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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: Review & Summary
Book Title: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Number of Pages: 401
Audiobook Narrated by: Jennifer Kim and Julian Cihi
Listening Length: 13 hours and 52 minutes
Goodreads rating: 4.24 (376,000 ratings)
Published in: 2022
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Summary
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- New York Times Best Seller
- Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award Goodreads Choice for Best Fiction (2022)
- Wingate Prize Nominee
- Los Angeles Times Book Club Pick
- One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, GoodReads, Oprah Daily, Time
- A Jimmy Fallon Book Club Pick
- A Time Must-Read Book of the Year
- A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction
- BookPage Best Fiction of the Year
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a remarkable novel that takes place over a span of thirty years. The story follows two childhood friends, Sam Masur and Sadie Green, who reunite unexpectedly on a subway platform. Initially pretending not to hear Sam, Sadie eventually acknowledges him, and this marks the beginning of a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.
Despite still being in college, Sam and Sadie embark on a creative journey, leveraging borrowed money and favors to create their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Their talent and ambition propel them to instant success, and at a remarkably young age, they become renowned, brilliant, successful, and wealthy.
However, their accomplishments do not shield them from the challenges that arise from their own creative aspirations and the complications that arise in matters of the heart.
The novel takes readers on a journey through time and place, spanning from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to California, and beyond. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow explores themes of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive power of play, and, above all, the human need for connection and love.
With its intricate storytelling and vivid imagination, Gabrielle Zevin’s novel captivates readers as they delve into the lives of Sam and Sadie, witnessing their triumphs and the failures they encounter along the way.
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Praise for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow :
“Delightful and absorbing…Zevin burns precisely zero calories arguing that game designers are creative artists of the highest order. Instead, she accepts that as a given, and wisely so, for the best of them plainly are…Expansive and entertaining…Dozens of Literary Gamers will cherish the world she’s lovingly conjured. Meanwhile, everyone else will wonder what took them so long to recognize in video games the beauty and drama and pain of human creation.”
—Tom Bissell, The New York Times
“A tour de force… A moving demonstration of the blended power of fiction and gaming….Zevin describes herself as ‘a lifelong gamer.’ That level of experience could very well have produced a story of hermetically sealed nostalgia impenetrable to anyone who doesn’t still own a copy of ‘Space Invaders.’ But instead, she’s written a novel that draws any curious reader into the pioneering days of a vast entertainment industry too often scorned by bookworms. And with the depth and sensitivity of a fine fiction writer, she argues for the abiding appeal of the flickering screen.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“Whatever its subject, when a novel is powerful enough, it transports us readers deep into worlds not our own. That’s true of Moby Dick, and it’s certainly true of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which renders the process of designing a great video game as enthralling as the pursuit of that great white whale….There are…smart ruminations here about cultural appropriation, given that the game, Ichigo, is inspired by Japanese artist Hokusai’s famous painting The Great Wave at Kanagawa….It’s a big, beautifully written novel about an underexplored topic, that succeeds in being both serious art and immersive entertainment.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
“Engrossing….Though it contains plenty of nostalgia for the pioneer age of 1990s game design, this isn’t primarily a novel of nerdy insider references….Videogames happen to be the medium by which [Zevin’s characters] best express themselves and share in each other’s life.”
—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
“Woven throughout [Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow] are meditations on originality, appropriation, the similarities between video games and other forms of art, the liberating possibilities of inhabiting a virtual world, and the ways in which platonic love can be deeper and more rewarding—especially in the context of a creative partnership—than romance.”
—The New Yorker
“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a celebration of the narratives, in video games and in life, that reinforce just how important connection really is. In following Sam and Sadie’s journey from Massachusetts to California and into the imagined worlds of their games, Zevin writes the most precious kind of love story.”
—Annabel Gutterman, Time
“You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate the pulsing heart of this best-seller: In a story spanning three decades and references from Oregon Trail to Macbeth, Gabrielle Zevlin has written a modern, definitive story about work, love, and friends for whom you’d do and risk everything.”
—Keely Weiss and Halie Lesavage, Harper’s Bazaar
Quotes from Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow :
What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
And what is love, in the end?” Alabaster said. “Except the irrational desire to put evolutionary competitiveness aside in order to ease someone else’s journey through life?”― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
The way to turn an ex-lover into a friend is to never stop loving them, to know that when one phase of a relationship ends it can transform into something else. It is to acknowledge that love is both a constant and a variable at the same time.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Why wouldn’t you tell someone you loved them? Once you loved someone, you repeated it until they were tired of hearing it. You said it until it ceased to have meaning. Why not? Of course, you goddamn did.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
We are all living, at most, half of a life, she thought. There was the life you lived, which consisted of the choices you made. And then, there was the other life, the one that was the things you hadn’t chosen.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
This is what time travel is. It’s looking at a person, and seeing them in the present and the past, concurrently. And that mode of transport only worked with those one had known a significant time.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow The Creative Muggle Review
From the very beginning, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow had me hooked. There was so much going on that I couldn’t put it down. I mean, I’m not even a gamer myself but somehow, Gabrielle Zevin’s storytelling skills had me completely immersed in the world of these gamers. There were moments when it was truly entertaining and addictive, but not always. Nevertheless, even as a non-gamer, I found myself captivated by the struggles and triumphs of these characters.
Zevin has a knack for depicting her characters in a way that reminded me of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novels. Reid can effortlessly make you love or hate her characters, and Zevin has a similar talent. However, where Zevin falls short is in her characters’ ability to express themselves. Whether it’s Sam or Sadie, they aren’t the best at conveying their true nature. And speaking of the characters, I must say that I developed a strong dislike for Sadie. Yes, she is ambitious and intelligent, but her true colors reveal a selfish and self-centered nature. Witnessing Sadie treating Sam, who had a traumatized childhood and underwent a foot amputation, poorly was truly unbearable.
On the other hand, despite his tantrums and emotional meltdowns, Sam became my favorite. He endures numerous hardships throughout the story, and he’s far from perfect, but he’s the kind of friend you’d want to have in your corner.
All in all, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was an okay read. Please don’t go into it expecting a life-changing story. However, the experience of getting to know these gamers and their often challenging lives is worth reading in my opinion.
The Creative Muggle Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
What to Read After Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow?
Looking for similar books like Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow? Here are a few novels that include familiar themes and characters.
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
- I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
About the Author Gabrielle Zevin
Gabrielle Zevin is a New York Times best-selling author and screenwriter. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, is her tenth novel.
Zevin’s previous novel The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry also achieved great success, achieved international acclaim, selling over five million copies worldwide.
Another notable work by Zevin is Young Jane Young, which won the Southern Book Prize and was included in the Washington Post’s list of Fifty Notable Works of Fiction. Zevin is a graduate of Harvard University and currently resides in Los Angeles. Visit Gabrielle Zevin’s website.
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