Reviews
"It turns out that Tom Hanks is also a wise and hilarious writer with an endlessly surprising mind. Damn it." --Steve Martin "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 "Wait--Tom Hanks can write, too? Funny, moving, deftly surprising stories? That's just swell. Maybe there's no crying in baseball, pal, but it's perfectly acceptable in the book business. That's how we drown envy." --Carl Hiaasen "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 " Uncommon Type is funny, wise, gloriously inventive and humane. Tom Hanks sees inside people - a wary divorcee, a billionaire trading desire for disaster, a boy witnessing his father's infidelity, a motley crew shooting for the moon - with such acute empathy and good humour we'd follow him anywhere. The cumulative effect is of a world I didn't want to leave." --Anna Funder "Reading Tom Hanks's Uncommon Type is like finding out that Alice Munro is also the greatest actress of our time." --Ann Patchett "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, "It turns out that Tom Hanks is also a wise and hilarious writer with an endlessly surprising mind. Damn it." --Steve Martin "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 "Wait--Tom Hanks can write, too? Funny, moving, deftly surprising stories? That's just swell. Maybe there's no crying in baseball, pal, but it's perfectly acceptable in the book business. That's how we drown envy." --Carl Hiaasen "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, "It turns out that Tom Hanks is also a wise and hilarious writer with an endlessly surprising mind. Damn it." --Steve Martin "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 "Wait--Tom Hanks can write, too? Funny, moving, deftly surprising stories? That's just swell. Maybe there's no crying in baseball, pal, but it's perfectly acceptable in the book business. That's how we drown envy." --Carl Hiaasen "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 " Uncommon Type is funny, wise, gloriously inventive and humane. Tom Hanks sees inside people - a wary divorcee, a billionaire trading desire for disaster, a boy witnessing his father's infidelity, a motley crew shooting for the moon - with such acute empathy and good humour we'd follow him anywhere. The cumulative effect is of a world I didn't want to leave." --Anna Funder "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
