Introduction Summary

Author Robert Cormier discusses his second young adult novel, I Am The Cheese, and how he came to write it. His idea began with a Sunday morning writing exercise to spark his creative output again. He began writing about a boy on a bicycle, riding through a town, his encounters with people, dogs and thoughts running through his head.

Weeks later he ran across an article about a new government program involving identity and with this new information, his earlier story evolved into I Am The Cheese, a complex book using flashbacks, interrogations and the thoughts of his teenaged character on a journey to discovery his own identity.