Review of 'Uncommon Type'

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

uncommon_type.jpg A collection of short stories from the famous actor, “Uncommon Type” has the general theme of typewriters which make an appearance in all of the stories. Here Hanks talks about the human condition taking in everything from an imaginative return to the moon in “Alan Bean Plus Four” to a story of a new immigrant in “Three Exhausting Weeks” that continues in “Steve Wong in Perfect”. There are also a series of “Our Town Today with Frank Fiset” newspaper column articles written by Frank that moan about various aspects of living in a big city. Generally, the stories are all quite easy to read without a huge amount of going on but concentrate instead on the human condition without straying into to the bizarre. A few are memorable but most disappear from the mind as quickly as soon as they are finished.

Hanks shows remarkable aptitude for his first book though with such celebrity authors it is always a question whether they hope to capitalize on their fame in publishing. Even if this is so here the book is still worth reading if, perhaps, only for something a bit light with stories averaging at about 30 pages making it easy to pick up for a short time and putting it back down. It will be interesting to see he follows up with anything else.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2020-07-26


Genre: General Fiction

Publisher: Arrow Books

Publication Date: 2017

ISBN: 9781784759438