Thoughts

Tom Hanks is a legend in our lifetime, so seeing that he'd written a novel and the good reviews it had picked up, I was keen to give it a read. I struggled right from the start, but kept fighting until I got about 25% of the way through... then I had to give up.

The main problem with this book is it felt like hard work. The story was so disjointed, it was hard to follow. A character here met another character there, then we dipped into something else, then some backstory which is not clear how it's related. We have several timelines in that backstory too, it was all very confusing. When things stood still long enough to get to know the characters, Bob Falls in particular, it was enjoyable - the writing humorous and engaging. But it jigged around way too much to get into.

Several times, characters popped up with the same names or surnames as others, so the author had to clarify they weren't related. But you're writing the book, just pick another name? And I do have to ask what was with all the asterisks and footnotes. They take you out of the story, hunting around for the relevant tidbit, and half the time they were entirely pointless. Maybe it's humour that I wasn't quite getting but, if I'm honest, it just annoyed me.

This is a category of novel that doesn't suit me - all the literary bells and whistles, if that's your kind of thing, you'll love it. The quotes on the cover certainly made me think I was missing out on something special. I really wanted to like it, it's Tom Hanks! I know he has another book about typewriters which I might look at, and if he did release another book I'd want to give it a try, but I'd come into it with an expectation that if it's anything like this one, it'll feel like work rather than pleasure.

DNF

Rating: Unrated