A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A World War II veteran grappling with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. Four friends traveling to the moon in a rocketship built in the backyard. These are just some of the stories that Tom Hanks captures in his first work of fiction: a collection of shorts that explore—with great affection, humor, and insight—the human condition in all its foibles. The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central.
To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty, and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In these stories, Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level. By turns whimsical, witty, and moving, Uncommon Type establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction.
奧斯卡影帝湯姆．漢克斯首次在他的第一部小說作品中，以豐富的情感、幽默的態度和獨特的見解，描繪一系列短篇故事探索在各種情況下的人性，像是對現代世界抱持舊想法的小鎮報社專欄作家、獨自面對身心創傷的二戰老兵、一位突然爆紅並成為媒體寵兒的二流演員、到四個在後院搭乘自製火箭到月球旅行的朋友。每則故事都有一個共同點：一台打字機貫穿所有故事，有時扮演故事配角，有時扮演故事主角。
對許多人而言，打字機在現代世界中，傳達了越來越難以尋求的工藝、美感與獨創性。每則故事裡，湯姆．漢克斯以優雅的文筆，展現打字機的價值。《Uncommon Type》內容時而離奇、時而幽默、時而感人，成功讓湯姆．漢克斯成為當代小說中受歡迎且美妙的新文風。