Gump & Co.

Forrest Gump #2

by Winston Groom

Forrest Gump captured our hearts in the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Forrest Gump, and in the blockbuster film, winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor. Now he returns in the long-awaited sequel to the book hailed by Larry King as "the funniest novel I have ever read." A little older, and wiser in his unique way, Forrest is still running—this time straight into the age of greed and instant gratification known as the 1980s.

"Whenever I really get stumped, I go visit Jenny's grave. She tells me she's always rooting for me." 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.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Historical Fiction, Novels, Adventure, Comedy, Drama

242 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Winston Francis Groom Jr. was an American novelist and non-fiction writer, best known for his book Forrest Gump, which was adapted into a film in 1994. Groom was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Mobile, Alabama where he attended University Military School (now known as UMS-Wright Preparatory School). He attended the University of Alabama, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta and the Army ROTC, and graduated in 1965. He served in the Army from 1965 to 1969, including a tour in Vietnam. Groom devoted his time to writing history books about American wars. More recently he had lived in Point Clear, Alabama, and Long Island, New York.

Reviews

[BigTreesAndBigBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forrest Gump the movie is one of my favourite things in the world and I picked up this book expecting the same quirky humor and heartwarming feeling I get every time I see Tom Hanks playing this lovable character. This book was anything but those things.
It really pisses me off when you can just tell from a book that the writer didn't really want to write it and only did it for the money. Gump and Co. is one of those books, using the same predictable tropes again and again and not really having any plot at all.
The whole story can be summed up in one sentence really : Forrest needs money, gets job, is doing well, does something stupid, is chased out of the city, repeat. The whole book is really a pointless loop of the same situation, wether it's pig poop, encyclopedias or coca cola, the details change but what really happens never.
What also bothered me is that it had 10-year-old-cartoon logic. You know how in every cartoon you see the main character being the reason the nose fell off the Great Sphinx or made the Pisa tower lean a bit? The same thing happens here with Forrest being responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iran-Contra. I still sometimes enjoy seeing these kind of things in cartoons, but in books that like to take themselves a bit too seriously and are considered "clever","witty" and "wise" is a whole different thing.

[J.m. Darhower · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I never read the Forrest Gump novel, I heard this sequel picked up at the end of the movie and continued on from there... being as it's one of my favorite movies, I thought this was the perfect way to continue on with the characters (and admittedly, I was curious to know how he fared parenting). However, after reading it, I wish I could go back and unsee what I've seen in this book. Instead of making me enjoy the characters I loved so much, I found myself annoyed with them, their charm slowly wearing away with each page. I can safely say it's one of the few books I truly regret reading.

I gave it two stars and not one because there were some humorous moments. I laughed once or twice at the situations Forrest finds himself in, but after awhile even that got to be dull. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing... the repetitious plot proves it.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Gump & Co." is another thoroughly entertaining book. There is one note though, this book is not a continuation of the book "Forrest Gump", it was written after the movie's success and it actually continues the storyline from the movie, not the original novel.

If you liked the movie read "Gump and Co." after watching the movie. If you liked both the movie and "Gump and Co." then read "Forrest Gump" and view it as just an alternative life for the character Forrest Gump.

Forrest Gump is a great character and all three are worth your time.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basically, everything enjoyable about the novel Forrest Gump is missing in the sequel. I can't tell if it was a cheap attempt to cash in on the movie's success (being it was written a couple years later) or if the first one was lightening in a bottle. Whereas in the first novel, Gump finds himself being in the right place at the right time and usually comes out the better for it, in the sequel everything goes the opposite. I can't imagine how he doesn't just kill himself, considering how every single problem he gets into leaves him worse off than before. The bigger problem is that he never learns a thing. There is stupid, and there is just plain useless.

There is also the problem that in the first book, generally speaking, the events Gump finds himself a part of are not necessarily significant - he is a cog in the machine, albeit a lucky one. In the sequel, he is the cause and central contributor to some of the most notable events of the 1980s, including Iran-Contra and the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's so outlandish that it just seems contrived.

Finally, the constant re-introduction of the same characters over and over in Gump's life is silly. None of them are really that special that they couldn't be replaced with someone new, and running into them in the absolute most ridiculous circumstances time and again feels cheap. Skip this book, please.

[Niko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read-along with the podcast 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back.

This book was nearly identical to the first book in structure. I suspect Winston Groom drafted most of the chapters by repeatedly filling out a Mad Libs.


Chapter [Number]:

Forrest Gump stumbles ass-backward into [historical event], meets [period-appropriate important person], runs into [recurring character], and [verb for an embarrassing act]s in front of [other period-appropriate important person]. The public reacts [adverb], and the media describes Gump as a [synonym for "moron"]. His [loved one] reacts with [synonym for shame] and [synonym for anger].

[Phil Criswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Life is a box of chocolates, and I got a brussels sprout

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first book was witty, fun to read and they made a movie out of it you either hated or liked. Then came the academy awards where it won a slew of Oscars and not one member of the cast and crew thanked the author for whom this movie would never have ever been created. So, in a fit of pique (or so it's said), he wrote a sequel vowing to make it completely impossible to film. The result was a mess with little to no plot or pacing and to fit as many events and incidents as possible to the point of unreadable. Every other page Gump gets into another adventure or incident, leaving the previous predicament he was in making you wondering what the hell happened. Awful, awful book.

[J Jahir · Rating 4 out of 5]

libro genial, pero realmente, muy cruel. si se han visto las películas sabrán que la historia que nos ha cautivado a todos, Forrest gump, es completamente diferente que en los libros. Ríes, pero este libro no es tanto de comedia sino de drama y desventuras.
Su vida se vuelve un inffierno total y absoluto desde que cae la empresa de camarones, pero ahora tiene la ayuda de alguien: su hijo.
Recuerdo que aquí me quedé un poco en plan investigador porque todo lo acontecido en los sucesos que se cuentan (varios de historia) son alterados de manera que forrest sea el protagonista directo. ¿quién no recuerda la gran catástrofe del EXXON Valdéz? pues sí señores, aquí ponen al gran forrest como el culpable de ella, cuando en el hecho real por obvias razones no ocurre así . Eso no me disgustó, pero también winston se pasó, le puso que le pasara de todo! y te das cuenta de la imagen real y de cómo en realidad lo veía la gente. se mire por donde se le mire, sufría de discriminación.
Menos mal que al final todo tenía que acomodarse.
un libro que además es corto, y del cual seguramente no conocías siquiera que existían estos libros, pero sí. así que léelos si te disfrutaste la peli de forrest actuada por tom hanks.

[Nešo Shonery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kad sam Pročitao Foresta Gampa, te saznao da postoji i dalje, morao sam što pre da reagujem i da pročitam nastavak priče.
Forest je bankrotirao i ponovo kreće od nule. Opet je menjao zanimanja, nekoliko puta bio na korak da ponovo postane uspešan, ali bi svaki put slučajno izazvao neku katastrofu. Susretao se raznim facama, bio učesnik (često i pokretač) svetskih događaja. Istovremeno, pokušava da izgradi kakav takav odnos sa sinom… Koliko sam bio oduševljen originalnom pričom, toliko mi je ovaj nastavak osrednji.

[Traugott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading it for the 372 pages podcast. If I had this as a physical copy and not an e-book, I would've tossed the book across the room at the scene where there's a riot started because of bad tasting "New Coke". What a load of bullc... I am sure there will be many more book tossing moments.

But even apart from that, the book is incredibly hard to read. English isn't my native language, so reading everything in an accent other than my own is incredibly hard for me. All I can hear in my head is some stereotypical white dude from the most remote village in Alabama, with a very heavy accent, and it makes my jaw hurt trying to read everything in this voice. It's just not a very pleasant read.

EDIT: Now that I have finished reading this book I have to downgrade my initial rating of 2 stars to 1 star. The book drags on and on, recycles all the same jokes and even all the same characters over and over again and gets dumber the longer it drags on. It is only 240 pages long, but it sure feels like a thousand pages.
Not only does Winston Groom just "name drop" historical events and puts Forrest into it and pretends it was Forrest who was responsible for them. The single most stupid thing is Forrest being responsible for the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. How did he do it? Why, by kicking a football over the wall into a stadium where the final of the Football (soccer) World Cup finals between the GDR and the USSR was taking place (not only did that never happen, there also was no WC final in 1989 as it is an event that takes place once every 4 years). Then he climbs the wall, somehow manages to not step on any landmines, runs into the stadium, gets his ball back and runs back. Again, without stepping on landmines and without being shot. Then like 100k spectators run after him (again, no landmines, no shots fired) and in an desperate attempt to catch him people just start tearing down the wall? Is this supposed to be funny? I really don't know.

