A Separate Peace
When I was two years old, my dad broke his leg. He shattered his
femur while skiing. He was in a cast for over six months while it
healed.
I don't really remember any of this. There are pictures, of course. But it happened when I was so young that it just became a bare fact. Something that had no real impact on me.
When I was 14, we read A Separate Peace for school. My dad was excited about the assignment; it's one of the only times I can remember him being excited about a book. It wasn't until I finished it that I understood why.
Finny breaks his leg in exactly the same way my dad did. Well my dad had a skiing accident rather than falling out of a tree, but both of them shattered the bone. Unlike my dad, Finny dies from his injury, during complications in the surgery. After I read the book, my dad told me that the whole time he was lying in prep for surgery he was thinking of Finny, terrified he would meet the same fate.
This was one of the first times that reading a book gave me a better understanding of someone else. It let me glimpse into my dad's brain and know a bit the fear he felt when I was still just a toddler. That connection led me to build up this book in my head as something truly special.
When I was reading Looking for Alaska a few years ago my main thought was that it was trying to be A Separate Peace, and it simply wasn't as good. But I also knew it had been a while since I'd read the latter book, and I needed to revisit it before I could really compare the two. So when I found it at a used book sale a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed it. I was surprised by how thin it was and worried that it wouldn't live up to my memory.
I needn't have worried. A Separate Peace actually lives up to my absurd memory of the book. Part of it might be my emotional connection to the text. But this is also a beautiful and sad book. The descriptions of wartime living, New England in wintertime, and impending adulthood are simply incredible. Gene may be an ass, but his fear and nostalgia are both really well written. I got completely lost in some of the more descriptive paragraphs.
I'm glad I tracked this book down again. It was a pretty quick read, and something I can definitely see myself revisiting in years to come. There's a lot in here to dissect, and I know I didn't even come close to scratching the surface when I was in 9th grade.
I don't really remember any of this. There are pictures, of course. But it happened when I was so young that it just became a bare fact. Something that had no real impact on me.
When I was 14, we read A Separate Peace for school. My dad was excited about the assignment; it's one of the only times I can remember him being excited about a book. It wasn't until I finished it that I understood why.
Finny breaks his leg in exactly the same way my dad did. Well my dad had a skiing accident rather than falling out of a tree, but both of them shattered the bone. Unlike my dad, Finny dies from his injury, during complications in the surgery. After I read the book, my dad told me that the whole time he was lying in prep for surgery he was thinking of Finny, terrified he would meet the same fate.
This was one of the first times that reading a book gave me a better understanding of someone else. It let me glimpse into my dad's brain and know a bit the fear he felt when I was still just a toddler. That connection led me to build up this book in my head as something truly special.
When I was reading Looking for Alaska a few years ago my main thought was that it was trying to be A Separate Peace, and it simply wasn't as good. But I also knew it had been a while since I'd read the latter book, and I needed to revisit it before I could really compare the two. So when I found it at a used book sale a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed it. I was surprised by how thin it was and worried that it wouldn't live up to my memory.
I needn't have worried. A Separate Peace actually lives up to my absurd memory of the book. Part of it might be my emotional connection to the text. But this is also a beautiful and sad book. The descriptions of wartime living, New England in wintertime, and impending adulthood are simply incredible. Gene may be an ass, but his fear and nostalgia are both really well written. I got completely lost in some of the more descriptive paragraphs.
I'm glad I tracked this book down again. It was a pretty quick read, and something I can definitely see myself revisiting in years to come. There's a lot in here to dissect, and I know I didn't even come close to scratching the surface when I was in 9th grade.
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