Book Review: Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

About

Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks is a collection of short stories written by the famous actor. Known for his love of typewriters, most stories have some sort of reference to these machines.

• 416 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
  
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781101911945

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Thoughts:

As I keep saying when I read short stories collections, the rating is meaningless think each one is its own entity. Strangely, the fact that Mr. Hanks is a well-known persona works well for this book, as I kept reading the stories in his voice.

The stories run the gamut from the immigrant experience to science fiction, and those take place in today’s world. Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks is a well-written book. As someone who is so old he still thinks of Mr. Hanks as a comedian, I was delighted to find out he is also a gifted writer.

The vast majority of the stories were fun and interesting. A few of them followed the same group of friends, others were simply stand-alone. It was nice to see the author’s known love for old typewriters make it into the stories.

Some of the stories clicked with me immediately, and others I was just reading to finish. There were heavy doses of nostalgia here and there, but overall, it was laid on too thick to stop the story in its tracks.

Tom Hanks is a competent writer, and I’m looking forward to reading his new novel. A Junket in the City of Lights, a story about a lucky actor finding out what international junkets are all about was a fascinating inside look at a world many of us will never know.
And no, it’s not as fun as it seems.

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More Books by Tom Hanks*

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book from a Little Free Library.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books