The narrator of this book, Gene Forrester, tells the story of one year in his life, when he was studying at a private school in New England. At first, the story didn’t seem to have much consequence, just a series of memories about going to school during WWII.
However, as the novel progresses, we get to figure out how the events in that specific year shaped Gene. He describes himself as a somewhat shy and intellectual type, while his roommate, Finny, is more energetic and likes sports. The unlikely pair becomes friends, and Gene ends up being dragged everywhere by his friend.
Of course, this sparks a whole set of feelings. No, I don’t mean that there’s any homosexual subtext here (or maybe there is, I’m bad at this stuff), but Gene’s relationship with Finny is clearly what drives him throughout the book. Though those feelings are sort of conflicted, to say the least. On the one hand, Gene admires Finny; on the other, he’s a bit jealous. And his competitiveness was completely directed onto overshadow his own friend.
It was kind of sad, at that point.
Then, shit got even sadder. After a weird incident, which involves Gene, a pond and a tree, Finny breaks his leg. Of course, that means that he can’t do sports anymore. But he’s such a good guy, that he offers to train Gene for the Olympics.
By the way, Finny is a funny character. Besides his being perpetually optimistic, he also denies himself the idea of pain. So, for him, there is no war going on, or anything like that; and of course, his best friend didn’t push him off that tree.
Gene may or not (it’s pretty ambiguous) have actually pushed him off and he feels pretty guilty about it. That’s why he accepts Finny’s training and so on.
After that, the war appears to be looming over the school more and more. One of their classmates is whisked away into the Army, and he is discharged with some serious PTSD. Gene goes to visit him and realizes how terrible the war actually is. Which is a pretty good lesson, especially if you get to learn it without, you know, going to war.

That conversation with Leper (the guy who went into the Army) is one of the most realistically written parts of the novel. Leper’s trauma was so well portrayed and developed that it sent shivers down my spine. Poor fellow.

Well, things get really tense at school, because Gene’s other classmates think that he did push Finny, so they stage a trial to prove it. Then, Finny finally comes to terms with what happened and leaves the room in a hurry, only to fall down the stairs and to break his leg again.
Gene ends up going to in the infirmary, after Finny is taken there, to ask for his forgiveness. They both realize that the accident wasn’t caused with malice and reconcile. So, on the next day, when Genes goes to visit his friend there, he finds out Finny died during surgery.

I’ll admit I cried a little in that part. I mean, poor Gene, who has finally forgiven himself, loses his best friend and… it’s just too sad. And in a way, Finny’s death also means the death of Gene’s own childhood, in a way. Finny, the one who decided that there wasn’t a war out there, the one who believed he could go to the Olympics… All those dreams and illusions were crashed. So Gene has to face adult life without his friend there to accompany him.

A sad and very depressing ending.

Despite that, I liked the book. It’s not action-packed and all that, but it’s a decent read. The only problem was that I felt it was too slow and at some points it was quite a struggle to read. Other than that, good book!