♫ "He's Gump, He's Gump, He's Gump... Is He Inbred?" ♫
Written: Oct 12 '07 (Updated Oct 15 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The Creation Of One Of The Most Endearing Characters Of My Lifetime
Cons: Can be a bit tricky to follow. Lacks a level of warmth.
The Bottom Line: Set your expectations accordingly. This is not the film.
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| shmoo1's Full Review: |
PLEASE BE FOREWARNED, TO TALK ABOUT THE BOOK I FEEL I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE MOVIE. SOME VITAL MOMENTS OF THE MOVIE ARE GIVEN AWAY.
Additional Warning- I give away a fair amount of the book but not the ending.
“Let me say this: bein an idiot is no box of chocolates.”
With this line begins the tale of one of the most memorable and well known fictional characters of the last forty years, one who ranks up there with Hannibal Lector, Darth Vader and Kermit The Frog.
The tale of Forrest Gump is now legendary. At six foot six inches and just shy of two hundred and fifty pounds, this idiot savant, with an IQ of seventy but an uncanny intellect for physics, played a mean harmonica despite an almost crippling marijuana habit, was shot in to space by N.A.S.A as a back up computer for one of their shuttles and won the respect of a Yale educated Cannibal King because of his Chess playing abilities.
Ha! You remember the time that he saved the life of Mao Tse-Tung and...
... wait... what?
This doesn’t sound like the Forrest Gump you know?
Surely I‘ve got the story wrong?
Hold on… let me go back and look at it again...
nope... it appears correct.
Oh, I get it. Your knowledge of Gump and his adventures has come solely from the MOVIE Forrest Gump. You’ve never read the book.
Pull up a chair and sit a spell. While the movie captured the heart and general innocence of Gump, it only vaguely followed the book. The book holds a tale that might even be more unbelievable than the film.
Gump tells his own story in the book much as he does in the movie, but is a more honest and flawed character than his cinematic counterpart. As mentioned already he spent a bit too much time in a stoned vegetative state when playing in Jenny’s band, he swears profusely at times and his sexual prowess (especially with Jenny) is... prolific.
Gump the book relies more on his adventures and less on his interaction and influence of famous people. Gone are the chance meetings with John Lennon and Elvis Presley. He does get to carry a partially naked Raquel Welch around but this is because of his short stint as an actor in the remake of The Creature From he Black Lagoon.
But I’m out of sync. Let me give a somewhat brief overview from the beginning.
SOME STORY:
“At least I ain’t led no humdrum life”
Forrest Gump was born in Mobile Alabama. His mother was a widow because his father was crushed to death by a pile of bananas in a longshoreman’s accident which effected Gump's fondness for bananas for the rest of his life.
Forrest attends normal school and makes one solid friend (Jenny Curran) until grade one when it is discovered that his IQ is 70. He then spends quite of few of his formative years in the local “Nut School”.
When puberty hits his stature and girth become formidable. A gentle, non-confrontational soul, he is picked on frequently and runs from his tormentors until he is spotted one day by a local High school football coach. Gump gets to attend a regular high-school and meets a second good friend Buford “Bubba” Blue who teaches him how to play the harmonica.
Gump’s High school football days are so successful that he wins a full scholarship to the University of Alabama where he excels in two things, football and advanced physics.
After University, Gump is sent to Vietnam where he meets up again with Bubba. The two fight together and talk about their future. Bubba plants the seeds of a possible Shrimp business in Gump's mind, but is unfortunately killed before the two can come home. While Gump tries to save his friend's life he also saves the lives of many others, using his size and speed to carry them to safety when they are pinned down by gunfire. He’s wounded (shot in the buttocks) and while he is recuperating he plays a lot of ping pong and meets Lieutenant Dan who was blown up in a tank.
