What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges "I hope that people will be able to see their fellow human beings, all beings, with more empathy, more compassion, with a desire to understand. Even if they cannot "not knowing why people are the way they are, understanding that they are probably that way for a good reason" said Peter Hedges, author of the book What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and the book helped him realize this wish. Grape, a 24-year-old GenXer, lives in Endora, a small, dying town where life is "like dancing to music¡± He works at a grocery store whose business is threatened by Gilbert's mother's recently opened supermarket. , once the town sweetheart, hasn't stopped eating since her husband hanged himself in the basement, and the floor under her TV chair is threatening to collapse. Her older sister Amy is still mourning her. Elvis' death and the fact that her boyfriend abandoned her Ellen, the younger sister addicted to makeup and boys, argues incessantly with him. The biggest event on the horizon for all the Raisins is the eighteenth birthday of Gilbert's retarded younger brother, Arnie, who is a living miracle just for surviving this long. When everything in Endora is eating Gilbert Grape and all he can think about is leaving, Becky, a beautiful and worldly girl, rides her bike through town, helping him gain a new outlook on his family and himself. this novel, even though many conflicts arise. What makes it so good is the interaction between the characters and the unique language style. The family and characters in What's Eating Gilbert Grape may be strange, but they seem like real characters with real emotions, as the author manages to make each of them come alive. representation.