'What if you can fix Tomorrow's past today?'
Synopsis: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow * was written by Gabrielle Zevin
This is my first book from her but let me tell you or more precisely let me warn you dear reader; This is a love letter. A love letter to this absolute therapeutic soul balm of a book. A love letter to Gabrielle Zevin and her introvert Mario-mustache and a love letter to Tri Northern from vintage. Because she was kind enough to grant me an ebook version of the book when no one else would have done this due to my newborn state in the book blogging community.
The story starts in 1985 in a hospital where a boy, Sam Masur is healing from a car crash. Sam meets Sadie Green, a girl who is regularly visiting her sister. They became close friends through the joy of playing video games. They grew close to each other through playing a collection of 90s indie video games.
And let me tell you as someone who played these games as a child in the 90s: it was a sensational feeling to experience something completely new and undeveloped when there was so much room for improvement.
And then as often friends do they get separated because of a minor misunderstanding and get back together after years because of a major coincidence. They became close friends again and do what they do best; play and create games together. We get to meet another main character, Marx Watanabe, who is probably every girl’s dream; tall, handsome, intelligent, and most of all; kind. Or maybe not every girl but definitely a large percentage of them. Personally, the world would be a better place with more people like him.
And that’s when things get a bit more like a neverending side quest where you end up dying at every combat.
The 3 friends were college students in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One day in a blink of an eye an idea has been born, and then after months of painstakingly hard work they make their first game. Later the game becomes a huge success and because of that, they are able to launch their own company. All of a sudden the 3 kids became ‘parents’.
Structure: The book is 397 pages long, and structured into 10 chapters.
The narration follows each main character in the third person (limited). Definitely one of my favorite narration styles. The novel is easy to read and extremely visual. Hence, there is already a movie in the making which always makes me so excited and so happy for the authors. It is one thing to have your book in your hands but to see it on the screen is another level of awesomeness. (Not that I know how it feels but I can imagine.)
The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this book was that the author; Gabrielle, truly loves and cares about her characters. Both Sam, Sadie, and Marx felt very close to me; their personalities were so emotionally raw that I instantly cared about them.
I also love when the characters feel like they are actually alive. Making their own decisions and living their own life in this parallel realm where the author ultimately becomes this very sensitive satellite. Collect and receive data from them and then send it over to us in the form of a gorgeous bouquet of words.
It also brought back my love for video games as well. The memories I have with my brother playing together. It doesn’t seem like a big thing but when playing with your brother becomes your safe house in your early teen years then the whole ‘awww it’s so cute’ gets a new meaning. To be honest, I’m very thankful for this little inspiration, I just wish I wasn’t a terrible player when i play alone. I also enjoyed the games themselves and made me want to actually play them. Can’t tell you how much I wish for a game company to have this thought: ‘Wow, let’s make these games.’ (Thumbs up and smile.)
I found the book knowledgeable about game designing and although I’m not a professional it was told with just enough detail that I did not get scared off by the technicalities. Although I feel dizzy just to think about how much work must go into researching every detail.
My take on it: As so many reviews emphasized before me, this story was about friendship and love, and how these two words have countless complicated meanings if you try to fit them on a couple of not-so-ordinary kids.
I do think it was about loss as well, how grief seeps its way into our consciousness and leaves a fingerprint on everything we do.
Especially if it’s something that we create, like art where you literally put a part of yourself into your work and then pray that no one will hate you for it. The gift of the book was definitely how the 3 main characters and their life was so relatable. How their work had ups and downs just like in real life and how this book taught me that to get back to doing what I’m doing after failing is enough. Because it is what matters the most.
That I don’t give up and keep on going not just today but even tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
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