Product Description

Meet Forrest Gump, the lovable, hurculean, and surprisingly savy hero of this remarkable comic odyssey. After accidentally becoming the star of Univerity of Alabama's football team, Forrest goes on to become a Vietnam War hero, a worl-class Ping-Pong player, a villainous wrestler, and a business tycoon -- as he wonders with cildlike wisdome at the insanity all around him. In between misadentures, he manages to compare battle scars with Lyndon Johnson, discover the truth about Richard Nixon, and survive the ups and downs of remaining true to his only love, Jenny, on an extraordinary journey through three decades of the American cultural landscape. Forrest gump has one heck of a story to tell -- and you've got to read it to believe it....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63628 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-15
• Released on: 2002-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Ocala Star-Banner A most gentle spirit, Forrest Gump should enter the annals of fiction as a great American hero. -- Review

Review
Los Angeles TimesPart Candide, part Huck Finn and a whole lot of Andy Griffith, [Gump] makes his case in a voice all his own.

George PlimptonA wacky and funny nuthouse of a book.  

New WomanBroad satire with serious resonances...Gump's adventures are both hilarious and bawdy....This picaresque tale will set you guffawing.

Pittsburgh PressA Huckleberry Finn­type odyssey, complete with the humor-tempered irony and insight of Mark Twain. A rollicking satire, milking laughs from our sacred cows...As much fun as a box of chocolates, but far less fattening.

Ocala Star-BannerA most gentle spirit, Forrest Gump should enter the annals of fiction as a great American hero.

Anniston StarZany, tongue-in-cheek, affectionate and wise.

Tom McGuaneA delectable and unsparing comic treat.  

About the Author
Winston Groom is the author of ten books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Gumpisms: The Wit and Wisdom of Forrest Gump. He also wrote the acclaimed Vietnam War novel Better Times than These, the prize-winning As Summers Die, the Civil War history Shrouds of Glory, and coauthored Conversations with the Enemy, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Groom's most recent works include Such a Pretty, Pretty Girl and The Crimson Tide: An Illustrated History of Football at the University of Alabama. He lives in Point Clear, Alabama, with his wife and daughter and in the mountains of North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

My momma always said, Life was like a box of chocolates...
You never know what you're going to get.

BUT COME ON...its FORREST. It can't be bad :)

This is one of my daughter's favorite movies, so I bought her the book.

She claims it's a zillion times better than the movie.

Read it this summer :)

Forget the Movie!
I read "Forrest Gump" several year before it was ever made into a movie, and this is one of the only books in my entire life that has made me laugh out loud to the point of tears. The visual imagery, disregard for social convention, and utter creativity, innocence, and naivety of Forrest really presents a view of our society, our history, and the circumstances of our lives into a light heretofore unexperienced.

When I heard they were making a movie of the book, I immediately cringed because Hollywood revision is legendary--and in this department, Hollywood did not fail to live up to its reputation. The movie is hardly representative of the book. [In my mind, the actor I had in mind to play Forrest was a kinder, gentler, dumber version of Gary Bussey] As one reviewer mentioned, the movie somewhat follows the book until about halfway through, and then diverges off into something else entirely.

In the end, for all its beautiful complexities and commentary on the human condition, the movie was a huge disappointment (for me, at least). That isn't necessarily meant as a derogatory statement about the movie--it's meant to illustrate what an achievement the book really is.

Do yourself a favor: read the book and forget the movie. You'll be the better for it.

Book Review
This book was VERY different from the movie. I had to get myself out of the movie mindset to really begin to enjoy this well written, enjoyable book.