“It was hypnotism. I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” ~ John Knowles, ‘A Separate Peace’
In lucky seasons, there is a summer read so good that it haunts me, and even though it’s not yet officially summer, I just finished this year’s stunner. ‘A Separate Peace’ by John Knowles tells the story of a friendship between two boys during the arrival of World War II. While the conditions that paved the way for war back then seem eerily familiar in today’s social climate, it was the descriptions of the tenuous yet unbreakable bonds of friendship that spoke most resonantly to me. This is a summer read that seers itself into the soul.
“It was surprising how well we got along in these weeks. Sometimes I found it hard to remember his treachery, sometimes I discovered myself thoughtlessly slipping back into affection for him again. It was hard to remember when one summer day after another broke with a cool effulgence over us, and there was a breath of widening life in the morning air – something hard to describe – an oxygen intoxicant, a shining northern paganism, some odor, some feeling so hopelessly promising that I would fall back in my bed on guard against it. It was hard to remember in the heady and sensual clarity of these mornings; I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I want to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this.” ~ John Knowles, ‘A Separate Peace’
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