Staff Pick
Hanks’s playful, modern short stories are as heartwarming and mischievous as the actor’s many movies, and equally deserving of praise. Though a typewriter anchors each piece, it’s Hanks’s joyous wanderings from Mars to immigration to celebrity satire that makes this collection so winning. Recommended By Lucinda G., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
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!
Review
“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…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.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Mr. Hanks turns out to be as authentically genuine a Writer with as capital a W as ever touched a typewriter key. The stories in Uncommon Type range from the hilarious to the deeply touching. They move in period, location and manner, but 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. All with that extra quality of keenly observant and sympathetic intelligence that has always set Tom Hanks apart. I blink, bubble, and boggle in amazed admiration.” Stephen Fry
Review
“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
Review
“It turns out that Tom Hanks is also a wise and hilarious writer with an endlessly surprising mind. Damn it.” Steve Martin
Synopsis
A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that the legendary Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. "Reading Tom Hanks's Uncommon Type is like finding out that Alice Munro is also the greatest actress of our time." --Ann Patchett, bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Dutch House
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
About the Author
Tom Hanks has been an actor, screenwriter, director, and, through Playtone, a producer. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. This is his first collection of fiction.