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Some Stories
by Tom Hanks
Book Reviewed by:A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor.
A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game - and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down and out motel, romance, and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!
After I finished them, most of Hank's stories flitted from my brain like a light balloon. In seventeen stories, Hanks — whose squeaky-clean image as "America's Dad" has itself become as American as apple pie — presents a world as neatly packaged and free from real-world troubles as the average Hollywood rom-com. This is the short story collection of a new and burgeoning writer, as uneven and unsure as all debuts can be. But it's also the voice of one of America's most beloved actors, a growing literary talent, and a man who is clearly not content to explore just one aspect of the human condition...continued
Full Review
(688 words)
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(Reviewed by Matt Grant).
Tom Hanks' short story collection Uncommon Type, puts his love for typewriters on display. Hanks has a personal collection of over one hundred machines, made up of nearly every make and model ever put on the market. For those who grew up in the digital age, typewriters may seem all but extinct, a relic of a past era. But at one time, typewriters were as revolutionary and cutting edge as the latest laptop technology. The earliest progenitors of the typewriter believed they were creating a writing device only for the blind. They didn't foresee typewriters being needed by those who could see; after all, what were pens for?
Like most inventions, the creation of the typewriter wasn't a singular event; historians estimate that the typewriter ...
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If you liked Uncommon Type, try these:
by Lynne Schwartz
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by Kathleen Rooney
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Ann Patchett
Reading Tom Hanks's Uncommon Type is like finding out that Alice Munro is also the greatest actress of our time.
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