I Am The Cheese

At the time of his death in 2000, Robert Cormier was considered by many the most important writer in the whole of adolescent literature. Hitting stride during the sixties and seventies, Cormier was most certainly influenced by the prevalent social issues, writing often about conspiracies, uprisings, and governmental control. His plot lines often echoed fears of the underground communist movement and pitted his protagonists against powerful government organizations.

 I Am The Cheese was written by Cormier in the early seventies and was first published in 1977. He uses a layered narrative in which the protagonist, Adam, struggles to recover the memories of his past. Adam is journeying on bike from his home to a hospital where he believes his father is staying. While the present narrative progresses and he encounters obstacles along the way, the reader is also presented with tape recordings, where he's questioned by a doctor, Brit, who seems to be attempting to help Adam recover his memory.

The suspense rises continuously throughout the novel as Adam begins to uncover the truths of his childhood, but while it's refreshing for him to see the cause of his family's dysfunction, he begins to get weary of the doctors motives. His ride to the hospital is riddled with questions. Attempts to call his girlfriend seem to be blocked by an outside source, and hotels that he remembers to be thriving seem to have been closed for years. As occurrences become stranger on his ride, they also become more intriguing in the interview process, where facts seem to overlap and Adam is confronted with strange coincidences that don't add up. The narratives continue to progress side by side and as Adam reaches the hospital where he believes his father is being kept, his questioning ceases and he's taken back to his room. The following pages tie the plot lines together and present the reader with an interesting mix of questions and answers, culminating in a twist that does much to engage the imagination.