[I Am the Cheese], a magnificent accomplishment, begins innocuously with a first-person narrative: "I am riding the bicycle and I am on Route 31 in Monument, Massachusetts, on my way to Ruttersburg, Vermont, and I'm pedaling furiously because this is an old-fashioned bike…." The reader, however, is suddenly jolted by a shift in point of view: the appearance of the official-looking transcript of a taped dialogue between the protagonist of the story and Brint, a mysterious interlocutor. The dialogue, in turn, is interspersed with an account of the events as related by an omniscient third-person narrator. Skillfully, an intertwining pattern for the whole book is created, rhythmically alternating the three devices; but much more than a brilliant technical tour de force is achieved. These devices, as expertly as they are used, build the necessary dynamic structure to encompass the onward-pacing story full of tension, mysteries, and secrets—the disclosure of the fate of a young protagonist whose life is inextricably entangled in a series of thorny predicaments. (p. 427)
As in The Chocolate War, Mr. Cormier is actually writing about human integrity; and in the course of doing so, he cogently uncovers the lacerations that evil often inflicts upon the innocent…. Truly a novel in the tragic mode, cunningly wrought, shattering in its emotional implications. (p. 428)
Paul Heins, in The Horn Book Magazine (copyright © 1977 by the Horn Book, Inc., Boston), August, 1977.
This is a free excerpt of 233 words. There are 237 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Cormier, Robert 1925–: Critical Essay by Paul Heins Access Pass.
