Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Lynnie
Amy   

contemporary fiction

Sadie and Sam met as children under difficult circumstances and formed a friendship, through gaming, which was abruptly ended. Later in life, after gaming had continued in both of their lives, they reconnected and decide to create a video game together. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow tells the story of their friendship.

 

Lynnie's Review

I absolutely adored Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (it made both my and Amy's lists of favorite books when we originally started this blog!), so I was excited to see Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (TTT) in my library’s list of
new releases.

Very different than A.J. Fikry, TTT is the story of Sam and Sadie and the ups and downs of their decades-long friendship, partnership, and overall relationship. As the book jacket says, “often in love, but never lovers” we see Sam and Sadie over the course of 30 years through their original meeting and as they grow up and apart and together over and over again.

Their friendship binds them, but the ribbons that connect and reconnect them are video games which are themselves a character in this novel. That’s not to say that you can’t enjoy this book if you’re not a gamer- you certainly can. Other than the games that Sam, Sadie, and their partner Marx create, the book doesn’t spend too much time talking about games; most of the older games get a name check and some references that are fun if you get them but not terribly annoying if you don’t. (I certainly missed as many as I got- particularly once their references jumped to the shooter-style games, a genre I have always avoided). But gaming gives them a connection and a reason to continue to come together and collaborate AND a cause for conflict as well.

I found myself equally enamored with and frustrated by both Sam and Sadie throughout the book, just as you would be with any friend. As an observer it was easy to see when they were being ridiculous or when they were right or when they should just step up & call the other one already! Over the years they navigated success, failure, love, depression and more.

There were times they each broke my heart and other times that made my heart leap with joy. Sam, Sadie, and the rest of the cast- Sam’s college roommate Marx, Sadie’s professor Dov, Sam’s grandparents Dong Hyun and Bong Cha and his mother Anna, and Sadie’s sister Alice… as well as other friends and co-workers blended together to create a realistic portrait of the intertwined lives of two people over time.

Overall, I just enjoyed spending time with with this cast of characters. There is one chapter that I didn’t love- if you’ve read it you can probably guess which one- and while I understood the point of the chapter & exactly what was going on, I admit I skimmed that chapter just to get to the other side of it. Still, it was well worth the time to read this wonderful exploration of love and friendship. 

Amy's Review

I loved Gabrielle Zevin’s other novel I read, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I recall that it left me feeling warm and fuzzy.  This novel is nothing like that. It’s colder and harder but Zevin still succeeded in making me care about these characters early in the story. Sadie and Sam were both awkward in their ways yet continued to be fascinated with each other despite playing down the impact each had on the other. Zevin did a great job divulging a little bit at a time about their pasts to keep things fun.

The gaming aspect was sometimes a hurdle for my enjoyment. Gaming has been a part of my life but never to such a degree as Sadie’s and Sam’s lives. I knew enough about it to appreciate the gaming-related difficulties they went through in the story. But it was the personalities and relationships in the novel which appealed to me much more than the business end of gaming. I often felt the gaming details, while a necessary evil for their story, got in the way.  In fact, about 60% of the way through the book it started to feel like the novel was going on for too long. There was too much emphasis on the game ideas when the only reason I wanted to keep reading was for the relationships. Later, Zevin circled back and almost made all the gaming details worthwhile in the way she treated an end of life experience. It was brilliant and, truly, almost poetic.

Sam and Sadie’s story was sometimes sweet, sometimes sad, sometimes shocking, and sometimes infuriating. Both of them seemed to put road blocks in their own way at times. For two people who knew each other so well, they really couldn’t bridge a critical gap for true connection.  They ended up succeeding in many things but it always felt like they could never really celebrate. Both were too good at sidestepping circumstances that needed further analysis and communication. It felt bittersweet and not fully satisfying. But it was still a good read.

The main narrator was Jennifer Kim. A small section was read by Julian Cihi. Unfortunately, Kim had a mostly robotic vocal delivery.  There was some emotion at times but, most of the time, her style was flat and boring.  Plus, the main two characters were Jewish and Korean and, while she did a great job with the Korean words, she failed on the Yiddish pronunciations.  Other than her failed attempt at an Israeli accent for a prominent secondary character, she really did not have a vocal repertoire and, therefore, conversations between two characters were sometimes difficult to follow. I honestly think I might’ve enjoyed the novel more if I’d not listened to the audiobook. I give her a C. However, Cihi was phenomenal. I wish he had narrated the entire novel. I understand what the producer was trying to do with his narration of the one section but his shining performance made Kim’s look all the worse. I give him an A.