Heroes (1998)

Robert Cormier wrote [b:I Am the Cheese|48974|I Am the Cheese|Robert Cormier|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170356988s/48974.jpg|958210], which will forever be burned in my brain as it was a question at pub trivia that I got incorrect a few months back. As such, I made it a personal goal to read several of his books in the next year or two because 1. I hate getting questions wrong in pub trivia; 2. His books are supposed to be twisty and well-written (some are required in many high school curricula); and 3. Most importantly to me, they are very short. I immediately put Heroes on hold at the library when I read its blurb:

Francis Joseph Cassavant is eighteen. He has just returned home from the Second World War, and he has no face. He does have a gun and a mission: to murder his childhood hero.

Imagine you are sitting in a room with me right now. Now go ahead and look into my eyes and tell me that if you read a blurb about a soldier with no face coming back to his hometown to murder someone, you wouldn't be interested in picking the book up. You're a liar, that's jacket copy at its best. I am very confused about what this soldier looks like from the cover. Does the background image look like a woman to anyone else? Maybe it's the bangs? There is somehow a ton and yet nothing going on in this story. I don't want to ruin the motive behind his revenge plot but I will say that this book just feels bleak. I felt horrible that a naive kid joined the army, was seriously injured, and then returns to a town that's forgotten him, filled with other physically and mentally injured vets, and devoid of hope. Francis covers his entire face for the entirety so I never got a full idea of what he might look like but Cormier didn't play it down at all, instead (perhaps overly) mentioning the oozing crevices of Francis' face where his features used to be and the soaked-through bandages that filled with blood and pus. Heroes reads like a short story. It is a quick sketch of what one soldier's reasons were for joining the forces and how failing to act can haunt a person forever. In my opinion, the only reason to read this is the story. Those looking to get quotable quotes or flowery prose should just move along.

This mini-review was part of a series of 7 mini-reviews of short YA books I wrote for a post over at our blog, The Readventurer.

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Francis Joseph Casavant just came back from a war where he fell face first on a grenade. They thought he was trying to protect his “team”. So now he’s back in his home town with no friends, no home, and no face. Although he does have a purpose in the town-to kill his childhood role model, Larry LaSalle.Francis wants to murder Larry because of what he did to his childhood love.
Lets start from the beginning, when Francis was young boy, his town had just built a new building. The kids called it the “Wreck center”, and that is where they went everyday. The “Wreck center” had something that everyone enjoyed. If you didn't like dancing you could do ping pong, if you didn’t like ping pong you could do dodgeball or something else. In Francis’ case it was ping pong. For his love, Nicole Renard, it was dancing. So, right before Larry LaSalle went to war, they competed in the activities they played in. Then Larry LaSalle was off to war.
One day, when they were older, Larry came back and threw a party back at the “Wreck center”. At the end everyone had left except Francis and Nicole. Larry asks Francis to leave so he can have one last dance with Nicole. But instead of dancing he beats her up, and Francis was outside the whole time listening. Once the music stops, Nicole comes out and sees him there. She asks why he didn't protect her. Francis can't forgive himself so he forges his birth certificate and goes to war hoping to die, that is why he fell on the grenade. But it didn't work and he’s back home to finish his mission, but when he finds his “victim” his visit ends with a little twist.
Heroes was a well thought out book. It was also very unexpected. Robert Cormier does an excellent job keeping me interested in it and actually enjoying it. In Heroes it is very unusual how the main character wants to kill himself. I thought it was very interesting, and although it is a bad thing to want to kill yourself it kept the book very fast-paced. and I felt an emotional connection to Francis’ pain.
Although Heroes was a good book, I also read Chocolate Wars book by the same author, Robert Cormier, and disliked it very much. I think I didn't like it that much because in Heroes it was from one persons point of view while in his other book it was a variety of people narrating. Heroes was also better because unlike Chocolate Wars it had short, descriptive and action packed chapters. Heroes is definitely a must read. ( )

Francis Joseph Cassavant, an eighteen year-old World War II veteran, came home from the war without a face. While he was serving in France, a grenade blew off his face. Francis received the Silver Star for bravery after the war. He eventually journeyed home to Frenchtown in Monument. He realized, however, that his journey was not yet finished. He wanted to find a man. This was a man who he once admired and praised, but this man had also destroyed Francis’s life.
This book, Heroes, was enjoyable to read because I loved the mystery of finding out what had happen between Francis and his childhood hero. It was also entertaining that author, Robert Cormier, left you hanging and with questions at the end of the story. Reading about this character’s experience, made me wonder how it would be to have to live without a face. The mood of this book is definitely dark and gloomy. I would have liked this book to be longer. I wanted it to go into more details about what followed the incident at of the story. This book is different from any of the other books that I’ve read. I am not usually fond of books with heavy topics. However, this one got me hooked. I have never read a book similar to Heroes, but I would certainly enjoy reading another book with this genre of fiction. Overall, I would rate this book a four out of five stars.

Interesting story although i had trouble making out where it was actually set. It could have been France, Canada or America, I just didn't know. ( )

(1998)

Francis Joseph Cassavant returns home from WWII a young, decorated hero with no face and no family, but with a mission to kill his childhood hero. In the end, can Francis overcome the pain of Larry LaSalle’s past action, and of his own inaction, to find life worth living again?

An emotionally trying book with dark themes, Heroes begs the question “What is a hero, anyway?” Francis had enlisted at the age of sixteen to escape the guilt he felt from a past inaction. He fell on that grenade in Germany not to protect his platoon, but to end it all. When that failed, he took his mission home to take the life of the man who had caused him that guilt. Hearing the story told from Francis’ perspective makes it that much more poignant. Cormier builds the suspense through flashback, and the eventual meeting of the two men, Francis and Larry, is far from predictable.

"Don't be afraid to show your face, Francis. That face, what's left of it, is a symbol of how brave you were, the Silver Star you earned . . ."

Awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults (1999)