USA TODAY US Edition

He’s our type of writer

Actor Tom Hanks shifts to a new line with a book of short stories

- JOCELYN MCCLURG

Tom Hanks has a movie voice that is instantly recognizab­le: both wise-guy funny ( Toy Story) and regular-Joe heroic ( Saving Private Ryan), familiar, comfortabl­e, quintessen­tially American.

He’s the Oscar winner you could have a beer with, as they used to say about George W. Bush.

We feel like we know him (and have forever). But who knew the guy could write like a son of a gun?

In Uncommon Type: Some Stories (Knopf, 416 pp., eeeg out of four), Hanks proves his bona fides as a serious scribe, producing a collection of 17 short stories so accomplish­ed and delightful he can rest assured he has a great fallback plan should that acting thing, you know, not work out.

And that voice. We hear it all through Uncommon Type, as though the star is in the same room, gleefully reading to us.

Good acting is about good storytelli­ng, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that Hanks can dream up a multitude of characters and worlds for them to inhabit. Like any great actor or writer, he brings a panorama of emotion to these tales, from humor to poignancy and a lot in between.

All 17 stories are inspired by vintage typewriter­s, which Hanks collects. Sometimes the references to the machines are so subtle you have to hunt and peck to find them; other times they play a starring role. He’s aware that in our digital age, typewriter­s are virtual time machines. He calls one a “writing gimcrack straight out of Jules Verne.”

So yeah, some of these tales are pretty retro and some of the references date Hanks, who is 61 (“Rat Packesque,” “Abbott and Costello”). Some of the kids in the contempora­ry stories talk like it’s the 1950s. These are quibbles, though.

Uncommon Type opens with the most Hanksian story in the bunch, “Three Exhausting Weeks.” It’s got a wry rom-com vibe, and you can almost picture Meg Ryan and Hanks trading clever, flirty barbs. Anna and the male narrator have known each other since high school. Now they’re middle-age and Anna has decided these friends should have benefits. The only problem: She treats her new boyfriend like he’s a home-improvemen­t project. A happy ending — depending on your definition of happiness — ensues after three stressful weeks.

Hanks does what all the best story writers do: He packs a punch, a pow, a wow. Two of the most memorable stories will get you in the gut: “Christmas Eve 1953,” in which a World War II vet back in the embrace of his family gets a call from an old Army buddy; and “The Past Is Important to Us,” the story of a billionair­e who time-travels to the 1939 World’s Fair, where the allure of the past promises more than the present.

Several touching stories revolve around suburban kids who learn distressin­g truths about their parents, and Hanks the Everyman finds even more fodder in Middle America with stories about a reluctant divorcee dating and bowling(!).

Lest things get too heavy, Hanks never forgets his sitcom roots. He pokes fun at the movie business in “A Junket in the City of Light,” about a “no-name yet gorgeous” young actor named Rory Thorpe cast alongside an Angelina Jolie-type superstar in Cassandra Rampart 3: Destiny at Hand! Naïve Rory learns the promotiona­l circuit is no picnic, even in wonderful Paris.

And Hanks really lets the humor and irony rip in a recurring faux newspaper column called “Our Town Today With Hank Fiset,” in which an intrepid local newsman from the Tri-Cities Daily News/Herald (Central Park’s got nothing on Spitz Riverside Park!) hangs on in an industry that’s going the way of … well, typewriter­s.

Terrific, Tom.

 ?? AUSTIN HARGRAVE ??
AUSTIN HARGRAVE
 ?? AUSTIN HARGRAVE ?? Tom Hanks is in a league of his own, making a splash with stories that won’t sully your love for the Everyman actor. Catch it if you can.
AUSTIN HARGRAVE Tom Hanks is in a league of his own, making a splash with stories that won’t sully your love for the Everyman actor. Catch it if you can.
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