I Am the Cheese (1977)

I gave this book 5 stars, and I'm not sure I can even explain why. It's an odd little book, disturbing and purposely incomplete. It took me a long time to fall asleep after finishing this one. ( )

From the first, I was curious about the narrator's age. Later in the story he says he is fourteen, though often he seems younger (as it turns out, there is a reason for this). The author employs three styles of narration: first person, third person, and interview transcript. The interviews, with a man called Brint, quickly take on a sinister tone: Adam correctly perceives that Brint is not a doctor, and Brint is evasive - he says he wants to help Adam fill in the blanks in his memory, and yet Adam realizes that Brint is more interested in certain "specifics" than he is in Adam's other memories. In addition, there is much talk of pills and needles (for sedation purposes, apparently).

The entire book centers around the character of Adam as he makes two parallel journeys: one on his bike, from Monument, MA to Rutterburg, VT, and the other into his past, trying to fill in the blanks, find out who he is and what happened to his parents. Through the interviews, his memory comes back to him: his family had been under government protection - an early version of the Witness Protection Program - after his father, a reporter, testified in court. Adam's real name is Paul Delmonte.

Not long after he learns of this from his parents and begins to adjust to the new reality, the Grey Man - allegedly the government agent in charge of keeping the family safe - calls the house and warns them they might have been exposed and ought to leave town for a few days. They pack the car and go. On their drive, Adam/Paul's father notices that they are being followed; they pull over and let the car go past them, and his father observes that it's "Grey's men," keeping an eye on them. But the car returns - with murderous intent. Adam sees his mother die; he does not see his father. Adam himself suffers severe trauma, such that three years later he is in a facility (not so much medical as government). His bike ride, we find out, is also fictional: he is merely riding around the grounds of the facility. (This revelation is similar to that in the movie The Usual Suspects, when the audience realizes that Kevin Spacey has invented the entire story out of clippings from a bulletin board.)

Brint is interviewing Adam to see what he remembers, and in the last few pages of the book is the "annual report" on Adam's condition, complete with "advisories": (1) that Adam ("Subject A") be "terminated," or, failing that, that he (3) remain in "confinement" until he can be terminated or until he "obliterates." (Advisory #2 is that Mr. Grey be reinstated as an agent.)

This is all rather cold and horrifying: to find out that you aren't who you thought you were (Paul Delmonte, not Adam Farmer) is identity-shaking enough, but then to realize - as Adam might, fuzzily, but as the reader can certainly piece together - that the governmental authority that was supposed to protect you in fact betrayed you. The facts alone are a dash of cold water, more poignant still as Adam is so alone and confused, never to grow up to have a solid identity or a normal life. ( )

this was the reason i almost failed freshman english in high school ( )

This may be the weirdest, most complex book I've read in some time. It's a psychological mystery-thriller, a journey, an adventure, a conspiracy plot... it's a lot of things, and "engrossing story" is pretty high on the list. Four stars instead of five, though, because I never like Cormier's writing style. ( )

The book I Am The Cheese by the author Robert Cormier, is about a boy named Adam Farmer who go's on a long journey to see his father in Vermont. Adam is traveling by bike and with little money and a gift for his father tucked away in the basket of his bike, he encounters many challenges and unlocks many secrets from his past that may change his life forever. Is Adam really who he thinks he is? Are these even his real parents?
I did not particularly care for this book, I thought that it would be more interesting and that the story would pull me into the text more, but instead I got lost many times. The book changed settings and switched from character to character to much that it was hard to follow. But also from having the book jump a lot made me realize how crazy and confusing the main characters life is.