Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Sam Masur and Sadie Green first bond over Super Mario Brothers in the games room of a Los Angeles children's hospital. From this bitter-sweet, meet-cute we flash forward a decade to a chance encounter in a Boston subway station when Sam shouts the classic video game line “Sadie Miranda Green. You have died of dysentery!”

In this cold recounting it can feel manipulative, a bit pandering to the sensibilities of literary gamers. I felt the same way reading Zevin's earlier work, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, so clearly a book for book people. And yet I'm happily able to suspend that bit of cynicism and give myself over to the inevitable ups and downs rendered in the altogether capable hands of the author.

This explores notions of childhood trauma, disability, sexism, loss and violence threaded through a story filled with love, creative energy, fame and forgiveness. Add Sam's roommate Marx Watanabe and you've got a warm story about best friends that never gets bogged down in the minutiae of video game design or corporate growth. Naturally there's always going to be aspects of the “will they or won't they” for the leads but in the end it's all about hope, beautifully teased out throughout the read. Hope that becomes all important when life throws obstacles in our protagonists' way, and here are obstacles aplenty.

Reminded me of another great book called The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker that explored the creative tensions between friends. It's just as Sadie says here: “Lovers are common... True collaborators in this life are rare.”