Pretty
much everybody thought “Forrest Gump” was a silly, stupid book/movie. Then again the world is full of stupid
readers and silly film-goers, so why not Gump-II: History Revisited Again?
I’m
sorry to say that I won’t be able to use any of the standard phraseology of
critical literary review: the elements of literature are totally missing in
this 400-page spoof. It would be like
trying to review an edition of “Mad Comic Books”. I used to love MAD. It was a great, fun read, … .. when I was 13.
.
I’m sorry that we were subjected to this tripe. I rarely say that it was a waste of
time. I usually find that the author
tried to write something of value and simply failed in their endeavor. This author was writing as a
stoned-13-year-old, simply wanting to snub his nose as authority, politics, the
world, and anyone over 14.
Possibly I’m objecting too much because I’ve spent the last 63 years of
my life being over 13. I actually had to
have a job at 14 in order to buy hamburgers, cokes, and car parts. I’ve been around for most of Jonasson’s “history”. A few dare-devils in my high-school class
drove dynamite trucks, summers, for Kaiser-Permanente in west San Jose; I
worked in a machine shop.
OK, I’m going to chill. 2,000,000
bought his book, then again, 99.97% of the world’s population didn’t buy his
book. There will always be crap out
there on the remainder tables; I’m always for giving people shots at succeeding
as authors. Let there be 20 bad books
for every good one [Julia Grass has a good one out there right now – Sacred Night],
but as a library reader’s group (implicitly somewhat literate), possibly a
community leader in book selections], let us hope that we often pick and read
the good ones.
I found no redeeming merits for having this book as a Sonoma County
Library recommended read. In fact I find
it embarrassing that an SCL selection committee would stamp their approval on
this book. In makes a mockery of SCL’s and
the Foundation’s management capability to oversee libraries and advise patrons
on issues of literacy.
