Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Published by: Vintage Publishing
Pages: 401
Format: Hardback
My Rating: ★★★1/2
Published by: Vintage Publishing
Pages: 401
Format: Hardback
My Rating: ★★★1/2
This is not a romance, but it is about love.
Two kids meet in a hospital gaming room in 1987. One is visiting her sister, the other is recovering from a car crash. The days and months are long there. Their love of video games becomes a shared world - of joy, escape and fierce competition. But all too soon that time is over, fades from view.
When the pair spot each other eight years later in a crowded train station, they are catapulted back to that moment. The spark is immediate, and together they get to work on what they love - making games to delight, challenge and immerse players, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives. Their collaborations make them superstars.
This is the story of the perfect worlds Sadie and Sam build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy.
Two kids meet in a hospital gaming room in 1987. One is visiting her sister, the other is recovering from a car crash. The days and months are long there. Their love of video games becomes a shared world - of joy, escape and fierce competition. But all too soon that time is over, fades from view.
When the pair spot each other eight years later in a crowded train station, they are catapulted back to that moment. The spark is immediate, and together they get to work on what they love - making games to delight, challenge and immerse players, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives. Their collaborations make them superstars.
This is the story of the perfect worlds Sadie and Sam build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy.
My thoughts:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows the story of two childhood friends who are reunited as adults and find themselves collaborating on a game.
Sam and Sadie both meet as children in a hospital for different reasons when they strike up a friendship from their shared love of videogames.
They drift apart throughout adolescence, but then meet again spontaneously at University, both giving each other purpose as they decide to try and make videogames together. For these characters, designing video games is a celebration of romance, art, and immortality.
There is a lot more here than gaming, including an abusive relationship, friendship, friction between partners, competition, living with pain and dealing with death. Sam’s disability impacts most aspects of his life, but he avoids asking for help, not wanting people’s pity. At Harvard, Sam’s college roommate, Marx, who is wealthy, attractive, and popular, dotes on him, without making a big deal of it. Together, Sam, Sadie, and their creative partner Marx navigate loss, jealousy, joy, fame, and inconceivable tragedy to come into their own.
What follows is an exploration of the character’s past and future, navigating through human events that include themes of trauma, grief, love, and friendship.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of those rare books that has me really torn up and confused. The enjoyment I felt in reading the first half of the book was slowly dampened by the mounting frustration I felt during the latter half. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by the overall treatment of friendship in this novel. For the first two hundred pages or so, there’s this implicit and explicit theme of friendship being important and special and not inferior to romance. However, this deteriorates when certain events happen later in the book.
I found Sam and Sadie’s friendship engaging, though at the same time I don’t think Zevin developed the foundation of their friendship enough to merit all the conflict and turmoil they experienced.
The novel blends reality and game worlds, and parts of the narrative take place in a virtual open world. The ‘Pioneers’ chapter was my favourite part of the book as it felt like a standalone short story set in a small Homestead on the edge of a town called Friendship. There are lots of little hints and subtle character details featured in this Pioneer world, which help readers to gradually connect the dots and figure out what is really going on.
The book is a work of literary fiction and falls into a rare sub-genre: the literary gaming novel. I was entertained and immersed so I can see why so many people hyped this book, but all in all, I was left a little underwhelmed and felt the book was too long. The text is fairly dense, and I just didn't connect with it on the level it seems many readers have.
It does, however, make a great choice for a book club read. There is so much to unpack and many complex themes to consider. We had an interesting discussion about the novel at a book club I attend monthly.
Overall reaction:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows the story of two childhood friends who are reunited as adults and find themselves collaborating on a game.
Sam and Sadie both meet as children in a hospital for different reasons when they strike up a friendship from their shared love of videogames.
They drift apart throughout adolescence, but then meet again spontaneously at University, both giving each other purpose as they decide to try and make videogames together. For these characters, designing video games is a celebration of romance, art, and immortality.
There is a lot more here than gaming, including an abusive relationship, friendship, friction between partners, competition, living with pain and dealing with death. Sam’s disability impacts most aspects of his life, but he avoids asking for help, not wanting people’s pity. At Harvard, Sam’s college roommate, Marx, who is wealthy, attractive, and popular, dotes on him, without making a big deal of it. Together, Sam, Sadie, and their creative partner Marx navigate loss, jealousy, joy, fame, and inconceivable tragedy to come into their own.
What follows is an exploration of the character’s past and future, navigating through human events that include themes of trauma, grief, love, and friendship.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of those rare books that has me really torn up and confused. The enjoyment I felt in reading the first half of the book was slowly dampened by the mounting frustration I felt during the latter half. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by the overall treatment of friendship in this novel. For the first two hundred pages or so, there’s this implicit and explicit theme of friendship being important and special and not inferior to romance. However, this deteriorates when certain events happen later in the book.
I found Sam and Sadie’s friendship engaging, though at the same time I don’t think Zevin developed the foundation of their friendship enough to merit all the conflict and turmoil they experienced.
The novel blends reality and game worlds, and parts of the narrative take place in a virtual open world. The ‘Pioneers’ chapter was my favourite part of the book as it felt like a standalone short story set in a small Homestead on the edge of a town called Friendship. There are lots of little hints and subtle character details featured in this Pioneer world, which help readers to gradually connect the dots and figure out what is really going on.
The book is a work of literary fiction and falls into a rare sub-genre: the literary gaming novel. I was entertained and immersed so I can see why so many people hyped this book, but all in all, I was left a little underwhelmed and felt the book was too long. The text is fairly dense, and I just didn't connect with it on the level it seems many readers have.
It does, however, make a great choice for a book club read. There is so much to unpack and many complex themes to consider. We had an interesting discussion about the novel at a book club I attend monthly.
Overall reaction: