Helpful Score: 3
This novel exceeded my expectations in almost every way.
A true insight into how our internal, emotional lives steer the ship in our relationships. How the relationships we have with people, no matter how complicated, are the glue that holds us together.
A true insight into how our internal, emotional lives steer the ship in our relationships. How the relationships we have with people, no matter how complicated, are the glue that holds us together.
Helpful Score: 1
I love the start of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It is sweet and heart wrenching This book covers a lot of time but it is character and not plot driven. For that to work, the characters must evolve. Sadie and Sam â but especially Sadie â do not. Reader beware, this book also includes a relationship between a married individual in a position of authority with a younger, impressionable individual in their authority. Sadly, while I enjoy the look at the world of gaming, this story was not for me.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2023/10/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow.html
Reviewed for NetGalley.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2023/10/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow.html
Reviewed for NetGalley.
A few years ago, I read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Zevin and was really enthralled by it. When I first heard of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, I didn't realize it was written by the same author but when I discovered this, it made me all the more eager to read it.
Tomorrow is the story of two young people, Sam Masur and Sadie Green who meet at a hospital when they were 11 and 10 years old respectively. Sam was in the hospital recovering from a traumatizing car accident that left his left foot shattered. Sadie is there visiting her sister who has cancer. They meet in a game room and become friends playing video games. Sadie is the only person who is able to draw Sam out of his shell and make him conversant again after the accident. So Sadie agrees to continue visiting him and as a result she gets community service hours needed for her bat mitzvah. When Sam finds this out, he thinks Sadie was only there for the service hours and doesn't speak to her again for six years when they randomly meet at a subway station in Boston. They are both drawn to a "Magic Eye" poster at the station advertising the popular book where you can see 3D images if you correctly focus your eyes which Sam cannot seem to do. The two friends get back together and a collaboration between the two begins resulting in a successful company that produces video games over the next few decades. But are Sam and Sadie more than friends or are they only business colleagues. Sadie has affairs with a couple of men along the way including Sam's friend Marx who is also made the producer of the video games created by Sam and Sadie. There are more falling outs between Sam and Sadie along the way with Marx trying to be the peace maker. And then more tragedy happens.
I am not a video gamer and this book is basically played out against the background of games and gamers. But I was drawn into the story even though I have not played a video game since the arcades of the 80's when Pac-Man and Space Invaders were games of choice. The story is mostly about the very well-drawn characters. At its heart it's a love story but also includes a lot of trauma for all the characters. Sam, Sadie, and Marx will be hard to forget.
Tomorrow is the story of two young people, Sam Masur and Sadie Green who meet at a hospital when they were 11 and 10 years old respectively. Sam was in the hospital recovering from a traumatizing car accident that left his left foot shattered. Sadie is there visiting her sister who has cancer. They meet in a game room and become friends playing video games. Sadie is the only person who is able to draw Sam out of his shell and make him conversant again after the accident. So Sadie agrees to continue visiting him and as a result she gets community service hours needed for her bat mitzvah. When Sam finds this out, he thinks Sadie was only there for the service hours and doesn't speak to her again for six years when they randomly meet at a subway station in Boston. They are both drawn to a "Magic Eye" poster at the station advertising the popular book where you can see 3D images if you correctly focus your eyes which Sam cannot seem to do. The two friends get back together and a collaboration between the two begins resulting in a successful company that produces video games over the next few decades. But are Sam and Sadie more than friends or are they only business colleagues. Sadie has affairs with a couple of men along the way including Sam's friend Marx who is also made the producer of the video games created by Sam and Sadie. There are more falling outs between Sam and Sadie along the way with Marx trying to be the peace maker. And then more tragedy happens.
I am not a video gamer and this book is basically played out against the background of games and gamers. But I was drawn into the story even though I have not played a video game since the arcades of the 80's when Pac-Man and Space Invaders were games of choice. The story is mostly about the very well-drawn characters. At its heart it's a love story but also includes a lot of trauma for all the characters. Sam, Sadie, and Marx will be hard to forget.
This is the fourth book I have read by this author, and unfortunately, I was quite disappointed in the story.Â
Sam Masur is a biracial son of a Jewish father and Korean mother living in Los Angeles and being raised by his Korean grandparents, Dong Hyun and Bong Cha Lee. While recovering from surgery due to a terrible car accident, he meets Sadie Green, who happens to be visiting her older sister Alice, recovering from Leukemia. Both Sadie and Sam bond over Super Mario Brothers in the game room at the hospital. She lives in Beverly Hills while he lives in Koreatown. Sadie's visits help Sam out of his depression thus, she continues to visit and use the time towards her community service for her Bat Mitzvah. Regrettably, Sam finds out, and as a result, the two of them have a falling-out.Â
Six years later, both of them reunite by chance at a train station in New England. Sam is studying math at Harvard and Sadie is studying engineering at MIT. After ignoring Sam's emails, Sam drops by Sadie's apartment and discovers she is suffering from depression. So he begins to come over every day to help cheer her up. Later on, we discover that the reason for her depression is she had just had an abortion. She had gotten pregnant with her ex-boyfriend (who happened to be married at the time), Dov Mizrah, her gaming instructor at MIT. Dov is famous for designing Dead Sea, a game with much-admired graphics and a unique engine.Â
Both Sadie and Sam decide to create Ichigo, an adventure game about a child lost at sea trying to find his way back home. Regrettably, they struggle to develop a graphics engine thus, Sam encourages Sadie to ask Dov for the use of his own, and consequently, the two resume their affair. Marx Watanabe, Sam's roommate, acts as the producer of Ichigo.Â
Unfair Games is the video game studio owned and managed by Marx, Sadie, and Sam. After Ichigo is complete, Opus Interactive produces the game, and Sam helps promote Ichigo by going on tour thus, the game becomes a huge success. Alas, the undo stress on his left foot from the endless game tour, the numerous surgeries, and the postsurgical complications leads Sam to eventually have his foot amputated. At this point, all three decide to move to LA to establish a corporate office for Unfair Games and gives Sadie the opportunity to break up with Dov especially since he was becoming more and more physically and verbally abusive towards her
Sadie goes to Japan with Marx, and both end up having sex for the first time. Sadly, Sam finds out about their relationship and is depressed about the news because he loves Sadie and secretly wished the two of them would eventually become a couple.
Sam decides to allow same sex marriages in the game Mapleworld, which results in 50,000 people canceling their accounts and 200,000 people joining. Immediately after, the hate mail and death threats by email and snail mail arrive earmarked for Sam. Regrettably, Sam decides to continue to push political statements in his game, which leads to one of the members of an extreme right wing shooting and killing Marx.Â
I really wanted to love this book but I found the pace to be quite slow and the author put in too many social and political topics such as abortion, disability, mass shooting, same sex marriages,....
Sam Masur is a biracial son of a Jewish father and Korean mother living in Los Angeles and being raised by his Korean grandparents, Dong Hyun and Bong Cha Lee. While recovering from surgery due to a terrible car accident, he meets Sadie Green, who happens to be visiting her older sister Alice, recovering from Leukemia. Both Sadie and Sam bond over Super Mario Brothers in the game room at the hospital. She lives in Beverly Hills while he lives in Koreatown. Sadie's visits help Sam out of his depression thus, she continues to visit and use the time towards her community service for her Bat Mitzvah. Regrettably, Sam finds out, and as a result, the two of them have a falling-out.Â
Six years later, both of them reunite by chance at a train station in New England. Sam is studying math at Harvard and Sadie is studying engineering at MIT. After ignoring Sam's emails, Sam drops by Sadie's apartment and discovers she is suffering from depression. So he begins to come over every day to help cheer her up. Later on, we discover that the reason for her depression is she had just had an abortion. She had gotten pregnant with her ex-boyfriend (who happened to be married at the time), Dov Mizrah, her gaming instructor at MIT. Dov is famous for designing Dead Sea, a game with much-admired graphics and a unique engine.Â
Both Sadie and Sam decide to create Ichigo, an adventure game about a child lost at sea trying to find his way back home. Regrettably, they struggle to develop a graphics engine thus, Sam encourages Sadie to ask Dov for the use of his own, and consequently, the two resume their affair. Marx Watanabe, Sam's roommate, acts as the producer of Ichigo.Â
Unfair Games is the video game studio owned and managed by Marx, Sadie, and Sam. After Ichigo is complete, Opus Interactive produces the game, and Sam helps promote Ichigo by going on tour thus, the game becomes a huge success. Alas, the undo stress on his left foot from the endless game tour, the numerous surgeries, and the postsurgical complications leads Sam to eventually have his foot amputated. At this point, all three decide to move to LA to establish a corporate office for Unfair Games and gives Sadie the opportunity to break up with Dov especially since he was becoming more and more physically and verbally abusive towards her
Sadie goes to Japan with Marx, and both end up having sex for the first time. Sadly, Sam finds out about their relationship and is depressed about the news because he loves Sadie and secretly wished the two of them would eventually become a couple.
