美国国家公共电台 NPR Why It Took 'Forrest Gump' Author Nearly 20 Years To Write A New Novel

Why It Took 'Forrest Gump' Author Nearly 20 Years To Write A New Novel

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Winston Groom² made his name with the 1986 novel "Forrest Gump." It didn't become a bestseller until the movie came out almost a decade later. And that's when Groom stopped writing fiction - until now. His first novel in nearly 20 years is out tomorrow, it's called "El Paso" and it's set during the Mexican Revolution. Tom Vitale brings us this profile of the author.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE³: When Winston Groom was at the University of Alabama, he joined the ROTC. When he graduated in 1965, he ended up in the 4th Infantry⁴ Division in Vietnam.

WINSTON GROOM: It like being in a year-long car wreck⁵, it's traumatic. And I had wanted to write but I didn't have anything to write about until I got back. And I thought well, at least I've done this. Let's see if I can make some sense of it. And I wrote my first book called "Better Times Than These." And it did well. And I was off and running.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FORREST GUMP")

HANNA HALL: (As Young Jenny Curran) Run, Forrest, run. Run, Forrest.

VITALE: Groom wrote two more books about Vietnam before he started working on the story that would make him famous, about an intellectually disabled, kind-hearted man who is witness to big events in American history. Eight years after it was published, "Forrest Gump" became a film that went on to win six Oscars, including one for its star, Tom Hanks.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FORREST GUMP")

TOM HANKS: (As Forrest Gump) Do you want a chocolate? I could eat about a million and a half of these. My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

GROOM: I think that every novelist of the kind of novels that I write has in them maybe one really good book. But the trouble with so many novelists is that they keep on writing novels even when they run out of ideas. It's not that they can't write well. So I was thinking after the commercial success of "Forrest Gump," that I didn't really have any ideas that really grabbed me.

VITALE: So Groom turned to history. He wrote non-fiction books about the Civil War, the American West, the two world wars, a history of aviation and a history of Alabama football. But there was one idea for a novel that stuck in Groom's head. He says a friend and distant cousin of J.P. Morgan, Eddie Morgan, used to talk about his family's million-acre cattle ranch⁶ in northern Mexico, and how Pancho Villa⁷ attacked it in 1916.

GROOM: And he did indeed go to the Morgan ranch and strung up the ranch manager and had him sabered to death and kidnapped his children. These were stories that Eddie would regale⁸ me with at the Knickerbocker Club in New York City. And it just occurred to me that I could make something of this.

VITALE: Groom has made a sprawling⁹ 447-page novel out of it called "El Paso." It follows a railroad tycoon¹⁰ on a manhunt across the High Sierras to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren from Pancho Villa. And, as in "Forrest Gump," the made-up characters interact with historical figures. Lt. George S. Patton leads his troops into Mexico in pursuit of Villa. Sympathizers who show up in Villa's camp include the cowboy movie star Tom Mix, the socialist¹¹ journalist John Reid and the Civil War story writer Ambrose Bierce. In this scene, Groom imagines the consequences after Bierce criticizes Villa's attack on Americans.

GROOM: (Reading) If a man is born under the wrong star, said Pancho Villa, it will shine upon his ass¹² always, even while he is seated. Bierce was pondering this when Villa stuck the derringer between Bierce's eyes and pulled the trigger.

VITALE: Bierce actually did go to Mexico in search of Villa, and he was never heard from again. And while Groom has filled in history's blank spaces with fiction, William Giraldi, who writes about literature for the New Republic, says nothing seems phony in the novel.

WILLIAM GIRALDI: The kind of viciousness and bloodshed you see in "El Paso" is true to this time and to the kind of conflict that you see playing out when the revolutionary meets the capitalist - blood will happen.

VITALE: A lot else happens. As the characters crisscross the northern Mexico desert, they encounter a grizzly¹³ bear, witness a bloody¹⁴ bullfight and experience the great monarch¹⁵ butterfly migration¹⁶. Winston Groom says the first thing he wants to do is to entertain his readers.

GROOM: I want them to go away saying that's a hell of a good story. I enjoyed reading it, I'm glad I read that and I learned something. And if nothing else, I got a lot about what was going on in northern Mexico and in the United States around the year 1916.

VITALE: Winston Groom says he doesn't consider writing work. It's what he likes to do. And the 73-year-old author certainly doesn't have to work. His novel "Forrest Gump" has sold 1.7 million copies worldwide. For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 groom   

vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁

参考例句：

• His father was a groom.他父亲曾是个马夫。
• George was already being groomed for the top job.为承担这份高级工作，乔治已在接受专门的培训。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 infantry   

n.[总称]步兵(部队)

参考例句：

• The infantry were equipped with flame throwers.步兵都装备有喷火器。
• We have less infantry than the enemy.我们的步兵比敌人少。

5 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

6 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

7 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

8 regale   

v.取悦，款待

参考例句：

• He was constantly regaled with tales of woe.别人老是给他讲些倒霉事儿来逗他开心。
• He loved to regale his friends with tales about the many memorable characters he had known as a newspaperman.他喜欢讲些他当记者时认识的许多名人的故事给朋友们消遣。

9 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

10 tycoon   

n.有钱有势的企业家，大亨

参考例句：

• The tycoon is on the verge of bankruptcy.那名大亨濒临破产的边缘。
• The tycoon has many servants to minister to his needs.那位大亨有很多人服侍他。

11 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

12 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

13 grizzly   

adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊

参考例句：

• This grizzly liked people.这只灰熊却喜欢人。
• Grizzly bears are not generally social creatures.一般说来，灰熊不是社交型动物。

14 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

15 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。

16 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。