From: Wojtyla, Karen <KWojtyla>
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 11:55:50 -0400

It's interesting to me that there has been so much discussion of Cormier's penchant for "grim realism." The Chocolate War, as many of you may know, was based on a real incident when Bob's son didn't sell the chocolates in his school's fundraising drive. But in the "real reality" nothing bad happened. There were no Vigils, or Archie Costellos, or Brother Leons to contend with. Cormier's books have enormous emotional honesty, I think, but most of them are dramas in which he creates a crucible where individual moral choices shape the lives of the characters, for better or worse, and their families and loved ones and communities. He often places his characters at crossroads, exploring what happens depending upon which choice they make. In that sense his novels are about freedom, and the consequences of our freedom to choose good or evil, defiance or conformity, truth or complicity in lies. Those consequences are not always predictable, and they can be far-reaching.

Of course Cormier was an enormously talented deviser of twisty plots, master of suspenseful pacing and a stylist of uncommon economy and grace, but it is the rich moral dimension of his stories that I think make the novels so endlessly fascinating. That and his creation of characters so "real" you feel like you could turn around and meet them. Or stand in their shoes.

Karen Wojtyla Publishing Director Knopf Delacorte Dell
Received on Fri 24 Aug 2001 10:55:50 AM CDT