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likecymbeline 's review for:
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles
It felt weird reading this without being in a high school class. Everything about it seems designed for Grade 12 English. It felt weird not to have read it then and to have missed out on this pretty commonly known novel, and it felt weird to read it without my Grade 12 teacher at the front of the room trying to evoke educated responses from us that go beyond "So Gene's gay..."
What was weirdest was that it was routinely not me reading it. It was fictional others rotating through. Whether scoffing at it, identifying with it, writing down a clever point for class discussion, it was all these teenage pieces of fiction out of my head that would've had something to say about it. As such my own idea is very confused. There were some beautiful expressions and images--I always love when a winter scene is painted for me with black bare trees and expanses of stark country snow--and a relatable level of nostalgia and of course the thread of darkness running through the human soul (especially the teenaged soul). But somehow my own reader-response was suppressed by these Others who had a lot to say and feel about it.
What was weirdest was that it was routinely not me reading it. It was fictional others rotating through. Whether scoffing at it, identifying with it, writing down a clever point for class discussion, it was all these teenage pieces of fiction out of my head that would've had something to say about it. As such my own idea is very confused. There were some beautiful expressions and images--I always love when a winter scene is painted for me with black bare trees and expanses of stark country snow--and a relatable level of nostalgia and of course the thread of darkness running through the human soul (especially the teenaged soul). But somehow my own reader-response was suppressed by these Others who had a lot to say and feel about it.