I Am the Cheese was written by American author Robert Cormier and first published in 1977. It is categorised under young adult literature.
The central character, Adam Farmer, is on a journey to Rutterburg with a parcel for his father. However, as he travels, he starts to remember the events leading up to this point. These same memories are also being prised out in psychiatric interviews.
The novel explores a unique method of telling the story: the chapters alternate between first-person present tense, during Adam's journey; and third-person past tense, during the psychiatric interviews.
I Am the Cheese began in 1975 as Cormier's experimentation with first-person present tense. When Cormier sent the manuscript off to the publisher of his previous novel, The Chocolate War, he was confused and depressed, convinced that he was alienating his new young adult audience due to the complex and ambiguous story.
However, I Am the Cheese proved to be a success, and a worthy successor to The Chocolate War.
It won the Phoenix Award in 1997.
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Last updated: 05-20-2005 03:50:19
