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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"Bombs in Central Europe were completely unreal to us here, not because we couldn’t imagine it—a thousand newspaper photographs and newsreels had given us a pretty accurate idea of such a sight—but because our place here was too fair for us to accept something like that. We spent that summer in complete selfishness, I’m happy to say. The people in the world who could be selfish in the summer of 1942 were a small band, and I’m glad we took advantage of it."
Chapter 2
“The winter loves me,” he retorted, and then, disliking the whimsical sound of that, added, “I mean as much as you can say a season can love. What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.” I didn’t think that this was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be much more false than true, but it was like every other thought and belief of Finny’s: it should have been true. So I didn’t argue."
Chapter 8
"It wasn’t the cider which 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."
Chapter 9
“Naturally I don’t believe books and I don’t believe teachers,” he came across a few paces, “but I do believe—it’s important after all for me to believe you. Christ, I’ve got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody.”
Chapter 11
"I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it. My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the source, withered and lifeless. Phineas had absorbed it and taken it with him, and I was rid of it forever...
I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there."
Chapter 13
Chapter 2
“The winter loves me,” he retorted, and then, disliking the whimsical sound of that, added, “I mean as much as you can say a season can love. What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.” I didn’t think that this was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be much more false than true, but it was like every other thought and belief of Finny’s: it should have been true. So I didn’t argue."
Chapter 8
"It wasn’t the cider which 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."
Chapter 9
“Naturally I don’t believe books and I don’t believe teachers,” he came across a few paces, “but I do believe—it’s important after all for me to believe you. Christ, I’ve got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody.”
Chapter 11
"I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it. My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the source, withered and lifeless. Phineas had absorbed it and taken it with him, and I was rid of it forever...
I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there."
Chapter 13
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I honestly found this book quite boring & tedious to get through. I recognize that the messages that this books conveys are time defying but at the end of the day I can’t read someone’s narrative if it doesn’t try and take me there. I have tried to read this twice, I got much further the 1st time and the 2nd try I was too bogged down by the idea that I may have to read this boy again. I would say it’s not necessarily a hard read, but it does take moderate brain power to read especially if it’s not turning out not to be your cup of tea. I would say if I did push myself to read farther I may finish it, but I have so many other books I would like to read instead. 😭
i read this book during a pretty rough bump of my life and found so much solace in the bitter innocence of the characters. finny and gene's relationship was beautiful to watch despite its eventual demise and the ending left me with a sharp pain in my heart. the prose was lovely and it's an extremely accessible classic! i loved the way knowles discussed the war and its impact on young men-- truly a poignant narrative about young men and the loss of innocence.
did someone say repressed gay feelings at a private school, pre WWII? That's what I thought going in, and yeah ok, Gene is definitely repressed but he's so out of touch it's impressive. The essential point about human nature that gets hammered home (that war is the result of human ignorance, that we all have the capacity for evil) is kind of dwarfed when considering what was happening to civilians in World War II, the concentration camps, the starvation and torture. The narrator refers to this in passing but is overwhelmed by his own guilt, to the point that he finally posits, preposterously, "are they really the enemy?" Yes, Gene, I think the NAZIs are the enemy.