Gabrielle Zevin's 2022 novel
The Reading Rut
The reading rut is easy to fall into. It happens when I choose books based on my experience and knowledge. If a book delves into a topic I'm unfamiliar or uncomfortable with, I probably won't buy it and in making that choice, I commit myself to the "reading rut" of choosing similar books over and over again.
I see how stupid that is. Two flagrant examples of my bullheadedness come to mind.
First, no matter what praise it received, I was reluctant to read A Gentleman in Moscow because I was mad at Russia for invading Ukraine. I believed that it would be impossible to be captivated by a book about a man forced to live in a hotel for thirty years.
Then I put off reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay because I never read comic books as a kid - or as an adult. Why the heck would anyone want to read a 700-page novel about illustrated superheroes?
In both cases, I took a chance and was rewarded with GREAT stories. Unique characters. Compelling plots. Memorable outcomes. I kicked myself for waiting so long to read them and for being so obtuse in choosing them to begin with.
Learning from my past mistakes, I purchased Gabrielle Zevin's 2022 novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, reminding myself that it didn't matter that I knew NOTHING about video games. What difference did it make that I was from a previous generation who relied on books instead of electronic games to entertain themselves?
Sam and Sadie of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Two brilliant kids meet in a hospital. Twelve-year-old Sam is there because his leg has been crushed in a car accident that killed his mother. Sadie, eleven years old, is there visiting her sister who is receiving cancer treatment.
They find commonality in playing video games, and a true friendship develops. Sadie is the first person that Sam has opened up to since his accident, and the nurses encourage Sadie's visit. In fact, Sadie decides to use all the hours she spends visiting Sam in the hospital as a community service project for her Bat Mitzvah.
The mutually satisfying friendship falls apart, of course, once Sam discovers Sadie's timesheet and thinks she was only keeping him company for credit.
Move the clock forward almost a decade. Sam and Sadie are attending Harvard and MIT respectively. Sam glimpses Sadie at a subway station, and the two rekindle the friendship. Their passion for gaming - and their brilliant minds - ignite. The explosion eventually becomes a best-selling game called Ichigo that begins a gaming empire for Sadie and Sam.
Enter Marx
Sam's roommate is a mixed-race Asian guy named Marx. Gorgeous. Articulate. Wealthy. Sensitive and smart, Marx is Sam's best and only friend besides Sadie. Marx wanted to be an actor but was constrained by his noticeably Asian appearance, unable to win lead roles. But he had a greater gift than his ability to act. Marx was a fantastic marketer, organizer, and businessman.
Marx, Sam, and Sadie embark on a three-way friendship that evolves into a major playing in the nascent gaming industry of the 1990s.
The art of creative world-building
As a writer, I think a lot about world-building. I didn't know, however, that game designers are even MORE into world-building than writers. The development of a video game, as seen through the eyes of Sam and Sadie, is a massive undertaking. You have to consider characters, their visual appearances, their talents, and their names. Game designers have to think about what other people will think of as fun and make sure that the game's action is stimulating enough to elicit continued play. There has to be a reason to be playing - a motivation for the player to want to succeed. Sam and Sadie - and other game creators - have to figure out how to develop scoring and advancing tiers and ever-harder challenges. Like writers, they work cultural issues and ethical debates into their works, challenging their players. They have to have specialized knowledge like coding.
Unlike writers, game developers must figure out appropriate sounds for each action, a more difficult decision than I imagined!
Why Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is powerful and endearing
It's a big deal when an older-generation female like me who never played a video game in her life enjoys a book about video game developers! I found it both powerful and endearing.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is powerful because it makes issues that readers care about "real."
How friendships impact our lives
What the presence of a best friend in a life can do
How creativity morphs into a product
How following your passion doesn't always lead to money or satisfaction
Why sometimes the most creative people don't get credit
What it's like to be a female in a male industry
How hard it is to be creative on demand
What it takes to make a company succeed
How our pasts influence our future
How taking a stance on an issue can alter the course of events
How violence disrupts and destroys our sense of being
What a real friend will do to help you through a terrible time
What's the value of a sexual relationship vs a platonic one?
The novel is endearing because the characters - with all their foibles and flaws - are interesting, human, and relatable.
What others say
The New York Times review said,
"Gabrielle Zevin’s novel “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is a love letter to the literary gamer."
Praise for the novel from a multitude of various sources are found on Zevin's website:
“The story of three brilliant kids who found a videogame company, this book is about so much more—friendship, love, loyalty, violence in America and the magic of invented worlds. Gorgeous.” —Kim Hubbard, People
“You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate the pulsing heart of this best-seller: In a story spanning three decades and references from Oregon Trail to Macbeth, Gabrielle Zevlin has written a modern, definitive story about work, love, and friends for whom you’d do and risk everything.” —Keely Weiss and Halie Lesavage, Harper’s Baza
and
“I’ve never played a video game in my life, and I was sucked into this book like it was Halo and I was a socially awkward tween in 2001. Really, this isn’t just a book for people who understand life through the pixels, but for people who understand life through stories.” - —Jenny Singer, Glamour
and
“Woven throughout [Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow] are meditations on originality, appropriation, the similarities between video games and other forms of art, the liberating possibilities of inhabiting a virtual world, and the ways in which platonic love can be deeper and more rewarding—especially in the context of a creative partnership—than romance.” —The New Yorker
If those reviews weren't enough...
Every year, the New York Times does articles on the best books of the 21st Century, so far. This year, the critics placed Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow #76 on the top 100 books.
The New York Times Readers Choice 100 Best Books of the 21st Century voted this novel as #7 out of a 100!
Give it a try!
Gamer or non-gamer, give Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow a try. It's not what I would consider a "fast" read, and it's a lengthy one at almost 400 pages.
Writers will delight in the "Concept Notes" that Zevin includes at the end of the book showing how her idea expanded year by year.
Readers will appreciate the discussion guide in the book which deepens understanding whether used in a book club or considered individually.
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