Sam decides to allow same sex marriages in the game Mapleworld, which results in 50,000 people canceling their accounts and 200,000 people joining. Immediately after, the hate mail and death threats by email and snail mail arrive earmarked for Sam. Regrettably, Sam decides to continue to push political statements in his game, which leads to one of the members of an extreme right wing shooting and killing Marx.Â
I really wanted to love this book but I found the pace to be quite slow and the author put in too many social and political topics such as abortion, disability, mass shooting, same sex marriages,....
I was really looking forward to reading this book because the summary was so intriguing and it was far outside my genre I usually enjoy. It was... interesting. I can't say I will read it again, and I can't say I will recommend it. However, I did finish it.
I don't mind if a book has "sensitive topics" in it, but I feel like it has to be important to the story. This book had drug use, sex, and foul language that really wasn't important to the book. For that, I won't be reading it again, and I have taken off some stars.
I don't mind if a book has "sensitive topics" in it, but I feel like it has to be important to the story. This book had drug use, sex, and foul language that really wasn't important to the book. For that, I won't be reading it again, and I have taken off some stars.
** spoiler alert ** I wasn't sure what to expect from Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, but I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this story which kept me very engaged. On the surface, it's a tale about two friends making video games together for most of their young adulthood, but it's so much more than that; it's a rich exploration of their lives, relationships, and personal growth.
The characters of Sam and Sadie are well-developed and relatable, making it easy to become invested in their journeys. I loved how Sam and Sadie met as tweens and was heartbroken over their misunderstanding which resulted in a long break in their initial friendship. There is SO much to unpack here, I can't do this review justice. The story picks up as Sadie and Sam find each other again and their saga takes off as they play, design, and promote games over the course of thirty years.
There are other pieces of their lives woven into the main story: what happened to Sam's foot and the part his disability played on his relationship with Sadie; Sadie's relationships with other men, and how one of her early and impressionable love affairs with her mentor shaped her world as a gaming architect; Sadie's love affair with Sam's roommate Marx, who was not only the producer of the video games they created, but who tried to keep the peace when Sadie and Sam argued and disagreements about the games they were designing and over their own personal friendships. Lastly I enjoyed the other minor but still-meaningful characters throughout their lives that lent insight to all of their complex situations. Messy, just like in real life.
As a child of the 80's (GenX) I also enjoyed how Zevin's use of video games as a platform to explore the human experience added a nostalgic touch for those of us who grew up playing games (Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc). The book also tackles heavy topics like disability, depression, gun violence, death and loss, difficult relationships, and personal identity in a subtle and thoughtful way making for a beautiful and emotional read.
The characters of Sam and Sadie are well-developed and relatable, making it easy to become invested in their journeys. I loved how Sam and Sadie met as tweens and was heartbroken over their misunderstanding which resulted in a long break in their initial friendship. There is SO much to unpack here, I can't do this review justice. The story picks up as Sadie and Sam find each other again and their saga takes off as they play, design, and promote games over the course of thirty years.
There are other pieces of their lives woven into the main story: what happened to Sam's foot and the part his disability played on his relationship with Sadie; Sadie's relationships with other men, and how one of her early and impressionable love affairs with her mentor shaped her world as a gaming architect; Sadie's love affair with Sam's roommate Marx, who was not only the producer of the video games they created, but who tried to keep the peace when Sadie and Sam argued and disagreements about the games they were designing and over their own personal friendships. Lastly I enjoyed the other minor but still-meaningful characters throughout their lives that lent insight to all of their complex situations. Messy, just like in real life.
As a child of the 80's (GenX) I also enjoyed how Zevin's use of video games as a platform to explore the human experience added a nostalgic touch for those of us who grew up playing games (Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc). The book also tackles heavy topics like disability, depression, gun violence, death and loss, difficult relationships, and personal identity in a subtle and thoughtful way making for a beautiful and emotional read.
