A review by lillianviolinist
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

3.5

I'm of two minds on this book. Many things were well done. The characters, while unlikeable, felt real as did their relationships, particularly in the first half. I thought it was in general very well- written, though there were some questionable turns of phrase  at times. I enjoyed the narrative structure of the book and how video game concepts were woven.

I like how the book ended like it began

  I was touched by Marx's chapter in the book - probably one of the best uses of second person I've read. 

However, there were some things that irked me about this novel. I think it loses clarity and focus as the text progresses. Zevin tries to tackle too many themes and hit too many historical points that the narrative structure, themes and character relationships set up previously suffer.

Similarly, while I enjoyed the idea of a long estrangement that mirrors their prior estrangement previously, I didn't buy it. Sadie and Sam supposedly own a multi-million dollar business together. Even if Sadie is completely checked out, there has to be some sort of legal reckoning on that front between the two. I also would've liked to live with Sadie through more of her pregnancy and postpartum- I think we lost critical insight when all of that was just treated from Sam's point of view. Also, I did not buy Sadie and Marx's relationship - he was made too pure for this world to be stuck with someone as poor at communication as Sadie.

I also found their professional success to be too convenient in this book. This magical success honestly seemed out of place in a novel full of personal suffering and challenges.