Fade - by Robert Cormier

FADE by Robert Cormier

1.)About this author

Robert Cormier has always lived in Leominster, Massachusetts, a small city in the north-central part of the state. He and his wife, Connie, also from Leominster, still live in the house where they educated their three daughters and one son - all adults now - and they see no reason to leave. "There are lots of untold stories right here on Main Street," Cormier says. Although he has always lived in one place, Cormier loves to travel. He has been a newspaper reporter and columnist for 30 years (working for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, and the Fitchburg Sentinel). Cormier is sometimes inspired by news stories. Cormier is a practising Catholic who attended parochial school, where in seventh grade, one of his teachers discovered his ability to write. "I can't really remember a time, when I haven't been a writerReading and writing..were the two great escapes of my life and I suppose they still are," says Robert Cormier. He has written 16 books - 15 of them fiction and one a collection of his newspaper columns. Though these books are sometimes described as written for young adults, in fact Cormier has readers of all ages. His themes of the ordinariness of evil and what happens when good people stand by and do nothing are treated seriously, and he does not provide the easy comfort of happy endings. He always believes in hope. The books by him: Now and at the Hour (1960), A Little Raw on Monday Mornings (1963), Take Me Where the Good Times Are (1965), The Chocolate War (1974), I Am the Cheese (1977), After the First Death (1979), Eight Plus One - Stories (1980), The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1983), Beyond the Chocolate War (1985), Fade (1988), Other Bells for Us Ring (1990), We All Fall down (1991), Tunes for Bears to Dance to (1992), I Have Words to Spend - Reflections of a Small Town Editor (1994), In the Middle of the Night (1995), Tenderness (1997). Movies based on books by Robert Cormier: I Am the Cheese (1983, USA, directed by Robert Jiras, with Robert MacNaughton), The Chocolate War (1988, USA, directed by Keith Gordon, with John Glover), Lapse of Memory (1992, Canada, original title: Memoire Tranquée, with John Hurt).

2.)Summary

Fade is a kind of science fiction book (Robert Cormier calls it the most autobiographical novel he has ever written). It explores the old question "What if you could make yourself invisible?". The novel starts with an almost autobiographical part about one Paul Moreaux's childhood in the Frenchtown section of Monument in the late 1930s. When he is thirteen, the boy is puzzled about an old family picture in which his Uncle Adelard is missing, even though he should have been there. In the course of one summer, Paul is troubled by his awakening sexuality, encounters the Ku Klux Klan, is involved in many childhood pranks with his best friend Pete and finally learns about the secret of the "Fade", when his uncle comes to town. The "Fade", the ability to become invisible, is always passed on from uncle to nephew and Paul inherited it from Adelard. He experiments with the "Fade" and learns that it is a curse rather than a blessing. He witnesses the local merchant sexual abusing a teenage girl, incest between one of his best friends and his twin sister, beats up the local bully Omer LaBatt and finally even commits murder. When his brother dies of an illness he blames the "Fade" for it and decides not to "Fade" again.

The second part of the book is told from the point of view of Susan Roget, who in 1988 works for Meredith, the agent of her distant relative Paul Roget (Moreaux), who was a famous novelist and died in 1967. She discovers a manuscript - the first part of Fade - which Meredith has hidden. The two women are deeply troubled and wonder if the story is fact or fiction. They interview Paul's cousin, and finally Susan is allowed by Meredith to read the second part of the manuscript, told by Paul as an adult. He gives an account of his search for the new "Fader". He finally finds the boy, his sister's illegitimate child, in a small town in Maine. Ozzie is deeply disturbed, has been abused and neglected by his stepfather and follows the commands of "a voice inside his head" (Schizophrenia) that tells him to commit crimes and murder, when he discovers the "Fade". It comes to dramatic showdown between the two "Faders", and Paul finally has to kill his nephew because the schizophrenic voice is stronger than Ozzie himself. Susan is left totally disturbed and wondering if there might be another "Fader" somewhere out there.

3.)Paul Moreaux (later Paul Roget)

He is a clever boy (in the first part) and a becomes a good writer in his age (parallels to Robert Cormier's life).He lives in the Frenchtown section of Monument in the late 1930s. He has got one elder brother, two younger sisters and one younger brother (the one, who dies in a tender age and who makes Paul with his death decide not to "Fade" again). He is strong catholic educated (like Robert Cormier), but does not really believe in God. He is shy and quiet, trying not to get into trouble. If he has problems he always thinks that everything is his fault. As he has feelings of guilt he often goes to church and goes to confession. When he begins to "Fade" many accidents happen, so he blames his ability to "Fade" for everything and decides not to "Fade" any longer.

He has normal puberty problems, when he falls in love with his adult aunt Rosanna. I do not, however understand, when he does not stop to love her in his old age, in spite of seeing her not for about 50 years. He always loved women but he is not married. Probably his true love is his aunt, but perhaps he thinks that he cannot confess his secrets to any other person (the manuscript comes up when he has died). He never really left Frenchtown. The only time when he does, is to find Ozzie, but then he does not feel good at all. He only talks to people he knows very well. Probably the "Fade" made him that mistrustful. He really hates the "Fade" because of the things he saw and did not want to know.

