What's Eating Gilbert Grape

This is another one of my favorite books. It has so many great characters, starting with the family.

Gilbert: Takes care of his retarded little brother, dreams of getting away, can't cry, is having an affair with his insurance man's wife.
Amy: Gilbert's sister who has an Elvis obsession, cooks for the family and is starting to put on weight which worries her.
Arnie: The retarded brother mentioned above. He snaps the heads off crickets using the mailbox, climbs the water tower every now and then, loves crunchy peanut butter, and is about to turn eighteen when the doctors said he wouldn't live past ten.
Ellen: The youngest sibling in the family who has recently become the prettiest girl in the small town of Endora, works at the Dairy Dream, and loves to bring religion into every argument she has with her big brother Gilbert.
Momma: Is the mother of all the Grape children, just wants to see Arnie turn eighteen (is that too much to ask?), eats enough for an entire family, rarely leaves her chair and watches TV 24/7.

Then throw in a couple of minor characters, such as Becky, a girl who perplexes Gilbert and tries to help him in strange ways, Mr Lamson, who owns the grocery store where Gilbert works, and Tucker, Gilbert's best friend who just became assistant manager of Burger Barn, and it makes for an interesting story. I'm going to post some excerpts, because I can't help but love this book.

This conversation is between Gilbert and Arnie:
"Good night, Arnie."
"Good-bye."
"Good night, Arnie. It's not good-bye. It's good night."
"Yeah."
"Good-bye is for when you're going away. " He mixes those words up. "And you're not going anywhere."
(pg. 48)

A conversation between Momma and Gilbert:
"One day you might understand what it means to create. To know the feeling of looking into a person's eyes and know that you are the reason for those eyes." Momma thinks a second. "I'm going to say something I'm not supposed to say. I see you and I know that I'm a god. Or a goddess. Godlike! And this house is my kingdom. Yes, Gilbert. This chair is my throne. And you, Gilbert, are my knight in shimmering armor."
"Shining, Momma, is what you mean."
"No, I know what I mean. You don't shine, Gilbert. You shimmer. You hear? You shimmer. Now good night."
(pg. 187)

I love this book so much, it's a must-read and one of my favorites. I like reading it at Bass Lake because it has that feeling of simplicity that everyone loves on vacation.