04 February 2008

6. I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier


How did this book get published?

You know in the movies when you watch a character get tortured and that character twists and struggles and tries to escape the clutches of the villains, and then at the end of the movie the character wakes up and says something to the effect of "wow, that was one hell of a bad dream" and you just want to kill someone, anyone, whether they were responsible or not, for wasting your time?

You know that feeling?

Well, I'm feeling that feeling.

At least have the got-damn decency to explain the friggin' title.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Farmer, the kids name is Farmer. The Farmer in the Dell? In the end they "all nibble at the cheese" and "the cheese stands alone"???? Its a brilliant, brilliant book. m

WeSailFurther said...

ah. so it's a riddle that I have to solve, not knowing that there are clues in the book. riiiiight.

I read this for a graduate level class in the school of education at a major university and there are students in the class who were confused about the ending. good lord.

It's a mediocre, mediocre book. j

OlmanFeelyus said...

ha ha, mr. english lit misses the heavy-handed name symbolism. I think you're slipping because you haven't done a proper reflection on the books you read on 2007.

I read this book, The Chocolate War and probably something else by Cormier when I was in elementary school. Did you have those services where you could buy books through your school? They always featured these. They seemed really tough and adult to me when I read them, and from a different time. I wonder if knowing their context is an important part of appreciating them?

WeSailFurther said...

yeah yeah. i skipped over all of the lyrics when i was reading so as to avoid getting the farmer in the dell song in my head.

I did have that service...I think it ran through Scholastic, but I remember racing home with the sheet, which I recall was tissue thin, and checking off all the books I could. I was being trained for all of those record and paperback book club offers...