The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

RON CHARLES, THE WASHINGTON POST

"Charming...spiritually revealing ... So far as I can tell, Hanks's book is not a roman à clef or a camouflaged tell-all or a sly act of disguised payback. Instead, it's a novel shot in pastel tones ... Except for a few nods to entrenched sexism, the industry's well-documented abuses are elided in favor of concentrating on the better angels of its nature ... A thoroughly engaging tale."

CHRIS HEWITT, THE STAR TRIBUNE

"Opens with a prologue followed by 80 pages about uneventful life in a Northern California town where a young man meets his drifter uncle, a hero in World War II. Not much happens, so the long second chapter in Masterpiece may make you think, 'Why am I reading this?' and 'Where's the 'motion picture' stuff?' ... The trouble is that Hanks is guided by an actor's instincts, not a writer's ... In Masterpiece, Hanks includes all of that back-story stuff — he's constantly introducing minor characters, only to dive back into their childhoods — and most of it feels extraneous. That, readers, is why skimming was invented ... Entertaining, guided by Hanks' verbally dexterous humor, knowledge of film and idiosyncrasies."