His wound guarantees him a Medal of Honor by Lyndon Johnson and inactive duty, so he is chosen by the Army to represent them in a Ping Pong tournament. The team goes to China and Gump ends up saving the life of Mao Tse-Tung who was about to drown in a swimming mishap. The Army, none to happy that Gump has saved the life of someone they consider a threat, discharges him. He passes the next little while playing harmonica in Jenny Curran’s band The Cracked Eggs and it’s here that their relationship goes from platonic to... romantic. Their relationship ends due to Gump’s infidelity which, given his lack of intellect, is almost understandable and forgivable in this situation.
Gump accidentally injures a clerk for the U.S. Senate when he becomes part of an anti-war rally and throws his medal as hard as he can, hitting the clerk in the head. To avoid going to jail he must assist the government again. The government has long known about his mathematical intellect and they train him to be an astronaut so that he can be used as a back up computer should anything mechanical fail. His mission is cut short when he, the female shuttle pilot and a male orangutan named Sue, crash land near an unknown Island around New Guinea.
Big Sam, Ivy League educated King of a Cannibal tribe on the island, keeps them prisoner for almost four years planting cotton and stops his people from eating them until he beats Gump in one of their daily chess games. He never does. When they are saved, Gump returns to civilization alone.
Once back, Gump runs through a couple of careers including a professional wrestler, an actor, a chess guru, a Senate hopeful (using his famous slogan I Got To Pee as a rallying cry) and of course a shrimp farmer, where he employs almost everyone he knows (except Lieutenant Dan but including a long lost Sue) and where his fortune is made.
The end finds Gump free of any shackles and does not close itself off in the same way that the movie did. You can smell sequel coming and look forward to Gump’s adventures through the eighties, nineties and in to the new millennium.
SOME MUSINGS:
"I may be a idiot, but most of the time, anyway, I tried to do the right things..."
I will say something that I rarely say; Eric Roth, the screenwriter for the movie Forrest Gump, greatly improved Winston Groom’s character and assured him a place in history. I strongly doubt that Gump would have become the icon he is had he been left solely to Groom’s devices. By softening Gump’s edges, by making him an almost angelic innocent, Roth transformed Forrest from a man who succeeds by merely wandering idly through life, proving “Any Idiot Can Do It”, in to one who is karmically deserving of his good fortune. This is sorely missing in the book and while I enjoyed reading about Gump’s exploits I rarely found myself rooting for him. Likewise, by giving Jenny a fatal disease, by making her an abused and delicately flawed creature, by changing their love story to one that Jenny needed to understand, respect and embrace instead of one she simply ran from and abandoned, Eric created one of the most heart wrenching romances I’ve ever seen on film. I missed this in the book and my last moments of Jenny left a bad taste in my mouth.
Gump’s days of shrimp farming and his success lack any of the excitement that the movie presented. There are no boats and no hurricane. Gump runs a shrimp farm and his success comes from him burying himself in his work.
While the story being presented in first person narrative on Film works very well, it is less effective on paper for exactly the reason that it DOES work on film. Much of the film’s humor comes from Gump’s innocent story telling ability and naivety, however on paper you are reading the writings of someone with an IQ of seventy. Gump gives the same weight and importance to all moments in his life and they are presented in short sentences. The paragraphs are chunky and if you gloss at all you are liable to miss something important.
It sort of sounds like I didn’t enjoy the book and I need to correct this now. I quite liked it and have read it multiple times. The problem was that I saw the movie first and had certain expectations and wants that were never truly fulfilled.
This will probably be different when they try to make a film adaptation of this book’s sequel, Gump and Co. which is expected to happen in 2010 now that Paramount has settled its lawsuit with Winston Groom. Since I had no expectations when reading that, I was free to let the story unfold as the author intended.
...and don’t expect to read the line “Mamma always said life was like a box o’ chocolates, you never really know whatcha gonna get." That particular Gumpism is never said.
Now imagine my surprise when I saw that no one had reviewed this book.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
shmoo1
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Location: Milton On. Canada
Reviews written: 103
Trusted by: 66 members
About Me:Vote Kingfish/ Shmoo in 2012 'Cuz A Shmoo In The Hand...
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