Play Book Tag discussion

Uncommon Type: Some Stories – Tom Hanks
Digital audiobook narrated by the author.
4****

The stories in this collection are connected in that each story features a typewriter in some way. Sometimes the reference to the typewriter is so minor you might miss it if you blink. Other times the typewriter is central to the plot. There are a few characters who appear in more than one story, but those stories don’t necessarily form any sort of cohesive arc, although the basic personality and interests of each character are consistent throughout.

The stories are varied, from tender romance, to science fiction, to contemporary drama. Some are contemporary, some historical, some set in the future. They vary, too, in the emotions they evoke: tenderness, humor, awe, compassion. Among the plots are a funny romcom between best friends, a young actor who gets caught up on the hoopla of the film he’s helping to promote, a man who time travels back to the New York World’s Fare in 1964, and just can’t imagine leaving the charming woman he meets there, a veteran warms to the present with his family on Christmas Eve while memories of war haunt him, four friends travel to the moon in a spaceship they built in their backyard.

Clearly, Hanks is a gifted writer, and I look forward to reading more of his works. I’m a great fan of short stories and I loved this collection, but I’d love to see what he does with a full novel.

Hanks narrates the audiobook himself. I cannot think that anyone would do it better. The last story is a sort of movie script, and he gets help from a cast of friends, including Peter Scolari and Cecily Strong.



LINK to my review