Customer Reviews

What's Eating Gilbert Grape: A Novel

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a book that I wouldn't have read if it wasn't for my reading class. I am glad I chose to enjoy this book. This book is strongly recommended by me to anyone who is willing to release themselves from the big city life and into an imagination of a small town boy waiting to get out. I also recommend reading this book if you have already seen the movie because there is so much more detail in this book. The movie was based on the book, so if parts of the film were unexplainable read the book for better details and descriptions of the characters and their actions. The author of this book, Peter Hedges, attended the same school that I did, so it was really neat to be reading his work. The book also requires some added thought, and I suggest annotating the book for fun. It takes a little extra time but it is well worth it for the added knowledge and insight you get into Gilbert's fascinating life. Gilbert is a 24 year old small town boy who struggles to find his place in society. Through his affair with an older woman, being a father-figure to his family, and being an unexperienced lover, Gilbert Grape has plenty of new experiences in this book. His sister, Amy is also very independent, but is forced to take care of her siblings and mother as well. Both adults work hard to support their mother who is very obese and unable to leave the house, a brother, Arnie who is mentally challenged and always finds himself in some kind of mischief, and a sister, Ellen whose young teenage horomones are racing for men. A mysterious girl comes to Eldora, Iowa and leaves all the young men drooling. Gilbert learns a lot from this girl, how to let go, how to forgive, and how to show his emotions. Through all of Gilbert's pain and happiness, he learns about life through a whole new perspective and is less eager about leaving his small hometown.

"What's Eating Gilbert Grape" by Peter Hedges has long been popular with my peers while we were attending high school in the late 1990's. For some inexplicable reason, this book slipped by me in those years. Recently, though, a number of parents in the community of Carroll, Iowa (pop. ~10,000) declared the book 'inappropiate' mostly due to the sexual references in the book. With all the sudden publicity, my natural reaction was to read it for myself (many persons around me followed suit.)

Upon reading the novel, I finally discovered why this book connected with the rural youth that I grew up with. The characters in the book are easy to relate to: there are devout Christians with makeup caked on their faces, adulterers, handicapped persons that garner the sympathy of everyone, underage women that the men fantasize over, small business owners facing encroachment by corporate America, and the native who got out of town and thus became a smashing success. The hero, Gilbert Grape, desperately wants to leave his seemingly boring small town of Endora, Iowa, just as so many small-town kids dream of doing. Overall, it is funny and dark but a great coming of age story.

The passages that caused the great controversy in my own hometown were over-exaggerated. There are references to oral sex, masturbation, adultery, and promiscuity in the book; but these make the character seem more tangible and pale in the overall plot and message of the book. Many parents that deemed the book unfit for their teens admitted that they read only select lines. However, those who have read the whole book tend to look beyond those few lines and agree that Hedges' novel is a work of literature with a valuable message, and I could not agree more.

Peter Hedges' novel reminds me a lot of Larry McMurtry's early writings, such as HORSEMAN, PASS BY and LAST PICTURE SHOW. Both authors write character-driven books with meandering, sometimes barely discernible plots. Yet, both are able to weave a cast of quirky characters, slapstick comedic moments, and old-fashion melodrama into satisfying, touching coming-of-age stories. Plus, Hedges' prose is cleaner, sharper, and funnier. I can't count the number of times I laughed out loud while reading this book. And the ending was, as one critic put it, "totally luminous". It's hard to explain without ruining the story: The characters do something that, logically, doesn't make much sense, but emotionally you know it was just the right ending--an ending that will lead the characters to a new beginning.

I gave this book a five-star rating, with one caveat: If you like plot-driven stories, rather than character-driven, you may find this book drags in places.

Finally, let me say one thing about the movie, which is about the only publicity this book has gotten. The film is good; it's worth seeing if just to see Leonardo DiCaprio's wonderful portrayal of Arnie, a young retarded boy. However, read the book first. The characters are much better developed, and lots of the great comedy scenes unfortunately had to be omitted from the film due to time constraints. In fact, the movie deals mostly with the last 75 pages of the book.

I absolutely adored the movie, but as usual, it did not touch the sheer genius of the novel on which it was based. Peter Hedges knows just how to portray small town life in its tragicomic abundance. The story is both poignant and brazen, but most of all, completely honest. Nothing is held back here.
It is part love story, part life story, and really delves deep into the emptiness of a teenage boy (Gilbert Grape) trying to find himself in the small void known as Endora, Iowa.
I am not one to give summaries, but as a brief teaser, Gilbert Grape lives in a home with his morbidly obese mother, retarded brother, and his two sisters: one a spinster, the other an obnoxious pre-pubescent teen. He works as a bagger at a local market and is having an affair with a woman twice his age (who has two intensely bratty children and is married to the town's only insurance agent). The entire story is based around the upcoming 18th birthday of the "retarded" brother that no one thought would live past the age of 10. With these characters and then some, Peter Hedges has created the most tantalizing story about small town American life and how it CAN be survived.
Of the hundreds of books I have read, this is most definitely on my top five list. Highly and strongly recommended!

