A Separate Peace John Knowles

Meet Jennifer Hubbard, novelist and playwright

By Katie Scarvey

kscarvey@salisburypost.com

Jennifer Hubbard took a leap of faith a few years ago when she quit her job teaching English to concentrate on writing full time — which was what she’d often imagined herself doing when she was a “bookish child” growing up in Salisbury.

She credits her “sweet, sweet husband,” Steve Cobb, for giving her the go-ahead.

“I’d taught for 17 years and was pretty tired of grading bad essays,” says Hubbard, who is in the process of moving from Asheville back to Charlotte with her husband.

That she made a good call is becoming increasingly evident.

This month, Hubbard not only has a play being performed by the St.Thomas Players, “Pinocchio’s Sister,” but she also has her first book coming out, a young adult novel published by Random House.

Hubbard’s pen name is “Jenny Hubbard,” chosen in order to distinguish her from another young adult novelist by the name of Jennifer Hubbard and — what are the odds? — another playwright named Jennifer Hubbard.

Although Hubbard may have grown weary of the bad essays, teaching at a private boarding school in Virginia, Woodberry Forest, helped inspire her to write “Paper Covers Rock,” which is set at a boarding school and has been compared to “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles.

“Paper Covers Rock”is getting great reviews, including starred reviews from “Publishers Weekly,” “School Library Journal” and “Hornbook.”

Oh, and there’s a blurb from some writer she met at a book signing, who called the novel one of the best young adult books he’s read in years. That writer’s name? Pat Conroy.

“Paper Covers Rock” is about the death of a 17-year-old student named Thomas. The story, Hubbard says, is born out of guilt.

“The narrator is tangentially involved in an accident that results in a death. The book is essentially his journal that tells the story of his coming to terms with it.”

Alex’s young English teacher begins to suspect there’s more to the story of the drowning than he’s letting on.

“While he tries to cover up the truth, she tries to draw it out of him,” Jennifer says, adding that the book deals with questions of honor, truth and loyalty.

If anybody has the background to write such a book, it’s Hubbard. She not only taught at Woodberry Forest, she was a dorm parent there, giving her a rare glimpse of boarding school life.

The Girl With The Blue Bow: A Separate Peace: A "BCB" Review!

The book tells the story of a group of young men attending Devon, a school for boys during World War 2. Knowing that their future is set, that they will most likely be drafted when they turn 18, they frolic away the summer. The boys live in a world that they create for themselves, holding on to their innocence as hard, and as long as they possibly can. The boys struggle, to hold on to their innocence is where the first sign of reality and growing up shows it's ugly face. With the time when they will have to face war head on, in the impending future, things start to change. The main characters of Gene and Finny, are on the surface, the best of pals. Though as you start to see things through Gene's eyes, you see that this is not, the clear case of things. This is where I had a problem with the book. I found the character of Gene...annoying. The fact that he was so insecure, that he couldn't handle his choices, that he couldn't live with the consequences of his actions, and that in truth, he had no idea who he truly was, turned me off to his character. I found myself thinking that I would have liked the book so much more had it been written from point of view. The incident in "the tree", which sets the mood for the rest of the novel, created some questions. I know everyone wants to know what really happened up there, hence Gene being put on trail in the end. My gut says that Gene meant to make Finny fall, but that he didn't expect him to get hurt. He made the choice to first create a fake rivalry in his mind, and then shake the branch, and then couldn't deal with the results of his actions. I wanted him to take responsibility, I really did. character on the other hand, to be endearing! He was a care free, daredevil, who for the most part, did what he wanted and was fine with whatever happened afterwards, whether it be good or bad. He never blamed anyone or himself, for falling out of the tree. He decided to do something dangerous, and paid a price, yet he never tried to point blame. He knew the risk when he stepped out on the branch, and had a blast till the fall. What started as an exercise to prepare for war, turned into the reason he could never join the troupes. The fact that he goes into a sense of denial, and creates a conspiracy theory about "fat men" making the war up, is what he used as a shield to hide the fact that he was looking forward to the war. Which he ends up admitting in the end. It takes one strong boy to deal with a disappointment that big, no war, no sports, ever again. The end of the book, as the war shows itself, is where I started to get excited! Leper's enlistment, and then his mental shattering changed the reality of the war for everyone who knew him. All the sudden war became real. Finny says it well, as he explains that he could hide behind his "fat man" story till he saw Leper, and his reaction to the war, and that all the sudden it was all too real. The trail also helped propel the story in it's final pages. Though I still wish that the outcome would have been different. I wish what happened to Finny would have been a tad more touching as well. As I said in my review, and you wrote in your comments, I had completely different opinions about Gene and Finny. I felt Gene was flawed, but realistically so. His insecurities and fears were that of a 16 year old boy. He tried to take responsibilities for his actions, tried to apologize and explain to Finny, but Finny pushed it away. He didn't let Gene accept and deal with it, because Finny couldn't deal with it. Finny saw the world through fantasy, and couldn't confront the truth until the very end, where it burst out of nowhere. yeah... but I'm glad we have different opinions!

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace

A separate peace, John Knowles, a study guide