Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel

I learned about this book because a friend of mine was reading it as part of her book club. I thought maybe it would have been a fun topic for discussion. I ended up getting it and reading it in 3 nights while trying to go to sleep. She was not happy with me when I told her I'd read it and she was only a third of the way through. Nor did she connect with the characters at all, thinking them alien and strange. That assessment extended to me when I told her I saw elements of myself in the characters, especially Sam and his experience with Sadie. Superficially, the book is about 3 people who form a company to develop video games. In reality, and the reason it is powerful, is it grapples with creation and the development process, how love evolves over life-long friendships, and how the feelings associated with mutual intellectual pursuit and romantic attraction can become entangled. The book has nice lessons on how love persists even after a romance ends, how love persists but transforms over time, and how love can involve emotional and intellectual intimacy without romance. I really enjoyed the book because it tied into personal experience from 30 years ago. I was able to remember them and relive them. In my case it was aerospace-related development isolated with my equivalent of Sadie, but the emotional experience was much the same. It was wild and crazy and exhilarating and terrifying, but I would not have skipped it for the world. The video games described in the story aren't real but sound like games I would like to play. I don't know how realistic the development process is; my software development experience did not involve games. My only game development experience has been creating objects that go in a game, and that's more artwork than software development. One thing that did not sit true was the MIT professor Dov and the dysfunctional relationship he had with his student. I've studied there. I never saw anything like this. In reality, someone like Dov would have run afoul of the disciplinary committee quickly. Leaving this subplot out of the book would not have lost anything. In summary, I enjoyed the book because I resonated with the characters and it made me relive some of my life experiences. It's probably not for everyone, but I found it a an impactful and fun read.

This book seems to be sweeping the nation as the new “The Fault in Our Stars“. It’s got higher than 4 and a quarter stars for having 300,000 reviews, which means it’s a box office smash (at least as far as books ago). So what is it about? Is it a romance? An adventure? A family saga? Kind of all three, but also not all three. It’s the story of two people who create a video game company. These two, a girl and a guy, used to be friends as pre-teenagers, but had a falling out. In college, they both fall into programming which leads to video game making, which leads to the story at hand as they become friends and business partners. Also, it’s about the other people that come into their life as a result of that, such as the best friend/roommate who goes from theater major to video game producer and the girl’s college professor. The story takes place from 1995 up to present day. Let’s talk about the two main characters. One is Sam. His trauma is that he has a foot that was broken in a million places, a handicap which has made him taciturn and stoic, though he reads like autistic–overanalytical, judgemental, aloof. The second is Sadie who also found solace in video games, as her sister had childhood cancer and became the focus of the family’s attention. She bonded with Sam since they both were often in the children’s ward of the hospital. Sadie has bouts of depression and insecurity, even though she’s a game-making genius. This leads to an affair with her foreign-born video game professor who’s one of “those” types (egotistical, pompous, always thinks he’s right and everyone else’s opinion is wrong) and much unhealthy relationshippage occurs. From the first chapter, I wasn’t sure how this would go down. Since the first main character is Sam, it sounded “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time“. The writing sounded like writing. The dialogue did not sound like how people talk. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and continued. It starts out almost being a sick kids romance (The Fault in Our Stars, Everything, Everything, Five Feet Apart) But I was able to get past that and into the core of the book, which is about the creation of video games–what ludonarration means, video games as art, as ways to make the audience feel something. It romanticizes the idea of video game development, ignoring things like “crunch time“, running a business, office politics, and other meta elements that come with complex media production. Instead, the author focuses on the relationship between the people working on the project (e.g. game producers as public figures such as Will Wright or Richard Garriott). The author is writing video games not as they were but how she wishes they could be. Which would be fine… if the majority of this book didn’t take place in the past. See, the big video game they make is called “Ichigo” and the way they talk about it, it seems to be along the lines of “Limbo” or “Undertale”. It sounds artsy and avant-garde, which would be fine if this took place today. But in 1995, there were no such things. Video games didn’t make people cry in 1995. And they certainly weren’t used as pack-in games for new consoles, which is what this game becomes (as part of a plot point). The top games in 1995 were Quake, Duke Nukem 3-D, Command and Conquer, Super Mario 64, etc. War games. Shooters. Well-established franchises. You couldn’t be successful unless you were at least a little bit commercial. There is no freakin’ way someone would have made an artsy game as the pack-in. (They weren’t even using pack-ins anymore by this time.) And certainly not a game from a new unproven studio with just two people. There were no Bastions or Insides or Journeys or even Bioshocks that you could point to and say “here’s a successful example of the video game we’re making and that’s why this is going to work.” So that’s what bothers me the most–the backdrop is not plausible, and I pointed out a hundred times where “this wouldn’t have happened”, “no way should this have happened”, “the industry would have reamed them out if this happened”. The only game during this era I could even try to point to that succeeded was “Myst”. And that game succeeded because it had a big new gimmick–the CD-ROM which allowed complex graphics and FMVs. No such innovations in this book. It wasn’t until 2003 that companies started taking chances with non-traditional games (e.g. “Katamari Damacy” and “Shadow of the Colossus“). On the other hand, maybe this is the author writing about video games and how they evolved as she wishes they had been. Instead of it all being guns and gore and misogynistic heroes like Duke Nukem and Solid Snake, she wrote a universe where video games catered toward all genders instead of just guys. There’s no reason video games had to be marketed toward boys. It was just what they did in the eighties because executives believed in “there are toys for boys and toys for girls and there is no crossover.” There is good writing here. I particularly fell for the beautiful chapter in the third act break (no spoilers!). If you don’t know anything about video games as an industry, you will enjoy this book. If you do, you will probably be tempted to throw it away because of how unrealistically it portrays the industry. Myself, I’m halfway on it. The story itself feels like something that could make an excellent Netflix short series. The video game backdrop drove me nuts, but I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t the kind of book I wish I could write.

