I am ashamed! I fell behind again. I blinked and now the summer is nearly over. Well, my summer break, at least. This is my third catch-up post for weeks 13-18 (March 24 – May 4th). In my next posts I will be catching up on the art I consumed during the entire months of May and June and now parts of July.
Book: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin
Summary:
Set over the course of several decades, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows video game developers Sadie Green and Sam Masur, childhood friends who reunite while both studying at universities in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Along with Sam’s roommate and friend Marx Watanabe, Sam and Sadie begin developing a video game and later co-manage a successful video game studio, Unfair Games (“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” 2024).
My Thoughts:
My first love was a huge gamer, but he didn’t just love playing video games, he loved everything about them. He loved the stories, art, and learning about what it takes to make a video game. I spent many hours playing games with him, watching him play games I was too scared to try (e.g. Silent Hill), or just listening to him tell me everything about games like Kingdom Hearts, BioShock, Portal, or whichever game/series was his latest obsession. I loved listening to him dream about the games he would make one day and hearing his ideas for stories. I thought he and I would always be as close as we were then, but as it happens, life gets complicated and people drift apart.
This song is in Spanish, but I’ve always felt like it perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on this relationship:
Eramos dos niños
Eramos así
Había todo un mundo
Para descubrir
Pero aquella puerta
Nunca abierta está
Que tranquila es esta
La primera edad…
Eramos dos niños
Eramos igual
Eramos dos seres
Con el mismo plan
Mas la puerta se abre
Hacia la libertad
Las visiones cambian
En la inmensidad
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows two childhood best friends who bonded over their shared love of video games and later go on to create best-selling games together. It’s difficult for me to write about this book because the whole experience of reading it made me nostalgic for those days that I shared with the above-mentioned best friend as a teenager. Sometimes I can give you “objective” reviews about the art I consume, but other times it’s impossible for me not to make it about me and base my rating on my own experiences. I never thought I would make a video game, but I used to think that I would always have this friend and that I would be there along the way as he went on to pursue his dreams. Reading about Sam and Sadie felt like reading about what could have been had my friendship continued with this person. At the same time, it makes me yearn for the opportunity to have a creative partnership with another person.
Ok, now that I’ve let all of that out, I can talk more about the book itself and how it’s written. The book seamlessly switches from one point of view to another. At times, we follow Sam’s point of view, Sadie’s, or other characters’. There is even a section in which the reader is immersed in a video game and following the avatar’s point of view. The narration is also not completely linear and jumps from the present to the past. This writing style is somewhat experimental, and so it might not be appealing to readers who are more comfortable with a more conventional style of storytelling. I, however, love when authors take risks like these.
I read this book for a book club with some of my friends, and we all agreed that the two main characters are not completely likeable. They’re flawed and quite annoying at times. Again, this might bother some readers, but I think the characters’ flaws make them that much more real and relatable. If there is one “perfect” character in this story, it’s Marx Watanabe. He is so kind and charming, and reading about him makes you wish you had a Marx in your own life or that you could be as good of a friend as he is.
I really have no complaints about this book. It’s a great book to read if you want to learn more about the world of making video games. On top of that, it’s incredibly well-written and it explores many ideas: friendship, romantic relationships, sexuality, following one’s dreams, disabilities, trauma, loss, and grief. This is the kind of book I probably would have read as an English major. It has so much in it to study and discuss, from the craft of how it’s written to analyzing the different characters’ motivations. I highly, highly recommend reading this book! I normally don’t re-read books, but I have a feeling this is one I would revisit someday when I finally get around to writing essays/video essays and not just reviews.
Coming back to what I said earlier about my old friend, he is now independent game, software and web developer. He recently made a music video and is working on releasing his first game. If you would like to show him some love, check out his website here and watch the music video below!:
My Rating:
References:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. (2024, July 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:14, July 20, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tomorrow,_and_Tomorrow,_and_Tomorrow&oldid=1233547451
One Per Week 
Leave a comment