#32 [2023/CBR15] Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin is not a book I would have picked out on my own. I'm not particularly interested in video games, and the cover doesn't really call to me. Even the description doesn't suck me in. What drove me to pick up the book, however, were the many people who had Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow on their Cannonball best books list last year. I simply could not ignore such overwhelming praise.

I like to say that if a teacher is good, it doesn't matter what the subject is, and I think it goes for this book as well. The characters immediately felt real, the story was interesting, and I was happy to settle into the book and learn more about them. Even the descriptions of video games almost made me want to play them.

The story follows Sam and Sadie and their relationship over many years. The book begins when they run into each other when both are in college in Boston, but they actually met as children in a hospital in Southern California. The timeline jumps back and forth as we learn more about the many hardships Sam grew up with, and the struggles with a bad boyfriend and depression that haunt Sadie.

Between all of this, though, Sam and Sadie (with production help from Sam's roommate, Marx) create a blockbuster video game that changes all of their lives. Misunderstandings and tensions interfere with Sam and Sadie's bond, and they drift apart. However, there always seems to be something that ties them together.

There are a lot of really good things about this book. First, I was very impressed with the writing. Writing a story out of order can be tricky, but every instance here heightened mystery, tension, or the emotional gravity of what was happening. In addition, the style of the writing immediately drew me into the story. When Sam yelled to Sadie across the crowded subway station "You have died of dysentery," I knew these two had a history and that I wanted to know more. Finally, Zevin ties in classical writing, along with the nature of video games, and layers it all into the story of her characters in an almost philosophical way. I believe this is a book you can keep coming back to and get more and more out of it.

***SPOILERS My main nitpick with this book is that I had a hard time believing that Sam's and Sadie's fights and arguments would split them up for so long. They are described as people who wholly understand each other and would do anything for the other. But then they won't speak to each other for years, and I couldn't always understand why. I really noticed this with Sadie after she interacts with Sam through the video game. She was determined to hate him, but it wasn't fully explained. Also, I was annoyed that Marx was killed off. He really did seem like a perfect person and so likeable. Was he perfect so it would be more tragic when he died? I realize that violence like that does come out of nowhere, but it still felt a little heavy handed to me. ***END SPOILERS***

Anyway, my nitpicks are minor in comparison to how much I enjoyed this book. I'm very glad Cannonballers led me to it.

"You try again. You fail better."

cbr15bingo - "Nostalgia" for magic eye posters, Donkey Kong, and: "You have died of dysentery."