I Am the Cheese (Readers Circle) | 
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Adam's father is in hospital and Adam has set off to visit him. It's a long, cold journey; as he travels along, Adam gets tired, and to take his mind off his exhaustion, he traces the events that led up to his father being taken to hospital. He had testified against government level corruption and the family became the subject of a government-orchestrated protection plan. The journey is a kind of odyssey, a search - through the mysteries of the mind. Adam must unlock the past and really remember it if he is to survive.
Amazon.com Review
Imagine discovering that your whole life has been a fiction, your identity altered, and a new family history created. Suddenly nothing is as it once seemed; you can trust no one, maybe not even yourself. It is exactly this revelation that turns 14-year-old Adam Farmer's life upside down. As he tries to ascertain who he really is, Adam encounters a past, present, and future too horrible to contemplate. Suspense builds as the fragments of the story are assembled--a missing father, government corruption, espionage--until the shocking conclusion shatters the fragile mosaic. Young adult readers will easily relate to the shy and confused Adam, whose desperate searching for self resembles a disturbingly exaggerated version of the identity crisis common to the teenage years. First published in 1977, I Am the Cheese provides an exciting introduction to psychological thrillers. This sensitive, emotional, subtly crafted novel by Robert Cormier (author of The Chocolate War) was a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, as well as a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. --Emilie Coulter
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Customer Reviews:
• Who Is Adam Farmer? 29 September, 2008
Robert Cormier's I am the Cheese (Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1977), tells the heartbreaking tale of Adam Farmer as he journeys to find his father and uncover the truth about his past. Alternating between Adam's 80 mile bike ride to Vermont and mysterious taped sessions with Brint, an interrogator who is supposed to be helping Adam uncover the truths of his past, the reader begins to learn more and more about Adam's troubled and confusing past. Cormier expertly draws the reader in, and allows the reader to distrust and question Brint's motives just as Adam does. By dropping hints ever so slightly, both the reader and Adam begin to look at Brint in another light. Maybe he isn't a helpful doctor trying to help Adam, but a man desperate to find out if Adam knows something he shouldn't, and makes Adam think that they are enemies. As Adam's journey comes to a close, the reader learns that he was never in control from the start. The ending, both shocking and sad, will stick with the reader, and leave questions that will never be answered.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2RO17MT2SQKN2
• Suspenseful Psychological Thriller For Teens 28 September, 2008
I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier (Random House, 1997), is the story of a boy on a mission to see his father, a mysterious man in an institution, and Adam, a boy who discovers that his life has all been one big lie. Their stories weave in a suspenseful plot that keeps the reader guessing and thinking at every twist and turn. Readers may be taken aback, or even confused, by the book's use of three viewpoints. All three narrators feel underdeveloped, like mere facets of a real person. At first, the connections are not clear. Careful readers, however, will soon make links between the three characters and get wrapped up in their collective story. As the story builds, the reader is asked to become a detective of sorts, drawing their own conclusions throughout, until the explosive climax, where the reader and narrators all discover together the truth about their lives. This gripping psychological thriller is perfect for mature teens looking for something loftier than the average YA novel.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1RP62CT73BYMJ
• A Story Of Unexpected Twists And Multiple Identities. 07 November, 2008
I am the Cheese is a great story about a young boy named Adam Farmer who is from the fictional town of Monument, Massachusetts. His life is very normal, but very unusual at the same time. It all starts one day when he is very young and his family leaves their home in the middle of the night. They arrive in Monument a few days later. His old location is also in the Northeast. Throughout the years Adam has continously heard his dad talking to a man named Mr. Grey on the phone. He does not know who the man is, but he does know that Mr. Grey plays a very significant role in his and his family's life. Adam eventually gets suspicious when he notices he has two different birth certificates with different birth dates. The whole book is based around Adam on his quest to deliver a package to his father, who is in the hospital in Rutterberg, Vermont. It also includes voice recorded transcripts of Adam talking to Mr. Brint, who is a doctor that is trying to help Adam remember his early childhood, and unlock the reasons why The Farmer family is so secretive. Each way leads hi closer to the truth. It is a long trip, but he accomplishes it, because of his love for his family. Along the way he faces challenges including a group of teens and a whipper that are trying to steal his bike. The books story has a great sense of conspiracy while telling the story straightforward in certain ways. In the end his goals are accomplished, while he finds out his real identity.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2RH8SFUGVL1ZS
• No One Can Be Trusted. 26 September, 2008
No one can be trusted. No one. Robert Cormier sends readers on a gripping psychological journey in the chilling mystery "I am the Cheese" (Alfred A. Knopf, 1977). Teenage Adam Farmer climbs aboard his bike destined to find his father and finds along the journey fragments of his own self identity connected to a loving (yet secret) family life. Bits and pieces of the protagonist's life are revealed through three different perspectives, Adam's first person bike ride, an interrogation transcription, and third person anecdotes amplifying the suspense of the story. Readers will be on the edge of their seats, turning the pages as fast as the pedals on Adam's bike trying to make sense of the mystery as a story of lies, distrust, and government corruption unfolds. Why doesn't Amy answer the phone when Adam calls? Who is this "doctor" who is interrogating Adam? Will Adam ever make it to Vermont? Young adults will sympathize with the shy and awkward Adam Farmer on his quest for identity and they will not be able to put the book down until the mystery is revealed in a shocking and powerfully gripping ending. Readers will begin to ask after the last page has been turned, who can really be trusted?
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1PGFFR09AX9TV
• Just Because You're Paranoid... 28 September, 2008
Adam Farmer doesn't know who he is. He's suspected things weren't right since a frenzied midnight bus ride when he was three. In his father's desk, he finds two birth certificates for himself bearing different birthdates. Though his parents have told him they have no living family, he eavesdrops on his mother's phone call with a woman who refers to Adam as her nephew. As the discoveries escalate, so does Adam's paranoia. Things he had accepted before now seem suspicious - even treacherous - like his father's meetings in their basement with the mysterious Mr. Grey and the family's emergency "vacations" following whispered phone conversations. Realizing that Adam "knows," his parents take them into their confidence and reveal the dangerous secret that continues to dictate their every action and demand their constant vigilance.
Robert Cormier's "I Am the Cheese" (Dell Publishing: 1977) reinforces our right - indeed our obligation - to question authority. Cormier weaves a complex narrative in alternating bursts of first person narrative from Adam, third person observation that at times blurs with first person by revealing that Adam has unknowingly spoken aloud his private thoughts, and transcripts of probing interrogations that Adam is subjected to by a sinister man whose professional veneer thinly masks dark ulterior motives. The frenetic pace of Cormier's prose and the unpredictable narrative structure reinforce Adam's growing panic and uncertain grasp on reality. Adam alternately craves the dull comfort of his meds and seeks the harsh clarity of a truth too horrible to confront. Who is Adam Farmer?
- Reviewed by customer ID: A10HS7HO9DVHNZ
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