Forrest Gump

by Winston Groom

Paperback, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Series

Forrest Gump (1)

Genres

Publication

Black Swan (1994), 240 pages

Description

Meet Forrest Gump, the lovable, herculean, and surprisingly savvy hero of this remarkable comic odyssey. After accidentally becoming the star of University of Alabama's football team, Forrest goes on to become a Vietnam War hero, a world-class Ping-Pong player, a villainous wrestler, and a business tycoon -- as he wonders with childlike wisdom at the insanity all around him. In between misadventures, 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 ...

User reviews

LibraryThing member CorrieG

I have to respectfully disagree with the previous reviews I've read of this book, I enjoyed it way more than the movie, having found the satire in the novel way more biting (as opposed to the sweet nostalgia of the movie).

I read this book while commuting back and forth to work and embarrassed

myself more than once by laughing out loud, and also lent it my sister for her cross Canada train trip and she had the same problem.

I would highly recommend this novel however I would warn once again that the tone is very different than that of the movie.

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24 more

LibraryThing member RodV

I first read this book back when it came out back in 1986 and have re-read it several times since. I always said they should make a movie out of it, and when they did I was very excited...until I saw it. Movie adaptations are almost always inferior to their source material, so I won't belabor the

"book vs. movie" argument. So, moving on...Like Mark Twain via Voltaire, the book is essentially a very funny satirical adventure, borrowing the structure of Candide, lampooning the modern world as seen through the eyes of an "idiot." It's politically incorrect and laugh-out-loud funny. My first-edition copy is still a prized possession.

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LibraryThing member Crewman_Number_6

One of those rare occasions where the movie is much better than the book.

LibraryThing member Mmccullough

First half of this book is one of the funniest tales I have read.

LibraryThing member vzteacher

Warning - this book is considerably different from the movie. It's a little less touching and sweet, but just as funny! I also liked the sequel Gump & co.

LibraryThing member ShortyBond

Hilarious and heartwarming, though I think this is one of the only books where I can say I like the movie better.

Watch out for language. It's chocked full of it.

LibraryThing member andyray

Most fortunately, the novel is different than the movie. Not better or worse, just different. These differences show how both media can profit by their own creators.

LibraryThing member Embejo

I read this easy to read book quite quickly while on holiday. It was a bit disappointing to be honest. You know when you see a movie which is based on a novel you have read and you think to yourself “The book’s better” ? Well, in this case the movie is most definitely better.

Some of the book

reads like a kids joke book, the adventures Forrest had were quite ridiculous and I was unconvinced and bored. For example, the failed space mission in which a male orangutan named Sue caused the shuttle to crash and Forrest, Sue and Major Fitch landed in New Guinea right in the middle of a cannibalistic tribe. They were saved from being eaten by among other things, Forrest’s chess genius.

Disappointed. I wonder if I had read this book before seeing the movie whether I’d have a different opinion. As I read, the only redeeming point was that I could hear Tom Hanks’ outstanding performance in my head…

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LibraryThing member lindseyrivers

If I hadn't seen the movie first, I believe I would have liked the book a lot more. It's interesting to compare what was changed between the screen adaptation and the book. A fun, quick, light read.

LibraryThing member nanacci

This is a warm and funny story about a good-hearted young man from Alabama-Forrest Gump.

This story 's main character ,Forrest Gump 's is very excting!!!
He becomes a footballer,a soldier and goes into space.
He usually tried hard whenever he faced some problems.
I am very moved.

LibraryThing member doihachiro

This story tells about the unique life of the man.
He is very strange from other people, so he has many experience that is not seen our common life.

LibraryThing member Oogod

I hate seeing the movie before I read the book so the whole time I was reading this it was in Forrest's voice. I will say that Forrest is not the good little boy that the movie made him out to be.

LibraryThing member syunya

I had known the title of this book before I started to read the book because this movie was made into a movie. I can learn the real meaning of "idiot" from this story. The word doesn't means a person whose grade is bad. It really means a person who can't get something he/she wants most.

