By Winston Groom

Rating: Three out of five stars

World-Famous Three-Word Review: Different from movie.

Forrest Gump is a book?

I got this question on multiple occasions while reading Forrest Gump the Book. Everyone has seen Forrest Gump the Movie. It’s part of American culture. Strangely, not as many people have read the book. Or even heard of it.

Of the few people who have read the book, many claim that the movie is actually better than the book. This is unusual since the book is usually always better than the movie.

I can’t argue that either the book or film is better than the other.

They are simply different.

I could spend this entire review simply explaining the vast differences between them. Honestly, the book is almost worth a read simply to examine the differences between the two versions of the story.

The book is much more satirical than the film. Forrest is painted as a savant who runs headlong from one predicament to the next.

During the course of the novel, he is trapped on a deserted island, thrown in prison, launched into space, unwittingly sexually assaults a number of women and becomes addicted to drugs. He becomes an actor, a musician, a professional wrestler and a champion chess player.

The movie softens some of those edges and makes Forrest into a clean-cut American hero.

Here’s an even less known fact — after the movie was released, Winston Groom published a sequel entitled Gump and Co. It contains a cameo by Tom Hanks and has been in discussions to also be made into a film.

One final observation — Winston Groom is a name in line with Forrest Gump in terms of oddity.