Gump & Co.

Rating:
Summary: Decent but nothing great
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Junius Maltby and the Monks of Clonmacnoise
Review: Ecstatic holy mind buzz cover to cover. What happens after Revelation? I nominate Gump & Co. for 67th chapter of the Bible.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, but missing sentimental values
Review: I didn't know that Forrest Gump was a book until my friend told me about the sequal. Well, I didn't think the first book could have differed that greatly from the movie, so I just read the second book. The heavy use of offensive language was definatly a surprise to me, concidering Forrest was looked on as so innocent in the movie. He is mentally handicaped, but i think ill also, because after Jenny dies, he sees her... but never her husband. Forrest is constantly ending up in jail, which, again, is surprising. It made him look totally irresponsible when it came to his son. He and his son had no real relationship. He was constantly around Jenny-- he couldn't keep away. But with little forrest, he barely sees him. Then end seemed thrown together at the last minute. I think Groom should have just skipped this midlife chrisis type-thing, and gone strait to Forrest as a grandfather to little Forrest's children. I sure hope the first book was not like this, because then the innocence he has in the movie is just completely unreal and fictious compared to the book. I would still recomend reading it, its not all bad. Its just much more humourious, and a lot less sentimental.

Rating:
Summary: Brings Good Laughs But Not Much Else
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Worst book I've read in ten years
Review: So I read this book after reading the first one since I bought both for about a buck plus shipping on Amazon. This has got to be one of the worst books I've read and the worst book I've read in the last ten years.
Groom throws Gump into one historical scandal after another without even trying to make it clever. Not to mention that there is no consistency with the first book.
When I went to read the Gump books, I thought that I would get a humorous but touching portrait of a mildly retarded gentleman, much like the movie. What I got was horse manure. I couldn't finish the damn thing.

Rating:
Summary: Father-son combo "and that's all I got to say about that."
Review: The two strong characters in this sequeal to "Forrest Gump", Forrest and Little Forrest, work together through a tough time of maturing for both of them. One of which is battling the times of a pretty normal teen age, and the other, who is trying to overcome the fact that he is just and idiot. Even though Forrest Gump admits he is an idiot, I believe that Mr. Groom is using this novel to help increase the I. Q. of Forrest or to raise the critics views of intelligence of him. From pig farming to door to door salesman, there is always something that goes wrong, and sometimes it isn't even Forrest's fault. Jenny's spirit or ghost assists Forrest through the novel, through the tough times and the good times she is there reminding him that he has a someone to look after and reminding him that he isn't an stupid idiot. And to Mr. Groom, I don't think this book was a mistake, even though "they still put rubber mats around spatoons!", and I do think someone should make a life story about you, and that you should let them! by J. Parish