Customer Reviews

Gump & Co.

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I bought both "Forrest Gump" and "Gump & Co." at the same time. After reading "Forrest Gump", I was quite excited to read the sequel. I was so excited in fact, that as soon as I put down "Forrest Gump", I started reading "Gump & Co." that same night. What a shocking disappointment! I always wondered why there was never a sequel to the movie, so I searched the net to discover that Winston Groom decided not to license the story. After hearing his tale of woe and learning about "Hollywood Accounting" (Winston Groom never saw a dime from the $380 million that the Forrest Gump movie made, due to what should be an illegal accounting practice known as Hollywood Accounting.) , I was not surprised he would not sell the story. It seemed to me that he took out his anger on Hollywood by using his pen to cut down all those with whom he has issue - politicians, hollywood actors and directors, and the military. On the other hand, he casts a happy light on those he loves most- simple people, simple things, and those with internal character (flaws and all). What it produced was a main character that, despite his best efforts to the contrary, is unable to grow as a person until the very end of the book. The whole story was formulaic, with hardly a surprise until the very end.

One of the most cleverly entertaining novels of the mid 80¡¯s was the original book by Winston Groom entitled ¡®Forrest Gump¡¯. However, that name was made famous not by the source novel but by the Academy award winning film that was based on it. It was not long before people begged for a sequel and Groom has acknowledged his fans, bringing the ever hilarious character back into the hearts of readers.
¡®Gump & Co.¡¯ is much of the same novel as the original, placing the unaware main character into various unbelievably comical situations. These include his involvement in the illegal Iran-Contra negotiations, his major accidental role in causing the riot that brought down the Berlin Wall, and his success in taking Saddam Hussein hostage during the Gulf Wars. Like the original novel, it tells the tale from the eyes of Forrest Gump and thus, Groom once again uses the narrator¡¯s dim perception of the world to bring even more humor and irony into the book as well as to address some major political issues concerning the war.
The one thing that brings this book down is that no matter how clever the novel turned out to be, most of the humorous situations presented in this book seems merely rehashed and recycled from the original novel and so no longer feels fresh. The emotional power from the first book is mostly gone and replaced with more toilet humor and bizarre nonsense. The outcome is an entertaining read that is something that all of the fans of the original novel can dig into and have many good laughs out of. However, it fails to be emotionally satisfying to the readers. While, the book does try to portray Forrest becoming a father, it ultimately sacrifices most of its length for more hilarity. Ironically, this is exactly what makes most movie sequels today just plain horrible. We can only hope a film won¡¯t be developed from this novel since it¡¯s already suffering from the infamous sequel syndrome on its own.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Forrest Gump" as well as seeing the movie. In fact, I still own copies of both. So when I found "Gump & Co." at a local used books store I was excited at the prospect of wrapping myself into the delightful world of Forrest Gump once again. Hey, there is even a review from Kinky Friedman right on the front cover so this must be good! How wrong that turned out to be! Forrest becomes the fall guy for every down turn event of the 80s decade. From New Coke to Iran Contra to the Exxon Valdez to meeting Tom Hanks (wherein Hanks blabs off some "Gumpisms" -- ugh!!!) to accidentally capturing Sadam Hussein. Give me a break! When the author had Forrest & Little Forrest getting tossed into the White Water scandal I finally decided I had had enough and I jumped to the last 2 pages. This was a waste of time. I have no doubt why there isn't a sequel to the Oscar winning movie.

This book just made me angry. It seemed as if the author took a history book and tried to come up with tie ins.

Gump & Co. is a good book. You'd have to read the first book (Forrest Gump) to get whet happens in this book. Winston Groom has a way of making every thing that he writes funny. Because Forrest Gump is "special in the head", he gets into trouble.
A very good book that most people should read.
four Star book

I though this book was totally oustanding! I have no idea why they did not make this book into a sequel to the movie. If this book is not as good as the movie, it might be even better!

What a terrible disappointment this book was. If Forrest hadn't coincidentally, and irritatingingly consistently, kept bumping into his old Vietnam buddies the already weak plot would have ground to an even slower crawl. Mr Groom has not done himself any favours here. Stick to the original and move on!

If you liked the first book, "Forrest Gump," you'll probably like the sequel, "Gump & Co." Following the formula of the first novel, which I would say was pretty interesting, there all kinds of new adventures and problems for Forrest Gump, the lovable idiot. Because of the movie, Winston Groom, who wrote the books, kills Gump's mother and Jenny Curran off at the beginning of the novel, and then uses Jenny as a ghost to advise and warn Forrest. Meanwhile, there is also little Forrest, who eventually accepts Gump as his daddy. In between, all kinds of things happen to Gump, including an exploding pig farm, the insider trading scandal with Ivan Boesky, Iran-Contra with Oliver North and Desert Storm, featuring Saddamn Hussein. Lots of laughs and enjoyment. I hear they might make a sequel movie out of the material, and that would be fine. So what's my final opinion of Forrest Gump? I would tell you, but "I got to pee."

Basically this book is a booring rehash of the first book. Groom was obviousely riding the success of the movie with this one. Well the story begins pretty much where the first book left off and Forest is rich... very rich. He meets up with little forest and the two have adventures that take them all over the country. Same basic stuff as in the movie, great feats, amazing luck, bla bla bla, but here here they are mostly just plain silly - like the part when he gets poop all over the town. It indeed is worth a couple laughs as this was the first time in my life that I actually laughed out loud while reading a book, but thats about it. The writing just seems rushed and tiresome. Nothing great here folks unless you're a big Gump fan.

This book has humor, sadness, happiness, and good 'ole Forrest Gump. Now trying to raise his son, it's a real thrill ride. Through all the ups and downs Forrest once again figures it out (with his low I.Q.) and goes straight to the big times. But it's not quite easy for him with a ruptured reputation (cool quote, wouldn't you say). Anyway, this is a MUST BUY. SO ORDER IT RIGHT NOW OVER AMAZON AND GET IT IN 24 HOURS. ITS WORTH IT. Sincerely, Forrest's biggest fan!