It has been a long time since a book has left me as mesmerized and energized as this one, and a long time since I’ve felt compelled to write a book review. Which is to say , Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is that kind of a book , a fantastic book. A book that leaves you wanting to do something , to be someone , just beyond the horizon of your own predictability. It is the sort of book that lingers on your lap for some time after you’ve turned the last page, makes you want to clear your morning schedule after you’ve been up all night reading, just to spend a little more time luxuriating in Zevin’s infinite world of possibility. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is the kind of book that makes zealots of complacent readers and idolaters of aspiring and established writers alike. I will admit, I was in no way drawn to the premise of this book. I have no interest in gaming. Or programming. In fact , this 400 page novel, ostensibly about three Harvard and MIT educated video game programmers, sat on my nightstand looking pretty for about a month. And it would have ended there except I’m an aesthete by nature, and it really was pretty. So it could not go ignored for too long. The cover is a work of art in and of itself. Psychedelic Tomorrows appear like scratchboard art etchings, suspended against a “storm tossed sea”- the iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa originally fashioned in 1831 by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. And while they say you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover , in this case , you would be wise to do just that. TTT is not just a book about gaming. Yes it’s the story of three programmers coming together to build something that will come to define a generation. But it’s more than that. It’s a book about coming together to build something that is more than the sum of its parts. A book about friendship, ambition, disability, and triumph and all the different kinds of love you will inevitability experience along the way. Zevin’s world is a physical world but also a digital one, a world of infinite possibilities. A where players can be reborn and cheat death a thousand times. A place where disability won’t impede your ability to soar to new horizons. Or to craft those horizons. Her characters are unforgettable. All MIT and Harvard prodigies in their own rights, we have Sam, a disabled Jewish-Korean orphan, Sadie, an Ashkenazi California native and Sam’s childhood best friend, business partner and fellow gamer. And there’s Marx, a Korean Zac Morris of sorts whose effortless beauty, generosity, and charisma often obscure the fact that he is as brilliant and creative as his quirkier tech-centric peers. In the 400 beautifully written pages of Zevin’s latest novel , These characters come together to form one of the strangest and most beautiful love stories you’ll come across in modern day literature. Friendship, as it turns out —-may be the greatest love of all. I won’t say more . At a certain point . You have to let the work speak for itself . Five stars

I had no idea what to expect when I started Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I had heard what an amazing book it was, that it was the book of the year for several outlets, and that it was a story about two friends making a video game together. But wow, was this book incredible! It touches on so many things, including the ups and downs of a multi-decade friendship, love, death and trauma, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s equality in the video game industry, mental health, race, and disability. I really don’t want this to be a spoiler, so I don’t want to give away too many plot details, but here is a brief synopsis: Sadie and Sam meet when they are around 12. Sam is in the hospital after a car accident. After their friendship is tested for the first time, they don’t talk for years, but they meet up again in college. It’s then that they decide to build their first video game together, along with their producer and friend, Marx. They create a game company and continue making more games over the years as their company grows and they become leaders in the video game industry. During this time, their friendship continues to be tested in so many ways as new colleagues come into their lives and love interests develop. A huge tragedy strikes, driving them apart for years. But in the end, their friendship comes full circle and begins healing once again. I LOVED the character development in this book. Sam, Sadie, Marx, and their colleagues and loves all felt so real—all with their own strengths and weaknesses. There are a couple very unique parts of this book. In one, Sam and Sadie are playing a video game Sam built, and the story is written from the perspective of their characters. Another breathtaking part has to do with a character in a coma and how they are processing the world around them. You don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy this book, because the true heart of this story revolves around the characters lives and relationships with each other. If you’re looking for a unique, beautiful, sometimes heartbreaking story, I highly recommend this book!

