I Am the Cheese written by Robert Cormier is a psychological thriller. Adam Farmer is a young boy when his parents are killed in a malicious car accident. Although he escaped physically, Adam is trapped in psychological torture because he is unable to form new longterm memories. He's desperately trying to piece together his past with a counselor, but he's being manipulated by the doctor the entire time. Dr. Brint works for the government, which apparently did nothing to prevent Adam's father's death, even though he was a federally protected witness, along with his family. Since Farmer's passing however, the government only uses Adam as a resource from which to extract information. At the end of the session, the doctor privately recommends that Adam be terminated as a liability.
Adam tells the audience in the first person about his journey to the hospital. In his interior world, Adam is a child much younger than he appears. He's living in his memories from several years ago, before his parents' death, as evidenced by his faulty memory and his repeated calls to his girlfriend Amy's number, which has long since been switched over to a new owner. Although he tells everyone he meets along the way that he's going to visit his father in the hospital, Adam knows this isn't true. It's revealed later in the book that this is not Adam's first session with Dr. Brint. He demonstrates a complete split in his personality. At some points Adam demonstrates extreme paranoia to the point of disassociation, recognizing the threat the doctor poses with his questions and choosing to self-identify with inanimate objects as if removing himself from danger in that manner. At other times Adam appears cogent and capable, except for the fact that he's living a delusion from his memory three years ago.
Further complicating this narrative, Cormier only reveals the plot line of the book in bits and pieces, with intersecting timelines. He doesn't allow the reader to trust either Adam or Brint, placing obvious red flags upon each character throughout the book. As details unfold, however, the reader is able to piece together a case for Adam's being manipulated as a victim of federal corruption, a suspicion which is confirmed by the doctor's transcript at the very end. Although Adam understands that he's in danger and that his family is dead, he sometimes cannot process this information and disassociates. His fragile mental state further complicates the story for both reader and doctor, making Adam a victim of both external and internal corruption. The novel is a powerful reminder of the delicacy of the human mind, especially during its formative years.