Take a trip to Endora, Iowa and spend some time with the Grapes. The Grapes are the local quirky family that everybody knows. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a novel written in clear prose that is chocked full of emotion. The novel is narrated by the skeptical and pessimistic Gilbert Grape. Gilbert is trapped in Endora by strong loyalty to his family. He is stuck in a going no where job and no relationship to speak of.

Gilbert provides the lens into the lives of the Grapes; who they are, and how they arrived at this point in their lives. With great detail we meet the matron of the family, Bonnie Grape. Once the most beautiful woman in Endora, she has succombed to eating herself to enormous proportions. Amy, the caretaker of the family needs a husband and a life beyond Elvis and sevice to her family. We also meet Ellen, the prettiest and most egocentric girl in Endora. Finally, and probably the most charming and insightful Grape is Arnie, the miracle of the family. He is mentally challenged, and was not suppose to live to see his eighteenth birthday. The Grapes also include the ones that got away - older brother Larry and sister Janice. Aside from the Grapes, the cast of characters are also witty and add depth to the story.

The Grape family are by all accounts odd and eccentric. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is centred around the Grape family as they anxiously plan the 18th birthday party of Arnie. This birthday party is more than just one occassion to celebrate, to each member the birthday party holds a different meaning.

More than the story of family angst, Hedges sets out to have Gilbert discover himself. A story rich with humour and laced with hardship and pain, tells the story of many families, far from perfect, but not quite broken. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a novel that will remain long after the pages are closed.

So you've seen the movie, and right about now, you're thinking about what a wonderful job Leonardo Dicaprio did playing Arnie. But unless you've read the book, you can't really give the credit where it's due -- to the amazing author who created this character with his first ever book, one that hits the reader hard with an emotional story about small-town life.

Why does What's Eating Gilbert Grape touch the reader as it does? Perhaps we'll never know. It is a simple story of a simple family, people living their lives almost entirely to get out of the small town where they have grown up. Surely this book speaks deeply to any person who has ever felt trapped by their past, their family, and any person who has strong ties to the people they love.

Peter Hedges is the author I want to be. Somebody who can make the boring small-town life of his characters into a heroic story of faith and family, one of sadness and loyalty, one of inspiration. This story is so tremendously real that it jerks the reader into a sense of life so big that you can't escape it.

Gilbert breaths life all around.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a novel that will "rip the bandage from your heart". It combines wit, passion and wisdom all delicately clothed in symbolism and things that are left un-said. Each event within this story is a reflection of the diverse characters that make up this poignant novel.....it will make you laugh and cry. Definately worth a read.

I read this book years ago (well before the movie) attracted by the Tom Sharpe-like cover cartoon (UK edition) and the review which described it as a cross between David Lynch and Grandpa Moses. What an excellent book! Few scenes in a book have affected me as much as Arnie swimming with Becky and the incredibly perfect ending. It's a book filled with hilarious, moving, surprising and true-to-life moments, often simultaneously, which I have often reread. The movie, though admirable (DiCaprio was exactly how I imagined Arnie) was nowhere near the perfection of this wonderful book. Very highly recommended

By now, most anyone who doesn't live under a rock has likely seen the film based on this book. The cast was great, the performances wonderful, (DiCaprio should have won the Oscar for this. Who didn't think, even briefly, how the director "got that boy to do those things?" Admit it!) and ultimately, we feel good about the ending in an uneasy Euro-flick sort of way. If you grew up in a small town, Endora is Your Town and Gilbert Grape is Someone You Knew. Do yourself a favor and read the book, but don't expect a feel-good read. Expect a window into the mind of an understandably jaded young man trying to make it through.

What the film can't deal with, really, is the broad scope and study of the characters. The book is darker than the movie, a sort of comedy bouncing along with discordant background music. It's funny and it's not, much like growing up in the dying Endora that Hedges describes. Anyone with a similar experience of Smalltown, USA will just nod, smile, and keep right on reading because the matter-of-fact narrative hits home page after page. The characters get peeled open for us, especially Gilbert, as he is the narrator. Mama Grape is less a tragic feel-so-sorry-for-her figure and more the self-absorbed, pitious shadow that looms over this family. Gilbert also has more darkness in him than Johnny Depp was given room to convey in the film, although he did a fantastic job piquing our interest.

What really is eating Gilbert Grape? Read this book and find out how the future doesn't immediately occur to someone whose present appears to be a prison.

If you have not yet read "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" I envy you because you get to read it for the first time. It is one of the great books of our time. It is very complex and contains really effective symbolism, yet it is also very, very down-to-earth. If you are 12, or 22, or 32, or 92, this book will be full of meaning to you. It is about the death of the small town, a troubled family, individualism, and many other themes. It is simply one of the best, if not the best, book I have ever read. The movie is also excellent.