Uncommon Type: Some Stories

I once read something attributed to Phillips Brooks which said that when America names its man, it names Lincoln. Well, perhaps, but it could just as easily name Tom Hanks. Hanks epitomises an American type which is common but which doesn't often get noticed because, unlike the lonesome cowboy or the hardass lawyer or the nasal-voiced tourist, it is hard to caricature. It is a type which is talented, successful, versatile, but also casual, genial, hospitable. A new neighbour who knocks on the door to say 'hi' and who will offer you the use of his lawnmower, but won't outstay his welcome. Confident and healthy, perhaps a tad complacent: someone with a decent status in a country which is broad and bountiful and with big blue skies.

I show more mention this for two reasons. Firstly, because the Hanks type is so pleasant and inoffensive that you're inclined to be kind also. (You wouldn't tell that friendly new neighbour to get the hell off your property.) And it's certainly not a reach to say nice things about his writing in Uncommon Type, his book of short stories. It's good enough, and he certainly doesn't embarrass himself. In fact, he's a cut above most celebrity writers, because most celebrity writers choose formula: thrillers, chick lit, and so on. Cheaply-won vanity projects, to tell the truth. Hanks is at least trying his hand at original literary writing, and working at establishing a voice. There's integrity here.

The second reason I mentioned this American type is because the geniality and celebrity of Tom Hanks combine to become an unexpected virtue. The stories here are filled with warm and idyllic Americana; nostalgic motifs and details like road trips, diners, corn dogs and green lawns in the suburbs. Such things are considered uncool in contemporary fiction trends, and wouldn't have been published if not for the Hanks name (I mean that as a comment on the content, not the quality). Happily, Hanks' celebrity allows such stories to emerge without being nixed by the publishing industry, because the name will sell the thing. It might not be devastating literature, but to be honest I quite liked reading some evenly-paced stories describing people sitting in a quiet kitchen drinking coffee, or stopping for lunch at a roadside café. There's an endearing sentimentality here that isn't often allowed to emerge in contemporary fiction. Hanks is willing to stop and let a character savour a milkshake, trusting that we'll enjoy those sips too.

Now, Hanks' celebrity is the unavoidable elephant in the room when trying to assess the quality of his short stories. Sometimes it's overt: you can't read his World War Two story, with its M1 Garand going "pi-cling" when the clip is empty (pg. 54), without thinking of Saving Private Ryan, and you can't read the stories like 'Alan Bean Plus Four', which discuss Apollo and the Space Age, without thinking of Apollo 13. Sometimes it's a virtue, as I mentioned above.

And sometimes it's not a virtue; the problem with writing literature is that all those who attempt literature fail often (including those who eventually succeed), and it seems no one is willing or able to tell Tom Hanks – super-successful, universally beloved cultural icon Tom Hanks – that such-and-such is good but not yet up to par. Hanks can write well enough, and is quite good at building a story, but too often I found the endings to be an anti-climax. There often seemed to be no purpose other than to have a pleasant amble. A good example of this is 'A Special Weekend', which builds a relationship between a young boy and his mother, and the complications of her new beau and the boy's father, from whom she is separated. The story sees the boy go on a road trip, take his first flight in an aeroplane, and get treated to milkshakes, and it's all very agreeable, but there's no purpose, no message, no resolution to the tension at the end.

Considering how many of the stories have weak endings, it's a bit surprising that I was rarely frustrated in reading Uncommon Type, and found a number of stories which I liked. I didn't like the recurring stories which focused around the friend group of Anna, M-Dash and Steve Wong, which I found non-descript, nor did I warm to the Hank Fiset vignettes, but 'Christmas Eve 1953' is an early highlight, containing (despite its title) the World War Two material I mentioned earlier. 'The Past is Important to Us' is, surprisingly, a straight-up time-travel story, and its unabashed nostalgia for the 1939 World's Fair in New York – "filled with so many promises of the world as it could have been" (pg. 253) – is entertainingly transmuted into a sort of wanderlust for the past.

The best story, however, is not coincidentally the one with the strongest ending: 'These Are the Meditations of My Heart'. This delves most heavily into the typewriter motif which recurs, however briefly, in each of the stories in Uncommon Type. Hanks' ability to develop typewriters as a sort of totem for his Americana and his nostalgia – "they were built to last forever" (pg. 232) – is where he comes closest to establishing his bona fides as a writer. Perhaps his greatest success here is in making his celebrity ambiguous: for all that there will be those who say, with some justification, that he has been elevated as a writer because of his celebrity, there is also a case to be made that his fame unfairly obscures some of his other qualities in evidence here. It's interesting to follow him from left to right across the page, and what writer could ask for more than that? show less

In his first story collection, Tom Hanks demonstrates, to my astonishment at least, that the character he’s played in virtually every movie since Splash is actually him—earnest, but playful; witty, but never ironic; extraverted, but with self-awareness; and fundamentally optimistic. As the British actor Stephen Fry says on the back cover, there’s something quintessentially American about this character, something that makes Hanks the natural successor to Jimmy Stewart. In his fiction, we find also that Hanks’ admiration for the men and women who fought World War II is genuine and deep; that he really is interested in the space program; and that he’s not too golly-gee naïve to drop an f-bomb once in a while. He appears to be show more the real deal.

