our sight, and - assigned or not - "A Separate Peace" soars as one of life's extra-credit literary pleasures.

Good but I didn't like it........2007-03-26

I of course recognize that this book is well written and a classic but I personally found it too depressing and uneventful.

Contesting Texts: Jews And Christians in Conversation About the Bible

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Contesting Texts: Jews And Christians in Conversation About the Bible

Manufacturer: Fortress Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0800638425

Book Description

Themes explored include: biblical authority, texts of violence, tradition, identity and the other, common hope.

Customer Reviews:

The WASP Voldemort.......2006-09-15

Wexford, the aloof, manipulative newspaper editor at a postwar Devon school, is startlingly similar to young Tom Riddle, of Harry Potter fame (they are even the same age) although Mr. Wexford is definitely a more determined sociopath.

His adversary is an noisy and aggressive Nazi sympathizer, and it's hard to say which of the two of them is more repellant. Not that they're boring -- I was completely interested in them the whole time.

The book explores questions about what it's "okay" to think and express, how patriotism plays out in an atmosphere of disillusionment, how well-meaning or even brave impulses can be perverted when there's no good place to act them out.

So, it's interesting, but it's...a real come down from A Separate Peace, where the characters, no matter how awful their mistakes were, were always striving to be good people. Knowles makes it clear there's no such thing as Finny in his postwar world.

The characters were not as engaging and vivid as Knowles was capable of -- disappointing really, but only because we know he's done better.

The structure could have been better as well. You'll notice places where key plot information is given only a few paragraphs befor it becomes relevant. Some of the information could have been placed better.

Also, Knowles may or may not have crossed the line between making subtle points about social class and downright snobbery.

The dialogue is fantastic, though. The classroom scenes are the best. Of course, if you think that prep school is even slightly tiresome as a setting, you should just avoid this one.

Great novel!.......2006-09-01

I loved A Separate Peace, and I loved this follow-up just as much, if not more. It captures the true impulsive nature of young men. Set in post World War Two America, it is a story about ego and revenge. It has the same tone as Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. I loved every page of it.

Peace Breaks Out.......2005-03-14

Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles, is a novel about life after WWII. The first two chapters were about the days in the war for Pete Hallam and how hard it was after the war was over. After he gets out of the war, he goes back to school and becomes a teacher for High School American History. I liked this book because it shows how much people care for their country and others. Other people that would like this book are ones who would fight for what they believe in and people who like learning about how life was before their time, when people found it more difficult to get back on their feet. This book is about a small-town boy going to serve his country, and react to it after his job was done. I like this book because it includes something different every chapter. I recommend this book to people who like learning about history and how different point of views give you mixed feelings about the war.

Definately Not a Separate Peace.......2004-09-26

Going in, I knew this book had to be different than Separate Peace, it of course can not be a clone of it. But to be blunt, it wasn't as good as a separate peace. the plot was simple, like a separate peace, but that book had a much more emotional impact on me. i halfwished the story was about Gene and what he did after he left Devon. There were two small references to Phineas, that I enjoyed. It's a decent read and we get to visit Devon one more time.

Peace Breaks Out.......2004-04-05

Pete Hallam, former Devon student, goes back to his old school after fighting in the war, as a young master. The students are restless, not being able to fight for their country, but are good boys. One of them, however, is a troublemaker; a talented but underhanded fellow. He shares a mutual hatred with one of the other students - an obnoxious German. What happens at Devon this year is the subject of this book. I did not particularly enjoy the read as this novel lacked plot, but it did teach a good lesson.

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an unusual, clever, and fun angle on contemporary art

Do It
Harold Garfinkel , Daniel Birnbaum , Tacita Dean , Lee Lozano , Marina Abramovic , John Baldessari , Matthew Barney , Christian Boltanski , Louise Bourgeois , Liam Gillick , Leon Golub , Mona Hatoum , Joan Jonas , Mike Kelley , Yoko Ono , and Alison Knowles
Manufacturer: e-flux/Revolver
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Turtleback

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ASIN: 3865880010
Release Date: 2005-01-15

