Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a coming of age novel that explores themes like love and friendship, creative work, childhood trauma, disability, sexism, grief and violence. It is also This is a difficult book to review, because it explores so many different themes. For me the central theme would have to be the notion that the most important person in our life need not fit the role of lover or spouse or child, that we might discover the person who means the most is a friend or colleague.
It follows Sadie Green and Sam Masur for over three decades as they play and build video games together. The two meet as kids in the game room of a children’s hosipital. Here they bond over video games, playing together for countless hours and in the process grow fond of each other. That chapter of their lives ends with a falling-out until they literally cross paths at a subway station eight years later, when Sam gets Sadie’s attention with a classic video game statement “Sadie Miranda Green. You have died of dysentery!“. I love that Zevin gives Sam and Sadie a second meet-cute moment that is just as endearing as the first one in the children’s hospital.
They go on to create a massively successful video game and eventually start their own company alongside Marx Watanabe- who is Sam’s flatmate. Marx’s character works as part time mediator balancing out the creative differences between Sam and Sadie and he adds a welcome warmth to the sometimes tense atmosphere. We follow the trio as they navigate the ups and downs of professional and personal life. Zevin writes about the emotional nuances that arise from misunderstanding, loss of trust, heartbreak, and loneliness with mastery.
Sam and Sadie share a friendship that is comlpex and trying yet enduring. All along I kept guessing whether or not this is a case of friends-to-lovers. It reminds me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, when Monique’s mother describes the kind of love in her marriage, that for her intimacy wasn’t as much physical as it was to be looked after, appreciated and understood.
I listened to the audiobook which was really well produced. Whenever I wasn’t listening to it, I was excited to go back into that world- which is always a good sign. In some parts as I was listening to it, I found myself wanting to read the text. Because I find that sometimes I want to dwell on a sentence, which is easy to do with text and quite inconvenient with the audiobook. I’ll definitely come back, next time to “read” this book. I love that I can look forward to an on-screen adaptation of this book and speculate about the casting, all thanks to Paramount for buying the $2 million script.
Here are some of my favorite highlights.
- “And what is love in the end” Alabaster said, “except the irrational desire to put evolutionary competitiveness aside to ease someone else’s journey through life.”
- “Life is very long unless it is not.”
- “What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”
- “The way to turn an ex-lover into a friend is to never stop loving them, to know that when one phase of a relationship ends it can transform into something else. It is to acknowledge that love is both a constant and a variable at the same time.”
- “Sam’s doctor said to him, “The good news is that the pain is in your head.” But I am in my head, Sam thought.”