Publisher Description

THE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED THE 1994 OSCAR-WINNING FILM STARRING TOM HANKS.'Rollicking, bawdy' People'Superbly controlled satire' Washington Post'Joyously madcap' Publishers WeeklyDiscover the bestselling novel that inspired the classic Oscar-winning film._______________________________It's Forrest Gump as you've never seen him before, but just as lovable as ever.At 6'6", 240 pounds, Forrest Gump is a difficult man to ignore, so follow Forrest from the football dynasties of Bear Bryant to the Vietnam War, from encounters with Presidents Johnson and Nixon to powwows with Chairman Mao. Go with Forrest to Harvard University, to a Hollywood movie set, on a professional wrestling tour, and into space on the oddest NASA mission ever.The wonderfully warm, savagely barbed, and hilariously funny novel that inspired iconic film starring Tom Hanks.______________________________What readers are saying-'A brilliant read''Loved the book just as much as I loved the film''Very well written and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish'

Notes

>Forrest Gump< is the major new film starring Tom Hanks. A blockbuster in America, the film opens here in October, and Transworld have high hopes for their tie-in titles. This is the original novel and is published as a Black Swan. They are also publishing a humour tie-in as a Corgi Original (see below), and both books will be promoted heavily.

Back Cover

'Bein' an idiot is no box of chocolates' Forrest Gump Laugh, cry, stand up and cheer: Forrest Gump is everyman's story, everyman's dream. A wonderfully warm, savagely barbed, and hilariously funny 'tale told by an idiot', from the razor-sharp pen of a contemporary wizard. No one is spared and everyone is included. If you've ever felt lacking, left out, put upon - or just wanted to have a rollicking good time - this book is for you. At 6'6", 240 pounds, Forrest Gump is a difficult man to ignore, so follow Forrest from the football dynasties of Bear Bryant to the Vietnam War, from encounters with Presidents Johnson and Nixon to powwows with Chairman Mao. Go with Forrest to Harvard University, to a Hollywood movie set, on a professional wrestling tour, and into space on the oddest NASA mission ever. Forrest Gump lives! Thank heavens!

Author Biography

Winston Groom wrote the acclaimed Vietnam War novel Better Times Than These, the prize-winning As Summers Die, and co-authored Conversations with the Enemy, which was nominated for a 1984 Pulitzer Prize. He was also the author of the No.1 New York Times bestsellers Forrest Gump and Gumpisms- The Wit and Wisdom of Forrest Gump.Winston Groom lived in New York City and Point Clear, Alabama. He died in September 2020.

Review

Forrest Gump is line bred out of Voltaire and Huck Finn; its humour is wild and coarse, a satire right on the money. It is not the less honest for being so funny, for bringing the woebegone archangels of our culture and history to judgement. Anyone who doesn't read this book deserves to spend the winter in North Dakota -- Jim Harrison
A superbly controlled satire * The Washington Post *
Rollicking, bawdy... A good time... Poking fun at everything * People *
Winston Groom has created the ideal citizen for the modern world - a perfect idiot -- P.J. O'Rourke
Joyously madcap * Publishers Weekly *

Kirkus US Review

The usually reliable Groom (Better Times Than These, Conversations with the Enemy) turns as gawky and ham-handed as his hero - Forrest Gump, contemporary American idiot - in this stumbling, droopy-drawered attempt at a picaresque novel. The narrator is Gump himself, of Mobile, Alabama, 6'6", 242 pounds, and all idiot: "I've been a idiot since I was born. My IQ is 61, which qualifies me, so they say." And off we go, Gump starring as a self-consciously literary half-wit (he's a fan of Lennie and Boo Radley) while Groom makes Statements about America. After surviving a poor-white-trash childhood that would've destroyed better men (such as, say, Benjy), Gump is plucked from obscurity by Coach Bear Bryant and taken to play football at the University of Alabama. His teachers there discover he's an idiot savant - he can't pass Gym 101, but he knows the theory of relativity like nobody's business. Before they can exploit him, however, he flunks out, gets drafted and sent to Vietnam, and wins the Congressional Medal of Honor, mainly because he's too dumb to be afraid. After a publicity tour which takes him as far as China, he leaves the Army and goes through a hippy/protest phase (the freaks think he's, yuk-yuk, far out) but gets busted when he throws his Medal over the White House fence during a demonstration. The authorities give him a choice: he can have permanent hospitalization as a dangerous moron, or he can take his computer brain on a secret NASA space flight ("Look," I tell him, "I am just a idiot"). He crashlands in New Guinea, spends four years playing chess with a Yale-educated cannibal, then is rescued and taken to a crude caricature of President Nixon for congratulations: "I am your commander-in-chief. I am not a crook. I do not lie!" After this, it's the dismal 70's, and Gump tries his hand at professional wrestling, tournament chess, and shrimping, before settling happily down as a street musician in New Orleans. A heavy-handed, one-joke (Forrest confounds and frustrates various teachers, coaches, Army sergeants, and Presidents) sort of novel which is, finally, a cheat: Forrest, after all, isn't really an idiot - he's simply a country boy who doesn't test well. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review Text

Forrest Gump is line bred out of Voltaire and Huck Finn ; its humour is wild and coarse, a satire right on the money. It is not the less honest for being so funny, for bringing the woebegone archangels of our culture and history to judgement. Anyone who doesn't read this book deserves to spend the winter in North Dakota

Review Quote

Forrest Gump is line bred out of Voltaire and Huck Finn ; its humour is wild and coarse, a satire right on the money. It is not the less honest for being so funny, for bringing the woebegone archangels of our culture and history to judgement. Anyone who doesn't read this book deserves to spend the winter in North Dakota

Promotional "Headline"

THE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED THE 1994 OSCAR-WINNING FILM STARRING TOM HANKS.

Details