He kills Ozzie not out of anger or rage, no, he knew that had to, thinking of the people Ozzie would hurt. He sees killing Ozzie not as a sin, he thinks that he had done something good for all the people. He regrets, howevre, killing the man in his youth. He killed that man out of anger and so recognised that the "Fade" is something evil. His afraid of being evil because of his catholic education. His really not afraid of law (he could escape of prison anytime).

4.)Language and style

I think Cormier's novel was not difficult to read. It is probably written exact for my grade. I knew all the vocabularies except some I never heard before. I could, however, imagine the meaning of those words. More the less he uses colloquial English. The book has never a boring style, because there is always a kind of excitement. You want to know what happens when Paul "Fades" (always something bad happens). You always know that he decided not to "Fade" again. So the other question is: will he "Fade" or will he not "Fade". His sentences are not very long, but they are not short either. Cormier uses proper words for descriptions of persons or landscape. When Paul, however, speaks; he uses easy words. That does not change till he is an adult. All the persons in this book use the same style during they speak. Only Susan writes, what she thinks. She uses youth slang and sometimes exclamations. For example: "I agreed. Then. Shit. I must agree now!"(page 285) Cormier often uses dialogues, except Paul, or later Ozzie, is in the "Fade". The style is not always sophisticated, it is always the same. The two ends of Paul Roget's (Moreaux's) manuscript are suddenly for the read. They are one of the parts I liked most of the book. Especially the end of the first part of the manuscript: "Three weeks later, Bernard died. In his sleep. Cold and forever remote when we tried to wake him on the last day of that doomed year."(page 141). "I am haunted by something, by those final words in the manuscript I've just read for, like, the tenth time."(Susan Roget, page 145) - I really can imagine why Susan says this.

5.) Interpretation

Fade is set in three places. Paul Moreaux lives in the Frenchtown part of Monument. He visits his nephew Ozzie, who lives in Ramsey, Maine. Later Meredith finds out that Ramsey is totally fiction and does not exist. The third place is New York, where Susan writes her part of Cormier's book.

It begins in the late 1930s when Paul discovers that he is able to "Fade". It is not said when Susan writes her part of the book, but Cormier wants it probably to be when Fade was first published (1988). It treats with several parts of time: 1.)Paul Moreaux's first contact with the "Fade".

2.) Moreaux (now Roget) feels that the new "Fader" begins to "Fade".

3.)Susan Roget's feelings and thinkings about Paul Moreaux's manuscript.

The book starts when Paul looks of the picture of his "Fading" uncle Adelard. He always loved that picture because he wants to know how his uncle could disappear. Everybody thinks that Adelard played a trick on them and nobody knows that he "Faded". Then it is getting more and more exciting because the reader wants to know, why Paul disappears. Then the first climax comes: Uncle Adelard tells Paul about the "Fade". It is again getting more and more gripping again till Paul kills the man. Then there is a lot of talk written by Susan. When Paul's manuscript starts, however, again it is getting better and better. It is interesting to read when schizophrenic Ozzie thinks of killing people and starts with vandalism in that small village, where he lives. The ultimate climax is when Paul fights with his nephew during they "Fade". The novel ends with Susan's questions if Paul's manuscript is fact or fiction.

Nearly the whole book is written of view of first person: Paul's and Susan's parts. Only when Cormier talks of Ozzie (in the book it's written by Paul) he changes into third person.

I do not exactly know what the author wants to tell us with his book. I am, however, sure that Cormier did it not out of love to money. No, he wrote it because he felt like it (inspiration). To earn money is an effect the author surely welcomes. Probably he wants to tell us that the most books (especially those by him) have got their truth in it. It is not only fiction, there is always a kind of fact. Perhaps he also wanted to write a kind of autobiographical book. The adult Paul for example also stays in the same town he has ever lived - the same like Robert Cormier. I do not, however, believe that Cormier is able to "Fade" (that would be ridiculous).

6.)My personal opinion

I am of the opinion that the book was one of the best I have ever read. Probably I like it because it is a kind of science fiction but not really science fiction because the ability to "Fade" is given by nature. I do not like all those crime stories or trivial literature so I hardly ever find a book I am really interested in. I also like that it is written in a style I understand but it also gives me some new vocabulary (for example the title of the book). The action of the novel is also quite good because everybody asks oneself anytime what he would do if he could make himself invisible. The author explains in a really good way that it would be not only advantageous for the person. No, it would be terrible because you would see and hear things that you really would not want to hear. What I like most were the ends of the two parts of the different parts [4.)style] and when Ozzie talks to his schizophrenic voice. The publisher wrote the voice's speeches in italic letters. I think the author wants to show with Ozzie's talks to himself that everybody has got a good and a bad voice. The mistake Ozzie made was to obey the bad voice.

I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to especially boys.