Publishers Weekly
08/21/2017
Oscar-winner Hanks’s debut collection is a wide-ranging affair of 17 stories threaded together by the recurring image of typewriters—some stories, like the intriguing “These Are the Meditations of My Heart,” build entire narratives around the machines, while others mention them in passing. In “Alan Bean Plus Four,” one of the collection’s best entries, four friends decide to build a backyard rocket and orbit the moon. These same characters star in two more stories, the enjoyable bowling yarn “Steve Wong Is Perfect,” and the less noteworthy “Three Exhausting Weeks,” which uses standard romantic comedy tropes in recollecting a wacky and doomed relationship. Hanks’s stories sometimes lead to pat, happy endings, but not always—“Christmas Eve 1953” develops a simple holiday story into a rumination on war. Similarly, “The Past Is Important to Us” employs a sharp, unexpected conclusion to elevate a story of time travel and romance at the 1939 World’s Fair. Hanks’s narrators speak with similar verbal tics—multiple narrators say “Noo Yawk,” for example—but the stories they tell generally charm. The only true misfires come when Hanks breaks away from traditional structure: the story-as-screenplay “Stay With Us” drags, and faux newspaper columns by man of the people Hank Fiset start clever but turn grating. 250,000-copy announced first printing. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, USA Today
“Wonderful.” —NPR
“First-rate.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Funny, moving, deftly surprising.” —Carl Hiaasen
“[Hanks] is a delightful storyteller.” —Los Angeles Times
“Wise and hilarious.” —Steve Martin
“Accomplished and delightful. . . . Terrific. . . . Hanks proves his bona fides as a serious scribe.” —USA Today
“Offers heartfelt charm. . . . Even when Hanks writes about somber subjects . . . he finds a sweet spot.” —NPR
“These stories are a hit. . . . There is life here, and humour, along with evocative moments of reflection on the state of the American dream.” —Financial Times
“Reading Tom Hanks’s Uncommon Type is like finding out that Alice Munro is also the greatest actress of our time.” —Ann Patchett
“Delightful. . . . Moving. . . . Filled with warmth, comedy and wisdom, this companionable collection is as appealing as its author.” —BookPage
“As charming and as (the descriptor has become unavoidable) all-American as the author himself.” —Time
“A collection that showcases [Hanks’s] love of words and typewriters.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“There is often a powerful sense of other lives imagined at a level that goes deeper than writerly research.” —The Guardian
“A debut short story collection that’s as engaging it is charming.” —Paste
“The central quality to Tom’s writing is a kind of poignant playfulness. It’s exactly what you hope from him, except you wish he were sitting in your home, reading it aloud to you, one story at a time.” —Mindy Kaling
“Skillfully crafted. . . . Smart and equally heartfelt, this collection is a must-read for fans of the actor and literary lovers alike.” —Bustle
“Spiked with humor, whimsy and insight. . . . Mr. Hanks creates a strong sense of people, places and possibilities. . . . The short stories in Uncommon Type often explore what might have been, what was before (and after) the divorce, or the move, or the press junket gone awry.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Funny, wise, gloriously inventive and humane. Tom Hanks sees inside people—a wary divorcee, a billionaire trading desire for disaster, a boy witnessing his father’s infidelity, a motley crew shooting for the moon—with such acute empathy and good humour we’d follow him anywhere.” —Anna Funder, author of Stasiland and All That I Am
“Tom Hanks is a natural born storyteller. . . . He belongs to a tradition of American storytellers that includes Mark Twain or O Henry although there is a range of work in Uncommon Type that defies such a catch-all definition. . . . There is an ease in his writing and a pleasure in the reading.” —The Scotland Herald
“Creative and funny. . . . Cut[s] right down to the bone of human nature.” —Austin Chronicle
“The stories in Uncommon Type range from the hilarious to the deeply touching. . . . All demonstrate a joy in writing, a pleasure in communicating an intensely American sense of atmosphere, friendship, life and family that is every bit as smart, engaging and humane as the man himself.” —Stephen Fry
“Superbly observed. . . . [There is a] variety of voices here, all of them masterfully hewn and cosily embedded.” —Irish Independent
“Delightful. . . . Hanks’s prose is impressive, with a strong voice and stylistic flair. . . . Fluent, convincing and confident.” —The Times (London)
Library Journal - Audio
12/01/2017