LibraryThing member libraryhermit

What I wish for the most in this world is that all of the people who do not have the gift to discern the underhanded scheming that often surrounds them. Otherwise how would they be able to escape from the evil that threatens them with so much craftiness

LibraryThing member hrissliss

First, let me just say this - EW. That is about the best response I can think of to this horrible piece of writing. Well, that and "Misogynist prick". Example: At one point in the novel, Gump goes up into space. He never actually explains why NASA would want an idiot savant rather than some number

crunching genius who is also able to parse a sentence correctly, but go figure. Gump goes into space with the first woman astronaut, and an orangutan. While this woman is up in space (keep in mind, to be the first female anything, you'd have to claw your way through the hierarchy of men, prove every step of the way that you are capable, and more than capable, of everything your male counterparts can do, focus all attention, etc) she isn't worried about collecting scientific data. Nope - she's worried about where she can do her makeup.
Yes. Because every woman, every where, is only worried about whether or not their lipstick is on straight.
My advice is watch the movie. Miss the book.

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LibraryThing member put

This is a very moving human story, and this became a movie.
Forest Gump tells people his life at the bus stop.
He had a disability on his feet in nature, so he was hated by his classmates.
But he got along with only one girl, Jenny.
One day he ran away from his classmate, and he learned to run!
Then,

this changed his life dramatically.

I was moved by his pure heart.
He did act according to his innocent feeling.
And his love for jenny is great.
I think people mustn't forget innocence.

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LibraryThing member ithilwyn

Ugh! One of the rare moments when the film was actually so much better than the book! Forrest is not nearly so loveable in this telling.

LibraryThing member Schmerguls

This 1986 novel bears no rsemblance to the movie. In the book Gump does all the stuff the movie character fantasizes about--is a football hero, wins the Medal of Honor, does space travel, is successful pro wreestler(as "the Dunce"), plays cahmpionship chess, becomes a millionaire. At first it was

funny but after about 50 pages it was fantasy and I have seldom had much longing for fantasy. So, the movie is better.

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LibraryThing member longhorndaniel

The book of course has more details than the movie but surprisingly the movie actually did a good job of following it

LibraryThing member AmberTheHuman

I read this long after I saw the movie (which I loved so much that when I saw it for the first time at a friend's house during a sleepover, I woke up the next morning and asked if we could watch it again, which we did. I suppose I shouldn't have been terribly surprised - I love Back to the Future

and Who Framed Roger Rabbit a ton). I was probably in college. I checked it out of the library - all they had were large print books. So there I am, reading a book about a mentally slow person ... in large print ... this might be offensive, but I started to feel a little slow myself. Anywho, this is the case of the movie being A THOUSAND times better than the movie ... kind of like with Roger Rabbit ... hm, there seems to be a theme here. Is there a book that Flight is based on? Perhaps I should skip it if there is and just see the movie (which, considering my fear of flying, doesn't seem like the best idea, but I probably will anyway).

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LibraryThing member datrappert

Forrest Gump the novel is not quite as good as Forrest Gump the movie, but Groom deserves a lot more credit for both than some, including the screenwriter, seem willing to give him.

LibraryThing member campingmomma

I couldn't finish this book. It was the first book into movie I've ever read where the book was horrible and had I read it first I would never had watched the movie which would have been sad because the movie is one of my favorites.

LibraryThing member Rosenstern

Run, Forrest! RUN! How many reviews of this book begin with that I wonder? It's a fun and funny book to read on a summer day when you're thinking of reasons to not go outside and face the giant orb of heat trying to cook you alive. We follow Forrest from his youth to his adulthood. He's a lovable

guy with less than the normal IQ but still manages to make way more money than I do. And more fame. Hell, if you don't know Forrest's story by now, I dunno what rock you've been under but get out of that silly place and pick up the book. PS- it's not based on true events (I saw the movie as a little kid and always imagined he was a real guy, out there still working at Bubba and Gump)

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LibraryThing member suzyblack

I am probably the only person in the Western Hemisphere who thought that this was perhaps the dumbest book ever written - I disliked the movie because I had read the book first, so the movie came off as almost as stupid as the book. In the book, Forrest and the ape, who had been shot into space and

crashed into the Amazon(?) among cannibals/head hunters, saved their own lives by teaching the cannibals to play chess - when they were put back into the pot to be cooked, they jumped out and ran directly into the arms of the CIA, who had been looking for them. WHAT? Please! Thankfully, this part was left out of the movie, which I suppose is what made it just a little less awful. SO - If I give it no stars, it won't look like I reviewed it. 1/2 star would be better, but I gave it one, since some people liked it, there must be some redeeming quality I just didn't see.

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LibraryThing member ComposingComposer

I really enjoyed this book. I did not like it quite as well as the movie, but that is not to say that it wasn't worth reading, because it totally was. It is a very funny book.

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