Piecing it Together

New dimensions in Boomer lit -- Picture courtesy Scribner

by blogSpotter
Two months ago, Newsweek magazine ran an article called "Boomer Literature". In it, they talked about books written in the 50's, 60's and 70's that are now considered modern classics: Catch-22, Slaughterhouse 5, A Separate Peace, Lord of The Flies, Confederacy of Dunces, etc. There were easily 50 titles on the Boomer list, only a handful have I actually read. Feeling very sadly deficient, I've purchased about 10 of these books and intend to buy another 30 or so from Audible.com if I can be disciplined enough. The thing is, these books are now being assigned to high school kids and I can't "be there" to discuss a hallmark of my own generation if I haven't read the book. Toward this ambitious end, I just finished A Separate Peace and now I can share my own viewpoint of John Knowles' poignant tale.

Set in 1943, Separate Peace is the story of two teenage boys who are roommates in a northeast prep school, Devon. They are both popular and out-going but one of them, Gene Forrester tends to be more quiet and academic while Phineus (aka Finny) is a popular, accomplished jock. The boys become best of friends while at the same time developing a fierce competition between them to see who can be the most popular well-rounded athlete. Warning -- something of a plot spoiler follows. The love-hate spirals out of control when the two boys undertake a dare devil stunt together -- diving off of a high tree limb into a river; Gene deliberately undermines Finny and causes him to have a serious accident (a crippling fall from the tree). The rest of the book examines the way all the young men at Devon deal with this tragedy and other life traumas, all against the backdrop of World War II which looms large for 16 and 17 year old boys. The book's title partly comes from the fact that Devon is an insular environment for these young men, not old enough to be drafted into war.

Do not bother to get out the Cliff Notes -- blogSpotter will give you the two major themes of this book.

RELIGIOUS OVERTONES

Devon has been likened to the Garden of Eden and the jumping-off tree has been likened to the Apple Tree with forbidden fruit. Gene and Finny have been directly compared to Cain and Abel from the Bible. The fall of Finny has even been likened to the Fall of Man. These symbolic connections probably played some part in the author's subconscious, but they weren't to me the predominant theme.

SUBTEXT

Some reviewers have said that the book might have a "homosexual subtext". To these people, I say "Oh, please". It's not even a subtext, it is the text. This book is soft, gay pornography circa 1959 when the book was written. How gay is this book? Let me count the ways...

First of all, the book has virtually no female characters. There are brief mentions of a night nurse and one boy's mother, but the characters are overwhelmingly male. The author speaks through the character of Gene, and gives extremely precise descriptions of other boys' clothing and anatomies. Much is said of pink shirts, khakis, gym shorts and tee shirts. More is said of long arms, lanky legs, stocky builds and certain shapes of buttocks. A story being spoken through the vantage point of a straight man would give nary a mention to these things, much less paragraph-long elaborations.

The description of the boys' feelings toward each other is more telling than anything. I may paraphrase a bit from the actual text. Each day together is a joy, a victory, a rebirth. Gene cannot imagine a life more exciting than with Finny as his room mate. This culminates in a spur-of-the-moment bicycle outing to the beach where the two boys play in the sand and "sleep" under the stars. The studious Gene even skips studying for a Trig test he knows he'll fail to do this outing with Finny.

Much later in the book, after Finny has recovered from his accident and returns to school, Gene puts off his plans to run away and enlist in the navy. His heart beats faster and he is elated that Finny is back in his life. He changes his whole course of athletic training and physical development per Finny's instructions. At the very end of the book, Finny finally realizes that Gene deliberately pushed him from the tree, and he speaks harshly to Gene. Gene walks around the Devon campus in a daze and sleeps under a bridge, he is so distraught. Now most straight boys, however much they like a male friend do not experience "joy and renewal" from each day of togetherness. They don't sleep under the stars or go into a tragic tailspin over harsh words. The behaviors and feelings described in the book are those of love-sick puppies, deeply in love.

Some of the comments made by other characters such as classmate Brinker are rather pointed and insinuate more than just a jouncing of the tree limb. The end of the book features a mock trial which some people have described as an "outing" of the relationship between Gene and Finny.

CONCLUSION

A movie was made of Separate Peace in 1972. Movie critic Leonard Maltin rated it as a bomb and then dissed the novel by saying it was overrated. Mr. Maltin is probably letting his phobias show through. The book is still a good read, though it is a little chaste as 1950s soft porn goes.

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