The question arising most often among adult readers is: What kind of person could write such harshly realistic and pessimistic books for young people? Young adults appear to understand Cormier better; they are able to perceive that his novels are not entirely without hope. They ask other types of questions, offer praise, and accept the inevitable conclusions of the stories. Uncompromising in his pursuit of truth, Cormier has explained that he sees his novels as an antidote to the artificial realism of television, where one is always aware that the hero will survive to appear next week.
In addition to these books for young adults, Cormier also wrote three early novels and some fifty short stories. A short-story collection titled Eight Plus One (1980), written for adults but marketed for a young-adult audience, reveals a side of Cormier which is sensitive and compassionate. Any meeting with this slim man with graying hair and eyeglasses confirms the portrait of a perceptive, friendly, unpretentious author whose goal is to entertain his audience and involve them emotionally in his stories.
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