He’s not going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for these stories, but they’re far from a waste of time. If the ten-year-old’s point of view in “A Special Weekend” becomes cloying, that of a still-young veteran in 1953, providing for his family despite his physical and emotional scars, is moving. And given that Hanks has spent the last thirty years living in L.A., wealthy and famous, I was surprised by his ability to conjure the lives of ordinary people such as the divorcée in “A Month on Greene Street” and the immigrant in “Go See Costas.” If there’s a message in these stories, it’s that people in general are interesting, work crazily hard, and deserve your understanding and respect. It’s not hammered home or overdone. It’s as genuine as Tom Hanks, and, as they used to say in the ‘50s when several of these stories are set—my hat’s off to him. show less

I am not a short story fan. But some of these stories were pretty gosh darn good. (I think you have to talk like that around Hanks.) The stories all dealt with actual typewriters. The title deals with “type.” “Type of what?” you may ask. Types of people, typesetting, yes, and even type writers. And typewriters. The cover illustration (spoiler alert?) itself is of typewriter keys. It took me a while to catch that. Yeah, I’m slow.

I hope someone—his agent? His publisher? —hog ties him to his Royal, his Olympia, whatever, and makes him continue Asan’s story (into a novel or novella) in “Go See Kostas.” I kinda fell for that G space space U space space Y.

Uncommon Type - Tom Hanks
Audio performance by Tom Hanks
4 stars

Is there no end to this man’s talents? Apparently not.

I loved everything about these 17 short stories. Some of them were better than the others, but all of them were fun. There were very few earth shattering controversies or soul searing dilemas. Some of the stories were deliberately comedic, but others were about everyday people getting on with life. They may have been short stories, but they were not lacking in character development.

The added bonus was listening to Hanks read them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. The stories were well written and charming and well narrated. My favorites were 'Christmas Eve 1953' and 'A Special Weekend'. I have read some one and two starred reviews complaining the stories were about nothing. No story, nothing happens. Well short stories are not necessarily like that. They are moments, snapshots, memories giving you insight into the characters and their minds and emotions. Have these folks never read Raymond Carver? Anyway, I heartily recommend this book of stories and hope Mr. Hanks writes more regardless of his political views, which I'm happy to say I saw little of in this collection.

If Tom Hanks were not already a mega-celebrity, writing of this quality would have at least raised his status to "renowned author."
I have to confess, I would never have picked this book up had I not been participating in a "book challenge" where one of the itmes was to rad a book by a celebrity. It was the last item I completed in the challenge because I dreaded facing a self-promoting memoir, Hollywod "tell-all" tale or any of the other typical drivel that comes from celebrities, especially Hollywood celebrities. But the first story in this collection taught me that this is a set of stories by an author who knows what he is doing. In fact, it was a far better book than two other short story anthologies I had recently read.
The stories show more are engaging, the characters realistic, the plots beliveable. No time is wasted in details or descriptions that do not further the plot. The writing is crisp and sharp as well as being innovative at times. All of this should be expected from a good story teller, but what impressed me the most was Hanks' versitility. The range of stories and storylines amazed me, yet the variations in style and characterization that Hanks brought to the works always made them sparkle. Reading some of the stories made it hard to believe that they were penned by the same author who wrote others in the collection.
If Tom Hanks ever to decides to crush the hopes of his film and television admirers (his work on SNL is terrific as his Big screen performances ), he would certainly have a bright future as an author.
Despite my reluctance to actually pick up a work by a celebrity in order to complete my book challenge, I found that I was glad that the challenge had made me explore many types of books that were not likely to have ever been found on my library check-out list had I not been challenges. Hank's book was probably the greatest surprise of all the eye-opening new experiences I had while completing the challenge. show less

Of course picked it up because of the author. It was ..... okay. I should preface that with the fact that I'm generally not a fan of short stories, so it's a steep hill to climb to engage me in the style.

There were a couple that I quite enjoyed, but the majority were readable, sometimes clever, but just okay. I did like the way he worked a typewriter into every story.....sometimes just a sentence or two and sometimes a major role. That was clever. One repeating character was a small town newspaper writer and that story appeared in newspaper columnar format, which made an interesting change. There was one other repeat of a trio of characters that I found less engaging - the first story sets them up and they repeat a couple of times.

If show more you're a fan of short stories, I would recommend this - if you're a fan of Tom Hanks, you may enjoy this manifestation of his talent - if you're looking for a "good read", maybe try something else. show less