I reviewed this book on my old blog and decided to revisit it again with an updated commentary. At the height of the pandemic I ordered a mystery book box from one of my favorite local bookstores, The Book Loft, and it included a copy of Waiting for Tom Hanks. It’s a book I’d been curious about for a while, due in part to the fact it was written by a sort of local author. I’m sad to say I was pretty let down.
The story follows Annie Cassidy, a woman obsessed with romcoms and looking out for the leading man in her life; one of the Tom Hanks in a Nora Ephron movie variety. By some miraculous coincidence, Annie’s Uncle Don has connections to a famous director shooting his newest movie in their neighborhood. Annie agrees to work as an assistant to the director, hoping some experience on a movie set will help her finish the screenplay for a romantic comedy she’s been stuck on for a while. What she hadn’t planned on was spending time with the hunky leading man, Drew Danforth, who she finds slightly despicable.
I’ll start with the basics; it’s difficult to like a book when the main protagonist is insufferable. It wasn’t fun spending time hearing this story from Annie’s perspective, and there were many occasions I forgot she was supposed to be in her late twenties instead of teens. If she mentioned Tom Hanks one more time I was going to throw my book at the wall (which I nearly did once). He is not the men he plays in the movies and his characters are not real. Annie had a full blown obsession pushing her into the territory of living in a fantasy world on more than one occasion. Not to mention, she is immature and jumps to conclusions with no evidence to back up her suspicions. I didn’t appreciate how judgmental Annie was of others when she spent a decent chunk of time casting her judgment on people she barely knew.
Everything about the plot felt repetitive and worn out by the halfway mark. Annie repeats the same information, cycles through visits to the same few places, and complains over and over how no man will ever measure up to Tom Hanks. The meat of this story could have made a great romance novel; a wannabe screenplay writer falls for the charming leading man while working on a film being shot in her quaint neighborhood. The execution was lacking overall, making it difficult to enjoy the bright spots here and there. Uncle Don and Annie’s friends made up the best parts, but even so, I got to know very little about them.
Annie and Drew had little to no chemistry, and it didn’t help that Annie found reasons to nitpick Drew even after getting to know him. There’s no foundation for her mild hatred of him except for the gossip rag fodder she chooses to believe. There is no tension riddled back and forth, or satisfying moments where they forget about holding back and act on their feelings just a little bit to keep you hanging on. Their attraction seems to materialize out of thin air after a few accidental dates and personal stories shared by Drew.
This story may have been redeemed slightly if it focused more on developing Annie’s relationships with her friends and family; it would have presented the opportunity to flesh out the main cast of characters so we could get to know them better. The writing is riddled with too many clichés, it’s a version of a story I’ve heard many times before, yet it lacks zest. The heart of this story didn’t go deeper than the surface, it kind of floated around in lukewarm waters. Annie mostly made a lot of trouble for herself then had the nerve to complain about it.
I’ve been sitting on my feelings about this book for a while now, and I can’t say there’s someone I know I would suggest it to. I can see the target audience for this book, and I’m just not throwing myself into that group. I didn’t care much what happened to Annie, and I don’t believe she deserved a happy ending. 1/5 stars for this one.
The Rummy Writer 