Life is Like a Box of Chocolates...

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My first initial thought about Forrest Gump, is that I've seen the movie who knows how many times and loved it. I actually had no idea that it was actually a book. But since I liked the movie so much, I figured why not read the book.

I knew from page one that this book was going to be a little difficult for me to get through just because of how it was written. It reminded me immediately of The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. I almost wanted to give up.

What bugged me the most about this book is that Forrest was portrayed to be dumber that what he actually was. The situations that he found himself in seemed to be a little ridiculous.

The NASA and New Guinea bit seemed to be a little far fetched. It was sloppily put together, in my opinion. There was no real point that stated how long they were there for until after they rescued. When it was disclosed that they were there for about 4-5 years, it came across as a little bit of a shock because I didn't get that impression at all. I actually thought they were there for 4-5 weeks at the longest.

I really liked that instead of out right saying that the president is Nixon, it's told through the things that he said. The protesters with the masks also gave a hint to his identity.

When I read fiction, I want to be able to forget that I'm reading something made up. I want it to feel like it's real. Like, no way a guy like Forrest goes through all of this. Maybe it's me that's being a little insensitive when I say that it seems a little odd that Forrest is just left to his own devices. I feel, that at some point, someone needed to assist Forrest. Especially after the first few incidents that he found himself in should have indicated to other people that he could not properly function all on his own. He needed some supervision. Because he was on his own for the most part, I feel like it led to more people taking advantage of him time and time again and made him look like a complete fool.

All in all, I still like the movie better. Everything seems to fit together better than the book and Forrest just seemed to be treated better in the movie adaptation. He was able to be portrayed as the guy with the heart of gold that Groom originally described him as.

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