I was very disappointed with this book as the first 1/3 of it was simply enchanting and roped me right in. It's the mid-1990s in Boston and we quickly meet Sadie, an MIT freshman and Sam, her dear old friend from LA, who's now a student at Harvard, as well as Sam's handsome roommate, Marx. Three precocious college kids, who enter into an informal partnership designing a video game that becomes an international sensation and changes their lives as they establish a booming gaming design business in LA. All three have interesting past histories that are woven into the first chapters in very engaging flashbacks. No spoilers here, but perhaps unsurprisingly, with their great success comes doubt, apprehension and disagreement about what their shared future might bring, as well as sexual tensions and petty jealousies. I found myself genuinely moved by the issues Sam and Marx encountered as they matured into adults but the author seemed determined to make Sadie unreasonably and increasingly selfish, shrewish and unlikeable as the story continued into the 2000s and ended in 2014. It frankly puzzled me that a young female writer would draw her heroine like that when she was so empathetic to her two male characters and their more complex and poignant personalities. Unfortunately for me, Sadie never redeemed herself and brought down the buoyant mood of the story's beginnings. There are lots of details and descriptions of video gaming throughout the book, which I enjoyed at first but eventually tired of, as I have no experience with nor particular interest in the phenomena. Certainly, readers who are fans might well have a very different reading experience of this aspect than I did. And there are some wonderful supporting characters, including Sadie's wise grandmother, Sam's beautiful single mother, Marx's parents and a young gay male couple who become friends and colleagues with the leading trio, who I wish were all more fully fleshed out. Instead we just get more of Sadie's rather incomprehensible insecurities and paranoia. I think the book needed stronger editing and perhaps some cutting in the middle section. Nevertheless, I did find most of the book emotionally involving and I'm curious about reading the author's earlier success, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. And I look forward to Gabrielle Nevins' next book.

The author wrote that this novel was about work and equally about love. To me, this story has three major themes: friendship, enduring a one-sided romance and love in its many different forms. Maybe that’s the difference between the author’s intention and this reader’s interpretation. The book is also about starting a successful video-gaming company, though I saw that as the backdrop upon which the book’s characters lived their lives. This is very much a character-driven novel. And I simply enjoyed reading about these characters as they began living the start of their professional and emotional lives. This part constitutes the majority of the story. But then, at some point, the book takes a dramatic turn, making the story sadder and yet, counterintuitively, also a bit more fanciful (in parts). Still, the ending subtly evokes hope, but without subjecting the reader to a trite fairytale ending. Bottom line: Good character-driven drama. Has a “feels-real” tone (even though not everyone can create a successful video-gaming company).

Finally got this out of my tbr list….so glad I did. I am not a gamer but it fascinates me how people become immersed in games like I do in books! The concept that ties these two worlds together is games and books are a way to escape, immerse yourself in another world, and hopefully learn something about yourself or the world you are in. It’s living a thousand lives via technology rather than the crisp clean pages of a book. This story was so much more than about gaming…it’s also about human emotions and life events that touch even the most introverted of us. I enjoyed this book immensely and learned a lot of new words which was so refreshing! Great read….i would recommend whole heartedly!

A beautiful story of success, friendship, loss and love. Characters were flawed but relatable. Story was well written.

Great story. Intriguing interpersonal conflicts. Finely-etched characters....I *know* these people. And, of course, for people who love such things, lots and lots of video game lore. Zevin's fictional characters are as diverse as the factual America; my only criticism of Zevin's work is that she wears her characters' diversity on her sleeve. That is to say, the characters would still have been strong (arguably more so) if Zevin had chosen to be subtle with their diversity. Let the storytelling do the storytelling. Political undercurrents are more intriguing, more entertaining, and more artistically satisfying than political rallies. I will read this novel again after a few years, and I will keep an eye out for Zevin's next work.

Very nice book, really recommend it!

Enjoyed the book, love story with some ups and downs. Had a bit of nostalgia from some of the games mentioned in the books.

Enjoyable drama following the lives of 3 friends for about 30 years through youth and young adulthood. Interconnected relationships, lots of love and complications. Backdrop of tech and gaming.

This book made me cry and get angry at people I don't know for the first time since high school. 10/10 read for any millenial who grew up with vidya and would like 400 pages of nostalgia hit.