Quiet down, I am typing here.
I knew you are a fine actor – admiring you as Sam Baldwin, Andrew Beckett, Forrest Gump, Joe Fox, Chuck Noland, Viktor Navorski, James Donovan, Sully, Walt Disney, Ben Bradlee…. In each role you brought out the character so beautifully, so competently, so effortlessly.
What I did not know is about this different avatar – that of a storyteller. Uncommon Type is a collection that brings together simple stories spun in elegant prose, bringing out the charm of the olden times in today’s times. How magically you even weave your love for typewriters into each tale. These stories are meditations of your heart. You make real-life characters speak to us, who lay bare their true, ordinary feelings. Love, companionship, regret, nostalgia, shock – the feelings one feels in daily life.
Mr Hanks, you kept me company during the darkest nights, the lonely afternoons. I could hear your voice, your laughter, in each word: you sat by me in an armchair and read out each story. Thank you for bringing forth honest, unpretentious stories, from real/reel to paper.
Tom Hanks needs no introduction: he is an established Hollywood actor and filmmaker known for his remarkable versatility. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor on two consecutive years, for Philadelphia (1993) and for Forrest Gump (1994). He even has an asteroid named after him, 12818 Tomhanks! Inspired by his collection of manual typewriters, he penned the stories in this collection, Uncommon Type: Some Stories, published in 2017.
Featured photograph © Madhula Banerji
TheDriftyTripper 