In his debut collection, Hank's stories range in length from under ten minutes to an hour-plus. The actor, who narrates, displays a range of vocal textures that convey mood and tone. One story describes a time traveler from the near future who has fallen in love with a woman he met at the 1939 World's Fair and his reckless choice to stay in the past. Another is a satirical look at near-stardom. Yet another lightly raps the knuckles of certain trendy self-help concepts. And another is a poignant look at war on a Christmas Eve in the 1950s. All have a typewriter folded neatly into the plot, almost as an additional character. Blind listeners may find that the last story is dramatized in a manner that suggests an audio-described production. VERDICT Recommended for short story fans and Hanks devotees. ["Hanks's stories evoke dreams and flights of imagination that everyone has experienced, making the what ifs' of life tangible": LJ 10/15/17 review of the Knopf hc.]—David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA
Library Journal
10/15/2017
Academy Award winner Hanks gives readers a wide variety of stories in this first collection. His characters run the gamut; old and young, rich and poor, male and female, serious and funny. He writes like someone who has paid attention to humans in their many guises. His subjects include time travel (a trip to 1939), space travel (a trip to the moon and back), and memory travel (a World War II battle). In one story, a teenager accidentally learns about his father's infidelity, while in the next, a young boy meets his mother's boyfriend without understanding who he is. Several pieces feature the same characters, creating a feeling of familiarity. In all 17 stories, typewriters figure as part of the landscape, and 14 photographs of typewriters (by Kevin Twomey) accompany various narratives. VERDICT Hanks's stories evoke dreams and flights of imagination that everyone has experienced, making the "what ifs" of life tangible. Highly recommended, and not just for the actor's many fans. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.]—Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile
The charm of Tom Hanks's debut collection of stories stems from the inspiration he draws from an oft-forgotten and much-maligned machine that, despite its obsolescence, holds possibilities unknown—the typewriter. Clearly, Hanks, who collects typewriters, is smitten. When such a unique motif is coupled with one of Hollywood's most popular voices, one is naturally curious. The stories are wide ranging, at times funny, bizarre, and poignant—but the real draw is Hanks himself. As expected, his performance is charismatic. His strengths shine in male characters, especially curious boys and men in conversation. He regularly plays with accents, making memorable a couple of recurring characters. The final story, a screenplay, offers a special treat—a full cast of his friends performing along with him. A.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-07-04
Seventeen wide-ranging and whimsical stories—with a typewriter tucked into each one.Only one of the stories in Hanks' debut features an actor: it's a sharp satire with priceless insider details about a handsome dope on a press junket in Europe. The other 16 span a surprisingly wide spectrum. There's a recently divorced mom who's desperate to avoid the new neighbor who might be hitting on her; a billionaire inventor who's become addicted to taking time-travel vacations; a World War II veteran whose Christmas Eve 1953 is disturbed by memories of Christmas Eve 1944; a young man who celebrates his 19th birthday by going surfing with his dad; a Bulgarian immigrant literally just off the boat, spending his first few days as a New Yorker. Three stories are editions of a small-town newspaper column called "Our Town Today with Hank Fiset." Three others feature a group of pals named MDash, Anna, Steve Wong, and an unnamed first-person narrator. In one story, the friends go bowling; in another, they go to the moon; in the third, the narrator and Anna try dating for three weeks only to find that "being Anna's boyfriend was like training to be a Navy SEAL while working full-time in an Amazon fulfillment center in the Oklahoma Panhandle in tornado season." Or as Steve Wong puts it, "We are like a TV show with diversity casting. African guy, him. Asian guy, me. Mongrel Caucasoid, you. Strong, determined woman, Anna, who would never let a man define her. You and her pairing off is like a story line from season eleven when the network is trying to keep us on the air." There's a typewriter in every tale, be it IBM Selectric, Royal, Underwood, Hermes 2000, or some other model. Hanks can write the hell out of typing, and his dialogue is excellent, too. Has he read William Saroyan? He should. While these stories have the all-American sweetness, humor, and heart we associate with his screen roles, Hanks writes like a writer, not a movie star.
