For 2024 the aim remains to post a review at least every other Friday and to complete the Bookpacking reading journey.

11 October 2019

Uncommon Type – Tom Hanks


Thirteen stories, some linked, and a series of small-town newspaper diary pieces (‘Our Town Today, with Hank Fiset’), form this collection by actor, now author, Tom Hanks.

The subject matters are generally slices of contemporary American life, though some take the author’s showbiz world as their milieu. The stories are well constructed with authentic characters, plots that lead somewhere interesting and conclude satisfactorily. And while that may be unfashionably old school, it works for this reviewer; the newspaper pieces, less so. The reference in each story to an old model of typewriter (Hanks collects them) is forgivably unobtrusive and serves to provide a title for the anthology.

A pleasurable and varied collection inevitably read with Hanks’ distinctive voice in mind, which does no harm to the experience at all.

No comments:

Post a Comment