Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
In this exhilarating novel, two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
MY OPINION: ****
I went into this book with virtually no idea of what I was getting into and emerged shocked and a changed woman. I had heard so many incredible things about this book but the premise of it wasn't the most intriguing for me personally. Two video game developers across multiple decades team up to make games together. But it's so much more than that.
There are things about this book that are just simply unexplainable. You have to read it yourself to truly understand. There were parts of it that were truly incredible and evidence of literary prowess. I enjoyed myself throughout this entire novel, from beginning to end. There were several sections where it felt like it was coming from a whole different book but I had fun with the different styles and diversity of writing in this novel.
I will say that I did not really connect with Sadie or Sam on the level I had hoped I would. I was Sadie's biggest hater, I'm sorry. She aggravated me to no end. She seemed to only care about herself and was so fiercely competitive and toxic that I could not bring myself to find any redeeming quality in her. She was annoying and rude to Sam and then blamed everything on the people around her rather than evaluating the situation and perhaps realizing that she was indeed the problem. Sam, on the other hand, was sweet and lovable but also wasn't my favorite because of how submissive and naive he felt to me as a character. I wanted to shake him and make him open his eyes to understand what was happening around him because he always felt like he was living under a blindfold.
Every single problem that happened in this book could probably have been fixed if Sam and Sadie literally grew up and spoke to each other. Aside from the ending/plottwist, I was aggravated to no end when they both refused to speak to their partner about their problems and caused more problems. It was like, please, for the love of all things holy, SPEAK TO EACH OTHER LIKE NORMAL ADULTS. I think since we were supposed to be following them across decades of their lives, we should have been able to see development and maturation of these characters but instead, they literally seemed to be regressing at times. At least when they were children, they spoke to each other like normal human beings.
I am not the biggest fan of literary fiction, especially when writers decide to create something that reads as pretentious. I have to say this was definitely very pretentious-sounding but at the same time, I enjoyed the book so much I was willing to look past it. I feel like Sally Rooney lovers will like this book, which is ironic because I am definitely not a fan of Sally Rooney. The writing style was definitely unique and one-of-a-kind and I enjoyed the prose in an unexpected way.
The ending was insane and blew my mind. I was so caught off guard and while I did not cry, I was devastated internally. I was actually in denial for a good 30 pages or so before I finally realized that what had happened was real. I couldn't believe she did us so wrong like that.
Overall, I'd 100% recommend this book to literary fiction lovers and even those looking to try something new. It's definitely an interesting and beautifully-written novel.
Main Character: Sadie, Sam
Sidekick(s): Marx, friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, homophobia, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all real to life.
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