Heroes

Once more Cormier presents his readers with characters in crisis and again, things are not quite as they seem. Francis Cassavant was awarded the Silver Medal for valour, but his apparent act of heroism was a suicide attempt which destroyed his face but not his life. The reason for his suicide attempt was another flawed hero, Larry LaSalle, charismatic youth leader, guilty of the secret rape of Francis' girlfriend, Nicole Renard: hidden darkness in a publicly glittering figure. Francis returns to his home town not only to avenge Nicole but also to punish LaSalle for his own failure to stop the rape. Cormier repeatedly challenges reader perception of both the book's title and the motivation of its characters: here, he is as successful as ever --- even within the restrictions of this slim book. His prose lacks the startling immediacy characteristic of his earlier work, though flashes of former glory are evident. Francis Cassavant does not gain the reader's confidence in the same way as Adam Farmer did in I Am the Cheese. Cormier is always worth reading, but this is not his worthiest book.