Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
Ginasbookreport Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Literature
Read This If You Love: Gen-X nostalgia, Sea of Tranquility (from a character-development perspective), & if you felt let down by The Interestings
“How strange and beautiful human beings are. And how fragile.”—Sadie
Wow. My first thought after I closed this book was that there are thousands of books that have tried to BE this book. No, really! When I saw this book on all the best lists of 2022 and all over social media, it actually made me not want to read it. So often, books can get overhyped with people singing the praises and just aren’t as enjoyable as expected. After I got over my hesitancy and cracked Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow open, I couldn’t put it down and LOVED it.
Publisher Synopsis
On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.
They borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo: a game where players can escape the confines of a body and the betrayals of a heart, and where death means nothing more than a chance to restart and play again. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sam and Sadie build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, games as artform, technology and the human experience, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was so well-written and beautifully crafted. The character development was thoughtful and complete. Each individual was constructed with depth and care. For example, the idea of a maze was an overarching theme throughout the book and the character of Sam’s entire life was set up as a maze. Not an easy feat to do. The novel didn’t shy away from tackling big topics (gay marriage, gun violence, grief, trauma, chronic health issues, etc.) in such raw and emotional ways. It’s a story about love, life, loss, and gaming. It more than appeals to Gen-X nostalgia and is a must read for fans of contemporary literature.
“Illness could not be defeated, no matter how hard you fought, and pain, once it had you in its grasp, was transformational.”
This quote!!! It stopped me immediately with how honest, raw, and true the statement is. We toss around words about staying strong and fighting through illness, but when you’ve gone through true excruciating life or death pain, you see the reality and you will never see your world the same again. This is the first time that I have read such a powerful statement about health in a fictional novel. Zevin writes like someone who has experienced this transformation first-hand and her entire novel contains a raw honesty about the complexities of life and relationships.
When I finished this book, I wanted to click and go back to the save point and read it anew all over again. It was THAT good. With a tremendous balance of plot and characters, this is a book that will appeal to a large swath of readers and will stand the test of time.
Side Note: When I thought about what to include in my photo for this book, it felt so appropriate to include a computer game that was part of my love story with my husband. We were friends for years and years and spent one very long day and evening playing You Don’t Know Jack. There was a change in our relationship that night. It was unsaid at the time, but we both just knew it and after all these decades, I still can’t bring myself to get rid of those gaming CDs.
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