But Groom manages to outdo himself by adding Bill and Hillary Clinton into the book for no reason at all. It's a single chapter, nothing of importance happens and it is never mentioned again. The chapter has no function other than to pad the word count and enabling the author to say "hohohoho, I put Bill and Hillary Clinton into my book, hohohohoho! Stick it to da man, hohohohoho!"

Overall, this book should have ended after chapter 3 or 4, because until then it was mostly harmless.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gump & Co. Is a novel written by Winston Groom and released in 1995

The sequel to the novel 'Forest Gump' finds our protagonist losing his fortune when the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company goes bankrupt. Forest has to find a way to earn a living while trying to raise Little Forest. Forest finds himself in many of the 1980s biggest news stories: New Coke, the Iran-Contra Affair, insider-trading on Wall Street, Jim Bakker's failed Christian theme park Heritage USA, The Exxon-Valdez oil spill, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Gulf War.

The whole reason I read the novel 'Forest Gump' was because I learned of this sequel and understood it wasn't a sequel to the movie, but the novel. Well now I wish I had never heard of, or read, either. There a few comical moments throughout the books but most of it just Forest finding himself in the most impossible situations and making an ass of himself in the most grand way possible. He is not the lovable character he is in the movie. The book even gets meta by having him meet Tom Hanks and going to the premier of the movie based on his life. The book is extremely repetitive with Forest jumping from one event to the next and running into many of the characters from the first novel. It basically even has the same ending. Unless you are the biggest of Forest Gump fans, just skip this.

[Colleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Annoying and awful. Words are actual spelt like this as if a stoopid southern Forrest was speakins it. An for every and, ever for every, ast for asked, I couldn't stand it, so unnecessary, even from his POV. The story is a kid's picture book for adults, formulaic and repetitive. I really doubt the original Forrest Gump novel was written so poorly, because no one would have looked at it twice and turned it into my favorite film of all time. The ending was getting cute and a good wrap up, but it turned even stupider with a fake scene from the 1995 Oscars where he was invited on stage when the movie won Best Picture! Ridiculous. Once I started I had to finish, but I'm going to forget I read this.

[Bridget Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not read the first book but have seen the movie. Knowing how the movie was I knew this book would be the same way and I enjoyed it because I knew how the book was going to go. I read a lot of bad reviews for this book; however, if you know what kind of book you are getting into, they shouldn't have so many negative comments, they should have known better. It was a light book full of the many nuisances of Forrest Gump. One annoying thing I didn't like was that Forrest kept getting into these situations where it would start out really successful for him and then it would go bad and after so many of these incidents, it gets repetitive.

[Leif · Rating 2 out of 5]

I disliked the first Gump book so much that I didn't bother finishing it. The Forrest Gump in the first novel isn't Tom Hanks...he is a total fool who is VERY difficult to find common ground with.
That said, I loved the movie (as a child), so I thought I would give the next book a shot.

Not bad, but really not that good. Gump fucks up so much that I started to really dislike him, much like in the first novel. The only difference? I finished this one.

[Bryan Woerner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forrest ends up causing some pop culture/historical moment by accident and gets run out of town. Rinse and repeat. Not as charming as the movie, but from what I understand neither is the book the movie is based on.

Why Larry King thought this was funny is beyond me?

Only real aspect about it is Colonel Oliver North is actually an idiot.

FYI: I read this as part of the 372 Pages podcast

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, quick read. I read a review that said it was based on the movie and not the first book but not true. There was a very brief movie tie in but it had no influence on the story. 3 1/2 stars.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was better, I thought. Maybe because of the lack of preconceptions. I would have preferred it to be a little less ridiculous but I like the shape of what it could have been.

[Louise Corrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great lies our culture tells us is that people just automatically love the book better than the movie. Well, Winston Groom’s version of Forrest Gump proves otherwise. This is because people actually experienced the movie version first. A year after the movie this sequel to the original book was published, which of course followed Groom’s version. But people weren’t really interested in Groom’s version. Groom’s had more in common with Mark Twain’s Huck Finn. I haven’t read the first one yet but this second one is a fine satire. It covers the same kind of famous event hopping as the movie featured, but a version of Gump who isn’t saintly, and who thoroughly dominates the narrative, so that even all the dialogue from other characters feels like it’s still just Gump telling his stories to someone. I like this Gump! I like this Little Forrest. I like this Jenny! And Lieutenant Dan is here, and his further adventures are as different and interesting as Gump’s, from the movie version, and, well, you really just need to read it. People didn’t rush out to read the Groom original (all they did was buy it, which is what most of these readers ever really do) and they ignored this because without having read that it could only be baffling to people who’ve read little enough. Anyone who has read around will easily see this as a treasure.

[Mohit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a heart warming sequel of Forrest Gump, the book/movie which melted withins of so many people around the world.

Written by the same, gifted author, Winston Groom, this book takes the story of Forrest further, exactly from where it ended in the last part. Jenny is still rooting for him from her grave but everything else that was good in his life has come tumbling down, including but not limited to the world famous shrimp company. Little Forrest is growing up and Forrest senior is most definitely worried, even with an IQ of 70, about his well being. Thus he tries to re start his life over (and again) and this is what this book is all about.

This book again is a testimony of Hope and Goodness. Forrest Gump is one of my most favourite fictional characters and am glad that he is alive in so many ways through his books and movies. I hope a movie is made on this one as well and I hope Tom Hanks again plays this affable part to the T. I also hope that this original Ove outlives everyone :)))

Much love. Run Forrest Run …

[Noora · Rating 1 out of 5]

Olipas melkoinen pettymys tämä jatko-osa. En muista ykkösosaa kovin hyvin - vain sen, että se ei ollut yhtä toiveikas ja herttainen kuin elokuva - mutta se oli kuitenkin luettava ja ihan viihdyttävä. Tämä kakkososa tuntui taas aivan väkisin väännetyltä eikä siinä oikeastaan tapahtunut mitään niin järisyttävää, että se olisi pitänyt ehdottomasti kirjoittaa. Juoni on pähkinänkuoressa seuraava: Forrest Gump yrittää parhaansa ansaitakseen elantonsa eri hankkeilla ja epäonnistuu kerta toisensa jälkeen. Siis ihan koko ajan. Lannistavaa, puuduttavaa ja masentavaa luettavaa. Turhauttavaa myös, koska tuntui vahvasti, että lukijaa aliarvioidaan: epäonniset tapahtumat ja katastrofit vain seurasivat toisiaan liukuhihnalta ja täysin ennalta-arvattavasti. Näin kyllä rivien välistä, että tämän oli kaiken lisäksi myös tarkoitus olla hauska, mutta eipä naurattanut. Olin suorastaan helpottunut, kun kirja vihdoin loppui, eikä tämä ollut edes pitkä! Täysin turha jatko-osa, rahastuksen makua.

[Sergei Ter-Tumasov (Սերգեյ Տեր-Թումասով) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Парадокс - первой части я поставил "пятёрку" (немного натянул), а этой - "единицу"!!! А всё потому, что вторая часть буквально один в один повторяет первую (только Дженни заменили на Форреста младшего, а креветок на устриц)!!! Плюс очень много бранных слов (думаю, что в первой части их тоже было предостаточно, просто советская цензура их вырезала).

[Jānis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Šoreiz es smējos nedaudz mazāk, kā lasot pirmo grāmatu, bet laba bija vienalga. Nedaudz traucēja pārpiesātinājums ar dažādiem notikumiem, bet Gamps ir Gamps - tas viņam talants. Prieks par grāmatu, bet labi, ka nav nākamās, jo vairāk nevajag :D

[Dash Hooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A substandard follow up to Forrest Gump. At times it felt as if he forced Forrest into situations instead of letting them happen naturally and organically like the first novel. Read it if you are a completist if not you can pass it by.

[Hope Alden · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know I did not enjoy the first book very much so yes it’s on me that the second one was also not very good but I was hoping maybe there was a slight improvement, but there really wasn’t with this. There is a similar lack of plot or meaning, just a bunch of a silly a bit ridiculous storieswould not recommend.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pokračování Forrestova životního příběhu, tam kde skončila první kniha i film. Dobré, ale už ne tak okouzlící a originální jako "první část".

[Irene Azuaje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me reí muchísimo, aunque tuvo sus partes cruds tamblién.

[Bart Van Den Berg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ik heb spijt dat ik dit boek gekocht en gelezen heb… Wat hebben ze een fantastische film weten te maken van deze twee schijtboeken. Niet openslaan! Beter nog een keer genieten van de film, want dit maakt alles kapot wat warm in je gedachte zit.

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entistä hullumpaa menoa "et kuitenkaan usko" -tyyliin. Forrest tapaa tässä muuten Tom Hanksin, joka lupaa tehdä leffan hänen elämästään.

[Emily Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

quick read, fun and light!