Book Review: Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Leonardo Da Vinci was a man of many talents.

While not necessarily comparing Tom Hanks to Da Vinci, there is something admirable about such a talented and famous actor who suddenly shows the world that he knows how to write as well. After finishing Tom Hanks’ book of short stories Uncommon Type, the first thing I wanted to do was to rush out and buy myself a typewriter. Yep! No mistake there, an old-fashioned typewriter that makes a lot of noise pick-picking, and once typed cannot be easily deleted and replaced…It probably has to do with some fantasy related to being a “real” writer, and the nostalgia one might have from past scenes in movies and the like. But his writing had me craving a typewriter nonetheless.

Uncommon Type is a collection of short stories. All very American and connected in many ways to the American Dream of individualism and success. Yet the stories are very different one from another and set in different locations and time-periods. The one thing that does connect the stories is the typewriter, in all of its long-ago glory. In some of the stories, the typewriter might be mentioned as just another object in the room, and in others it might be the focal point of the story.

We meet Virgil, on Christmas Eve in the 1950’s, who is preparing for the holiday in the warmth of his family that contrasts the cold snow storm outside. Virgil, a war veteran, paid a heavy price for serving his country, yet he is full aware that many of his comrades paid much heavier prices than him. He might be an impressive example of someone who managed to move on after the war and to build a life for himself, yet that body and that soul will never really be the same again. We meet a group of four friends, from different backgrounds and cultures, who managed to come together and we learn of their relationships in several of the stories in the book. In one of the stories a romantic relationship between two of the four is described; in another the group is trying to travel to the moon; and in the final story we learn of their love to go bowling together.

In one of my favorite stories These Are the Meditations of My Heart the main character is trying her best to simplify and downsize her life, after “the Knothead” left. She has enough money saved to have a lazy summer and by the time the cold weather would come she’d be long gone – to anywhere, her options are open before her. She has no intention whatsoever of buying a typewriter, not to mention extra cash for this, but that is exactly what she does. She now owns a Hermes 2000. At the end of the story she sits down in front of the typewriter to write “A Meditation from My Heart”.

In an overall view of the entire book, I felt a sense of nostalgia; that Hanks is missing something from times long past and he wants us to have a taste of that. The solid American family celebrating holidays together, husband, wife, three children and a loyal dog. Values like the importance of the family, the community, comradeship, patriotism, honest work are prevalent. Yet at the same times in some of the stories cracks appear in this ideal façade. Not all is perfect, and people are just people, at the end of the day, with all their flaws, hopes, failures along with the successes. Despite all this, that is also ok. To be human, to make errors, to choose the wrong path because usually the heart is in the right place and there is still time to make amends.  

Favorite Quote from the book:

“Make the machine a part of your life. A part of your day. Do not use it a few times, then need room on the table and close it back into its case to sit on a shelf in the back of a closet. Do that and you may never write with it again…Would you own a stereo and never listen to records? Typewriters must be used. Like a boat must sail. An airplane has to fly. What good is a piano you never play? It gathers dust and there is no music in your life.” (From the story These Are the Meditations of My Heart. Page 238).