"That was the secret of the world's agony, and the reason crime—and, yes, sin—would always prevail. Because the criminal, whether a rapist or a burglar, loves his crime. That's why rehabilitation was impossible. You had to get rid of the love, the passion, first. And that would never happen." ...
Not to boast, but for almost the past 15 years I've read more than a hundred books a year. I only mention that fact to show the relatively late start that I got on serious reading. Sure I read quite a bit when I was younger, but I kind of went from reading Encyclopedia Brown and The Hardy Boys ...
In I Am The Cheese, Robert Cormier tells of a young boy living in Monument, Massachusetts. At ten o'clock in the morning, Adam Farmer sets out for Rutterburg, Vermont by bicycle. During his journey, Adam meets the inhabitants of the small towns in New England although determined to arrive at his ...
In first picking up this book, I noticed its rather dark cover and the contrasting red car. Obviously, this car is important, and cars in general must have some role in this story because of the junk yard depicted on the front cover. However, all of these details made me feel disconnected because...
Enter the world of Eugene, who, like many of the characters about whom author Robert Cormier writes, resides in the quiet recesses of Frenchtown. It's a town like most others in Massachusetts, populated by hard-working career men and filled with an assortment of secrets that simmer just below the...
This book was originally reviewed on my blog, Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing.Have you ever found yourself rooting for the bad guy? Knowing that the character deserves every bad thing coming his way, but hoping that, somehow, things will work out better in the end? I don't know that I had e...
Robert Cormier (pronounced kor-MEER) lived all his life in Leominster, Massachusetts, a small town in the north-central part of the state, where he grew up as part of a close, warm community of French Canadian immigrants. His wife, Connie, also from Leominster, still lives in the house where they...
ROBERT CORMIERI was lucky to read this book and not other Robert Cormier books which are much bleaker and darker. This is a book that takes place in the years following WWII. Racial prejudice against Jews is still strong. Henry and his parents have relocated to a different town to escape the memo...
"Nightmares ended when you woke up. Guilt never ended, worst in the dark of night but with you all the time, day or night." —In the Middle of the Night, P. 86 Robert Cormier never bothers with quaint sayings about how everything will be okay if we just keep a positive attitude, and the only ...
There's really no book I love more than We All Fall Down. I first read it almost ten years ago, I still keep my copy in my sock drawer and read it probably once a year. Robert Cormier's well known for his dark, depressing writing and unflinching look at everything wrong with human nature, but thi...
tI’m trying very hard not to like this book. I know that sounds prejudiced, but at least I’m honest. In fact, I decided after being introduced to Robert Cormier’s style that I would not like this book. I have always been a fan of happy endings.t(Let me clarify: by happy endings, I don’t mean “And...
His moustache was a wedge of frost on his upper lip. The boy, whose name was Henry, watched him from the third-floor piazza that overlooked the street. He was curious about where the old man went every day and would have followed him except for the cast on his knee. The cast would be removed in a...
Color the postcard to do justice to Nettie Halversham’s beauty: eyes the color of bruises, hair like the shining black of old classic automobiles, lips like crushed strawberries. Ridiculous? Maybe. But, God, Nettie Halversham was—is—beautiful. And her heart was also black like the color of those ...
Marine Corps, holder of the Silver Star for acts of heroism in the steaming jungles of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, hero of newsreels and radio broadcasts, was coming home on furlough. He was scheduled to arrive on the 3:10 P.M. train from Boston on July 3, 1943. On that hot and humid aftern...
I whispered in the darkened confessional, the words hissing against the screen that separated me from Father Gastineau. I had chosen him for my confession because he was the youngest of the three curates at St. Jude's. “It has been June since my last confession. I received absolution and made my ...