Gump & Co. by Winston Groom

If you're like me you're surprised to hear that there's a sequel to one of America's most heart-warming stories, Forrest Gump. Winston Groom originally wrote Forrest Gump (1986) and then agreed to the movie deal (1994). Following the release of the film, Groom released his sequel to the story in 1995, Gump & Co.

There are many new, wonderful adventures in store for Forrest Gump in this second book. For example, he invents a new Coca-Cola product, works on a pig farm, meets Lieutenant Dan and Sue (his orangutan I mentioned from the first book) again, joins the army again in World War I, meets the President, unknowingly becomes President of an insider trading business, meets Tom Hanks (the actor portraying Forrest in the 1994 film) and embarks on many more adventures, disasters and experiences. Needless to say, Forrest is still not the Forrest we know from Hollywood. However, he is the father I wanted so badly to see.

The book is begun with the death of Jenny and his mama. There's hardly any time dwelt on either of these occurrences but throughout the book Forrest sees Jenny in times of need and hears her advice. Forrest must raise "Little Forrest" no matter the distance between them. It proves a challenging but fruitful task and became the most treasured part of the entire novel for me.

I struggled a bit with Forrest Gump meeting Tom Hanks. Having seen the film before reading the first book, I already had a Forrest in mind before reading the first page. I'm not sure how my brain survived the collision on these two figures across the span of pages they shared, but it was difficult.

The "shrimpin' bidness" started in the first book fails tragically to environmental factors and a crooked accountant runs off with the remaining millions. However, by the end of this second book, Forrest starts up an oyster business in the same area he "struck gold" with shrimp. The story ends sweetly with the oyster business finding success, Forrest raising one of the brightest young men and being the best friend to all he's met along the way.

If you want to know what the creator of Forrest intended for Forrest following the film's release, read this book. Though it's impossible to take off from the film since the book was so very different, Groom does his best to tie them together in this second, and final story; thus ends the tale of Forrest Gump, fiction and film.

If you love Forrest Gump, you should check out the:

• Book
• Sequel: Gump & Co.
• Restaurant: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
• Soundtrack
• Movie

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

In a mere 2.25 days, I opened and closed the book Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. As you may already know, Forrest is an idiot-savant and goes through the book and movie telling us his account of life - we're invited to see things through his eyes. The book takes us through multiple time periods in U.S. history and is a pure delight to devour.

The book, as you might imagine, is very different from the movie. In the book Forrest demonstrates his savant capabilities in the following ways, to name a few:

• His chess skills are out-of-this-world
• His ping-pong capabilities over-shadow most
• He can wrestle like none you've ever seen
• He's the best dang quarterback in the region
• He's a natural master physician and mathematician

However the movie hardly illustrates much more than ping-pong and rifle assembly/dis-assembly. Here are a few more differences. In the book...

• Mama nor Jenny pass away
• Lieutenant Dan doesn't help start the "s'rimpin bidness"
• There is no wedding and no Lieutenant Dan with shiny new legs
• Forrest wins $10,000 in wrestling
• Forrest auditions for a Hollywood movie
• Forrest goes to space in a rocket (and New Guinea as a result)
• Forrest has a male orangutan named Sue
• Forrest runs for senate with the slogan, "I gotta pee!"

I'll stop there but at this point you may be asking yourself, "So what DO they have in common?" For the most part, you'll have to read it. However, they do share themes. Innocence, seeing the world through eyes of another, courage, sheer luck and the hard lesson of life and death. The joy of reading this book was well worth the shock of variation between itself and the movie based upon it. I know you'll enjoy an almost entirely different tale of Forrest Gump as I did when you're tangled in the pages, unable to set it down. 

If you love Forrest Gump, you should check out the:

• Book
• Sequel: Gump & Co. (and my review!)
• Restaurant: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
• Soundtrack
• Movie