Book Description

The Do It book contains artworks by more than 100 international artists in the form of do-it-yourself text instructions to be completed by the reader. Based on the traveling exhibition and e-flux online project curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the book also includes a selection of essays and interviews, and offers comprehensive material on the groundbreaking show. Do It began in 1993 with a discussion among friends Christian Boltanski, Bertrand Lavier, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. All three had been interested in various forms of instructional procedures since the early 1970s, and that evening they spoke of the instructions contained within their own work. From this discussion arose the idea of an exhibition of do-it-yourself descriptions and procedural instructions. Since 1993, the exhibition has taken place in venues in more than 40 cities worldwide, including Palo Alto, Pittsburg, Calgary, Atlanta, Toronto, Andover, Glasgow, Reykjavik, Helsinki, Bangkok, Copenhagen, Edmonton, Paris, Mexico City, and Costa Rica. Meaning has been multiplied as various interpretations of the text accumulated while the exhibition traveled from venue to venue. The online component, which invites participants to upload images of the results of their chosen project, is less concerned with copies, images, or reproductions of artworks than with human interpretation.

Customer Reviews:

an unusual, clever, and fun angle on contemporary art.......1998-11-22

The editor/curators of this book got 50 contemporary artists to each write down instructions for a do-it-yourself art project, for the reader to try. Each is a small revelation of the artist, and a thought-provoker in itself. It's intelligent and fun -- a very clever expression and extension of contemporary art. It's just the thing for anyone who wishes they were artistic: you read an entry, and have the curious sensation that, not only is the project something you could do, but it would be an actual participation in the contemporary art world, pre-endorsed by prominent artists and curators.

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Mel Bay Lenny Breau Fingerstyle Jazz
Lenny Breau; John Knowles
Manufacturer: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786629568

Product Description

The late Lenny Breau was admired throughout the world for his complex fingerstyle jazz stylings. The first part of this text/CD contains Lenny's guitar workshop dealing with Building the Blues; Three Against Two, and Harmonics at Work. Section 2 presents three great Lenny Breau solos (5 O'Clock Bells; Little Blues, and Freight Train). Written in notation and tablature. Contains Lenny's "master class" on fingerstyle jazz guitar. ***** 3 songs from book are not on CD.

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A Separate Peace
John Knowles
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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A Separate Peace
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ASIN: B000CD1SW4

Joyce in Trieste: An Album of Risky Readings (Florida James Joyce)

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Joyce in Trieste: An Album of Risky Readings (Florida James Joyce)
Sebastian D. G. Knowles , Geert Lernout , and John McCourt
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake: A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide (Irish Studies in Literature and Culture)

ASIN: 0813030331

Book Description

"An exceptionally rewarding collection of essays. Rather than rounding up the usual suspects, the editors have assembled an unusually broad and varied group of contributors to represent the current state of Joyce criticism worldwide."--R. Brandon Kershner, University of Florida

Joyce in Trieste is a record of the transformation in text, meaning, and language that Trieste worked upon Joyce. Based on presentations from the Trieste Symposium of 2002, this volume begins with three path-breaking essays: Michael Groden's unveiling of the manuscripts acquired by the National Library of Ireland in 2002, Margot Norris's introduction of the particularly effective paradigm of "risky reading" to describe the provocative re-contextualizations in history, theory, and culture that reveal something new about Joyce's work, and Zack Bowen's celebration of the Platonic and erotic qualities of Joyce's language.

Each essay opens up to a section that follows the opening lead: essays on manuscript genetics following Groden, a political set of essays following Norris, and a set of essays on language following Bowen. Included are some final thoughts from the late Hugh Kenner, work from new Joyceans such as Vike Martina Plock and Dirk Van Hulle, and political studies of Israel and Palestine. Distilled from several hundred presentations at the conference, this volume provides a lively and useful summary of the current state and future directions of Joyce scholarship and will be of particular interest to Joyce and Irish Studies scholars as well as those interested in provocative readings of 20th-century literature.

A vein of riches
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Great Book!! John Knowles Rules!!!

A vein of riches
John Knowles
Manufacturer: Little Brown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Knowles, John | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Teens | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

Great Book!! John Knowles Rules!!!.......2003-10-06

This is a great book by Fairmont WV native John Knowles(A Separate Peace)that's about the rise and fall of a Coal Dynasty in a small West Virginia town.It's a must read and would make a great movie!!

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A Separate Peace
John Knowles
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Knowles does it again

Phineas
John Knowles
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Knowles does it again.......1999-08-02

This book is basically a summary of what happens in "A spearate Peace," providing a bit more background to it.

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