BOOK REVIEW: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
An absolute masterpiece about life, love and friendship.
I don’t know what else to say other than I literally, legitimately had tears in my eyes when this book ended. I could end this review with just the notion that I loved this book, every page of this book, and everyone should read this book. That's it. The end.
But, I of course can’t keep my thoughts to myself. I went into this book knowing very little other than it was about video games. And yes, it is clearly about video games, but not in the sense of Ready Player One or Otherworld. It is important to note that you don’t need to be a gamer or fluent in the gaming world to love this book. At its heart, it is not a book about video games, it is about characters, people…life.
In reality, Tomorrow x3 is a book about:
Family and friends
Finding love and peace
Wisdom and naivety
Pain and loss
Grief and trauma
Prejudice and hate
Acceptance and hope
2nd chances and 3rd chances
Death and life
Dickinson and shakespeare
The Oregon Trail and Donkey Kong
Selfishness and selflessness
Choices and regrets
Dreams and passions
Following Sadie and Sam from the time they meet in a Children’s hospital at age 11 to the time they are pushing 40, this is a story about how each choice, each decision made forges their paths. Sometimes those paths merge and at times they diverge from each other, and there are those moments where others’ paths intersect with them.
“If you're always aiming for perfection, you won't make anything at all.”
Zevin developed two main characters who are so different, but are authentically and irrevocably human. They have the complexity that makes me think that she knows these people in real life. They both have something to prove even as children and eventually build a video game company that holds them together even when life pulls them apart. It proves that two people can go years without seeing or speaking to each other and still interact as if they have never been apart. That unconditional love is, in fact, unconditional and can be afforded to friendships - friendships that don’t ever cross the line from platonic. This is an aspect I truly respected Zevin for.
Dov and Marx are such essential secondary characters in pushing, supporting, and advising the duo as they embark on the creation of Unfair Games. Dov is a complete douchebag, but he is a constant and steady influence, an intellectual advisor of sorts. His behavior and presence serve as a catalyst to Sam and Sadie throughout the years. And Marx? Damn Marx! I hate him for what happened!! That’s a lie. I love him. As Sam’s only other true best friend besides Sadie, Marx holds everything and everyone together. He literally loves to love. These four characters stole my heart, but in all different ways. They all contribute to this beautiful world that Zevin creates.
I have read stories about ‘life’ that end up boring and mundane. Where we are just put through the chronological series of events of strangers. While this was chronological, there were moments where we get to visit the past and moments we fast forward to the future allowing breaks in the traditional timeline. The video game industry provides a backdrop that isn’t just a stock, stereotypical environment or setting, but one that is unique and allows the characters to have just as much creative license as the author has in writing it.
Maybe some of my feelings come from the nostalgia that is created from being from the same generation as these characters. From my own hours and hours spent playing The Oregon Trail and Donkey Kong. From the idea that those moments were so powerful the the characters when they were first becoming friends, that they are referenced and important in decisions they make well into their adult years. Dungeons and Dragons, Tamagotchi, the Wii, Harry Potter, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 - there are so many references to my own life experiences that successfully sucked me in even deeper. They make you feel, and when a story moves you to the core, it’s truy a treasure. Not everyone will love this book, and that’s ok. Others will find their books that move them and they desparetly love.
“What's everyone talking about?" "The end of The Iliad.” "That's the best part," Marx said. "Why is it the best part?" Sadie asked. "Because it's perfect," Marx said. "'Tamer of horses' is an honest profession. The lines mean that one doesn't have to be a god or a king for your life to have meaning.”
Ichigo is the first game that Sam and Sadie make, and that success lead them through a successful career in building their company. However, as the first, Ichigo is always there, referenced frequently. We see this in life. A successful book or movie - when is the sequel coming out? And, I loved that there was no easy answer to this question that haunted them throughout the book - will Ichigo get its conclusion? As simple as it would have been, nothing Zevin did in this book was simple or even often expected. The mirror to the human experience. The decisions we make are not always the ones we expect or even make sense.
The book itself is divided into ten parts, and I’m only going to reference two of them.
Part 7: NPC. If you are not a gamer, NPC stands for non-player character. Those computer characters that are just there to help move a game along. This was the most powerful and emotional part of the entire book. It was also the most unexpected part. I honestly didn’t see the events of this “chapter” coming, and I think that made it more intense and real. Marx is the real MVP.
Part 9: Pioneers. This is obviously near the end of the book, but a part that shows the depth of the themes Zevin was developing up to this point. I will be frank, at first I was like “what in the world is happening?!?” I was very confused, but when it was over and reflected upon, it was all right there for everyone to see. It made so much sense and the fog of confusion was striped away. This part was a very clever structural approach in the writing. But also one, that I feel could go either way in how readers received it becuase it almost felt that the syntax shifted and I was reading a different book.
I will leave you with this little fact nugget: Daedalus is from Greek Mythology. Daedalus was the father of Icarus, but he was a Greek inventor, sculptor, and architect. I’ll let that sink in a little bit. If you have read this book, you will see the symbolic meaning here. It is these little references and allusions that add just one more layer to the depth of this story.
Where does this book land on my bookshelf?
If you have to ask, you clearly haven’t read the copious amounts of words I have already written. If I had a shelf higher than the top shelf, it would be there. If there were stars higher than 5, it would have those. These characters have become part of my soul. It will be a long time before I let them go. The title of the book itself is a reference to Shakespeare’s Macbeth which is referenced multiple times throughout the book. I’ve read that this book is a “magnificent feat in storytelling,” and I couldn’t agree more. I LOVE THIS FREAKING BOOK!
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Shakespeare’s Macbeth)
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
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