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A review by jefferz
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
With only a few days left before the end of the year, I can confidently say I found my top book of 2023. I don't even know where to start with this one, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a love letter novel to every gamer out there who once had a dream about creating their own game but that's only half of the novel's contents. The other half is a perfectly pitched, nuanced story of two 10 yr old kids (eventually three friends) who meet playing Super Mario and the way their friendship, work partnership, and lives intertwine up to their late 30's.
Admittedly I generally have a hard time reading novels that span a wide range of a character's life mainly due to the difficulty of writing and portraying the maturity and emotions. However, Gabrielle Zevin has made me a believer by the sheer consistency and quality throughout this 400 page story. Starting with the two main leads Sam Masur and Sadie Green, both are incredibly well-developed characters who both compliment and clash with each other a variety of different areas. Character backstories are well-developed and incredibly varied heavily addressing the identify crisis that often comes with being half Asia/White (Sam), having parents of different Asian ethnicities and languages (Marx), a Jewish upbringing and wealth (Sadie), not to mention even exploring their own parent's experiences. Not only are these different cultures explored, but they portrayed with so much detail that the characters feel like real flesh and blood. This is evident during a trip to Japan incorporating Marx's paternal side, the detailed aesthetic of LA's K-town, or the stifling and the (particularly worse at the time) sexism MIT and the gaming industry as a whole.
What makes Tomorrow... particularly exceptional to me is that excessive details are all consciously placed and utilized. I've read multiple contemporary novels that excessively drown the reader in either sensory information or monotonous day to day detail hoping for greater immersion. Here every detail, character background, event all has a part to play in shaping the characters experiences and psyche. Details about Sam's grandmother's car interior and decor relating to her class and sass, Sadie's college apartment disaster as a metaphor for her state of depression, the difference in interiors between Unfair Games' original vs LA office, everything has a purpose. I know this should be assumed and expected in any well done book, but this one was actually perfect. The level of detail and research that was put into this is a standout element. Gabrielle Zevin has a long list of acknowledgements towards research sources and inspirations and it shows. The game development process and struggle feels real and even proto-type school experimental games included as narrative pieces are innovative and compelling.
As Sam and Sadie's experiences with game dev grows, the novel incorporates important historic events and political/cultural topics with great relevance. There's the aftermath of 9/11 and people seeking comforting experiences and games, there's the boom of the internet and mmorpg's, politics and liberal leanings in gaming, somehow even the legalization of same-sex marriage. The novel is broken up roughly in distinctive parts that focus on a particular stage of Sam and Sadie's lives. Each part has various different themes but the pacing is always consistent. While the parts are roughly told in chronological order, there are often flashbacks, flashfowards(?), shifts in perspectives (to Marx, side characters, even Sam's mother Anna) that are seamlessly woven in based on the current scenes and topics. The writing tone and sentence structure also varies considerably between parts ranging from standard conversational language, a present-tense RPG-style readout, endless run on sentences when a character is spiraling, yet it works. SpoilerThere are two parts that are written as-is with no chapter divisions included to emphasis how different they are. One of these chapters uses an RPG adventure dialogue prompt that serves as a metaphor for the slow deterioration of the mind as one of the characters die. It's tragic, moving, distinctive, and genius.
Obviously despite how impressive I found this book, it will not be for everyone. There are certainly some triggering elements that should be considered for those who are sensitive to certain topics. There are elements of bdsm and sexual control (nothing salacious and but worth mentioning), language (particularly the LGBT F-word slur in one part), depression, gun violence, and death. They are all handled tactfully and aren't just thrown in for shock value, however the narrative grows substantially darker and more serious which may not be evident based on the synopsis. That being said, I applaud the novel for even taking a stab at these topics let alone pulling them off as well as I thought it did.
Ultimately I feel like I'm at a lost for words for just how good I thought Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was. The prose, the plot, the characters, the details, this is pure quality through and through. This novel does have a habit of using miscommunication as a plot device (one of my biggest pet peeves), however the character's thought processes and psyche are so well developed, the miscommunication actually makes sense and is justified. The topics that are covered (particularly when Sam/Sadie and co. are in their late 20's onward) are amazingly relatable and very relative in today's culture. While not a pleasant read at times, I could not put this down and finished it within 48 hrs. I had slight reservations when I saw this was last year's winner for Best Fiction 2022 on Goodreads as I am often a snob wanting quality over feels/vibes, but the win is more than justified. If you want a legitimately good novel to read and share even half of my taste in novels, you need to give this one a try.
