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This was one of the easiest to use and also one of the most expressive readings of all the books we have purchased. This audio book is very true to the expressive mood of the book. We buy audio books often to assist our eleventh grade son who has some trouble with the written word versions of the books assigned in his high school English literature classes. The quality of the engineering matched the quality of the reading performance. I would highly recommend this audio book.
The year is 1942, the setting a boys' school in New Hampshire, the narrator Gene Forrester, now in his thirties, as he looks back at his last years at Devon School for Boys. His room-mate and best friend was Phineas, athletic and enigmatic, processing a charm, vitality and way with words that would soften the hardest of masters. Gene, excelling academically while Phineas does in sports, takes us through the final years of their schooling and his remarkable friendship with Phineas, all set against the background of WW2 and the looming threat of becoming and active part of that war.It is a beautifully told story, rich in imagery and symbolism. The friendship the two boys enjoy is heart warming and touching, yet there is hint of a darker undercurrent that could possibly lead to ruin that keeps the reader in a gentle suspense.
The way in which this tale is written - the choice of words, the way the sentences are constructed and strung together - enabled me to savor this novel as I read each passage. It's also a forcefully told story in the first person.
If you're thinking about reading this book, stop right now and go put some toothpicks in your eyeballs. There's very little action and it's really not believeable. This is about what it feels like to read this book. I love reading and have read titles such as "Gone With the Wind," "Jane Eyre," and "The Odyssey," but when I reached the end of this book I almost burned it. I think I would have had more sympathy for inanimate objects what with the way the characters were so symbolic rather than alive. I consider the time I spend reading it a wasted few weeks of my life and I now truly believe that high schools are out to torture children with these kinds of books, and if A Separate Peace teaches them anything it's that life is not too short to read a very bad book.
I have never appreciated an author's modeling of words so fully until I read this book. I loved this book. Yet I cannot recommend it. I honestly don't know why. I think I get lost in the imagery, the characters, and the writer's wonderful writing style just enraptures me. A Separate Peace is terribly depressing; the plot just tears my heart apart. I refuse to buy it because it leaves me miserable -but it is lovely.
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