Gump & Co.
by Winston Groom
Blurb:
by Winston Groom
Blurb:
The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. has gone bust and now Forrest is flat broke, sweeping floors in a New Orleans strip joint, when a fresh opportunity to play championship football puts him back in the limelight—and in the money. But fate turns fickle again, and he's soon out on the road selling phony encyclopedias and trying to raise his son, little Forrest, who needs his father more than ever.
Forrest's remarkable, touching, and utterly comic odyssey has just begun: in store for him is an explosive attempt at hog farming; his own dubious recipe for adding life to New Coke; an encounter with Oliver North of the Iran-Contra affair; and a chance yet again to unwittingly twist the nose of history.
My Reaction:
First things first: This was another "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" podcast/book club selection. Like all the others, it was a shared read with Donald. We'd both seen the movie before, but never read the first book. I vaguely remembered having heard that the movie veered sharply from the book, and I had the impression that it wasn't something I would enjoy. I'm not sure I even knew there was a sequel, but I wouldn't have cared if I had known.
There's not much to say about this one... It's just boring! As a native of coastal Alabama, it's vaguely interesting to see Mobile and one or two other local-ish places mentioned in the pages of a book, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly when there's nothing to back it up. Simply mentioning that a character is in Mobile doesn't exactly paint a picture. There's zero local color, unless you count Forrest's bizarre, exaggerated accent. There's no atmosphere of the South, in my opinion. (And one or two things about this book are rather insulting and annoying to me, as a born and bred Southerner. These are cheap choices that show a painful lack of imagination and creativity.)
There's not much to say about this one... It's just boring! As a native of coastal Alabama, it's vaguely interesting to see Mobile and one or two other local-ish places mentioned in the pages of a book, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly when there's nothing to back it up. Simply mentioning that a character is in Mobile doesn't exactly paint a picture. There's zero local color, unless you count Forrest's bizarre, exaggerated accent. There's no atmosphere of the South, in my opinion. (And one or two things about this book are rather insulting and annoying to me, as a born and bred Southerner. These are cheap choices that show a painful lack of imagination and creativity.)
Then there's the fact that the cover shows Forrest with his young son, so you expect that his son will play a large role in the story. That's misleading. Now, it's not that I loved "Little Forrest" or wanted more of the character in the book, but intentionally misleading covers irritate me.
Nothing about this lived up to my already modest expectations. The historical references are either dull or depressing, and there's precious little humor to be found in a book that's intended to amuse. It's a dud.
I'm sad to say that even the podcast didn't make this read particularly enjoyable. It seemed to be a struggle to find much to say about it, and-- eh, I'm just glad this one's over. Time for something different, thank goodness!