Admittedly I generally have a hard time reading novels that span a wide range of a character's life mainly due to the difficulty of writing and portraying the maturity and emotions. However, Gabrielle Zevin has made me a believer by the sheer consistency and quality throughout this 400 page story. Starting with the two main leads Sam Masur and Sadie Green, both are incredibly well-developed characters who both compliment and clash with each other a variety of different areas. Character backstories are well-developed and incredibly varied heavily addressing the identify crisis that often comes with being half Asia/White (Sam), having parents of different Asian ethnicities and languages (Marx), a Jewish upbringing and wealth (Sadie), not to mention even exploring their own parent's experiences. Not only are these different cultures explored, but they portrayed with so much detail that the characters feel like real flesh and blood. This is evident during a trip to Japan incorporating Marx's paternal side, the detailed aesthetic of LA's K-town, or the stifling and the (particularly worse at the time) sexism MIT and the gaming industry as a whole.
What makes Tomorrow... particularly exceptional to me is that excessive details are all consciously placed and utilized. I've read multiple contemporary novels that excessively drown the reader in either sensory information or monotonous day to day detail hoping for greater immersion. Here every detail, character background, event all has a part to play in shaping the characters experiences and psyche. Details about Sam's grandmother's car interior and decor relating to her class and sass, Sadie's college apartment disaster as a metaphor for her state of depression, the difference in interiors between Unfair Games' original vs LA office, everything has a purpose. I know this should be assumed and expected in any well done book, but this one was actually perfect. The level of detail and research that was put into this is a standout element. Gabrielle Zevin has a long list of acknowledgements towards research sources and inspirations and it shows. The game development process and struggle feels real and even proto-type school experimental games included as narrative pieces are innovative and compelling.
As Sam and Sadie's experiences with game dev grows, the novel incorporates important historic events and political/cultural topics with great relevance. There's the aftermath of 9/11 and people seeking comforting experiences and games, there's the boom of the internet and mmorpg's, politics and liberal leanings in gaming, somehow even the legalization of same-sex marriage. The novel is broken up roughly in distinctive parts that focus on a particular stage of Sam and Sadie's lives. Each part has various different themes but the pacing is always consistent. While the parts are roughly told in chronological order, there are often flashbacks, flashfowards(?), shifts in perspectives (to Marx, side characters, even Sam's mother Anna) that are seamlessly woven in based on the current scenes and topics. The writing tone and sentence structure also varies considerably between parts ranging from standard conversational language, a present-tense RPG-style readout, endless run on sentences when a character is spiraling, yet it works. SpoilerThere are two parts that are written as-is with no chapter divisions included to emphasis how different they are. One of these chapters uses an RPG adventure dialogue prompt that serves as a metaphor for the slow deterioration of the mind as one of the characters die. It's tragic, moving, distinctive, and genius.
Obviously despite how impressive I found this book, it will not be for everyone. There are certainly some triggering elements that should be considered for those who are sensitive to certain topics. There are elements of bdsm and sexual control (nothing salacious and but worth mentioning), language (particularly the LGBT F-word slur in one part), depression, gun violence, and death. They are all handled tactfully and aren't just thrown in for shock value, however the narrative grows substantially darker and more serious which may not be evident based on the synopsis. That being said, I applaud the novel for even taking a stab at these topics let alone pulling them off as well as I thought it did.
Ultimately I feel like I'm at a lost for words for just how good I thought Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was. The prose, the plot, the characters, the details, this is pure quality through and through. This novel does have a habit of using miscommunication as a plot device (one of my biggest pet peeves), however the character's thought processes and psyche are so well developed, the miscommunication actually makes sense and is justified. The topics that are covered (particularly when Sam/Sadie and co. are in their late 20's onward) are amazingly relatable and very relative in today's culture. While not a pleasant read at times, I could not put this down and finished it within 48 hrs. I had slight reservations when I saw this was last year's winner for Best Fiction 2022 on Goodreads as I am often a snob wanting quality over feels/vibes, but the win is more than justified. If you want a legitimately good novel to read and share even half of my taste in novels, you need to give this one a try.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence
Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship