FADE by Robert Cormier

Finished Sa 9/29/12

My Post at Good Reads-

This is an engrossing, yet disturbing read. The novel turns on a character who has the ability to become invisible, "The Fade", but it is not at all a book about someone with fantasy 'super powers'. 

FADE is very much an example of Transgressive Fiction in that it deals extensively with taboo subject matters such as, sex, violence, incest, pedophilia, and crime.

The novel is divided into a few sections that occur at different times, and feature different narrators.

It is very unusual that the gift of invisibility would be presented as a liability or a curse, and I think that this fact alone is enough to read the novel. I really liked the book, but it's grim and bleak, and the novel ends on a note of almost melodramatic desperation.

My notes:

This is the first in an attempt to read books from my collection rather than checking out books from the library.

The novel is divided into several sections, but it is about a gifted writer who tells of his ability to disappear, or  'Fade'.
PAUL is the first section-
Relates the story of a photograph where his uncle disappears. Tells of his experiences with 'the fade'. At first, he is not aware that he is invisible. At a Klan rally a drunken klansman is right in front of him, fails to see him, but Paul assumes that the man was just drunk. And, one time a bully chases him, and he unconsciously made himself invisible to escape. Paul blames Toubert for the labor riot where his father was stabbed, and this is one of the reasons that he stabs him. The section ends with the murder, and one line about the death of Bernard.
Paul Roget (He uses the name Paul Moreaux in his fictional stories). Novelist and short story writer. BRUISES IN PARADISE. Died in 1967 at the age of 42.
Uncle Adelard- Paul's uncle who also had the ability to fade. The power is passed from Uncle to Nephew, and they are not sure where it began or where. The novel is set in Frenchtown in Monument, MA. The characters are French Canadian.
Armand- Paul's older brother, and he becomes active in the labor union at the comb factory where his father is a union official. His uncle is also involved in the union.
Bernard- The youngest brother of Paul who dies of a congenital heart ailment. Paul blames himself when he stabs local gangster, Rudolphe Toubert, to death. This man ran the town's paper-routes and was a lover of his aunt, Rosanna. This woman was the love of Paul's life.

SUSAN is the next section-
Susan Roget is a cousin of Paul Roget, and she is working in the publishing field and is given the manuscript that we have just read. She wonders (with her boss, Meredith Martin) whether this is a fictional work, or is the Fade something real.

PAUL is another short section in which Paul continues his story, and tells of how his sister, Rose, gave up a child for adoption. He has felt that there is another Fader out there, and this would be his nephew, so he realizes that he must locate this child of Rose's. She tells him that it was a Catholic institution in Ramsey, Maine. He wants to help this child deal with the power like his uncle Adelard was not able to do for him.

OZZIE (Oscar Slater) is the penultimate section, and this is the child of Rose who has the power, but doesn't understand anything. He was given up for adoption, and ended up in an abusive family. His mother was an Irish alcoholic, and his stepfather (who gave him the name 'Slater') beat him regularly, and destroyed his nose. Now he always sniffles, and the nose does not look natural. He now lives with the nuns, and he is close to the nun that helped his real mother when she gave him up. Her name is Sister Anunciata.

He is friends with the village drunkard, Old Man Pindar. He later kills this man, or 'the voice' inside has him kill Pindar. Paul locates Ozzie, meets with him, and finally must stab him to death. Paul had made a promise that he would not use the power after killing Toubert. Ozzie makes him demonstrate The Fade, but Ozzie's voices have gotten the upper hand, and Paul kills him in self defense. Ozzie was attempting to strangle him.

SUSAN is the final chapter, and she finds that no such orphanage exists in Maine, but she does find an incident in which students and teachers were burned to death at a school dance, and there was an unexplained explosion at a chemical plant in Sherwood, NY. She doesn't know what to do about these incidents, and the novel ends.

"And I don't know what to do about it
God, I don't know wht to do"

Robert Cormier was a journalist and known for controversial books for young adults. Wrote I AM THE CHEESE. Also, made into a movie. Born in Leominster, MA, and still resides there.