Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Ratings1,266
Average rating4.1
There is so much I could say about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I fell in love with these characters and found myself resonating deeply with their journey. The highs and lows of the relationships was enthralling. It's an absorbing read and one you never want to finish! One thing I will say... It's like a game, you need to join in to truly understand it.
Two absolutely amazing reads one after the other?
This book starts out engaging, drawing you into the story of the two children who bonded over games. Then it becomes slow and detailed as it takes you through the adult life of these children, still passionate about games. There are some heartbreaking scenes in this book, so be prepared. But this is a beautiful, well written (although sometimes it felt too literary and it annoyed me that the flow of the story was disturbed by a sophisticated unknown literary word which could have been replaced by a normal one most readers would know (I'm looking at you - GROK!), raw and emotional world with adorable characters who do not pretend to be perfect. Kind of sounds like a believable story, in fact, and pulled at all my heartstrings. Definitely would recommend today, and tomorrow and tomorrow. I loved all the game and book references, very refreshing to read.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows the lives of two friends, Sam and Sadie. They meet in the hospital as children and bond over playing video games. As college students, they reconnect and decide to start making video games together. The story follows their relationship and the ups and downs of the company they create over the next 30 years. Video games (both the ones they create and others that they play) provide a framework for the book.
There is a fine line that is being walked in this book. Both Sadie and Sam are deeply flawed characters, so much so that at times it is hard to root for them. However, it also makes them seem very real - they have trauma and illness and joy and all the things that make up life. They are at their very best when working creatively together, and their very worst when they have to confront anything of emotional importance. I ended up liking and appreciating the realness, especially since the prose and story-telling is just so pretty in this book!
While gaming is obviously a big part of the book, I don't think you need to be a big gamer to enjoy this. However if you, like me, remember playing The Oregon Trail on the Apple IIe in your school's computer lab then you are probably in the right age range to enjoy many of the nods to games that are in the book.
I just feel like the tragedy didn't need to happen, but it was well written regardless
Was the name of the company Unfair Games foreshadowing? Because that was just unfair.
I love/hate this book. I wanted to like Sadie and Sam, I really did, but I could not. Marx was truly the best of them and brought out the best in both.
I enjoyed the different ways Zevin told this story, though sometimes it read pretentiously. Pioneer was bittersweet and I think I cried through most of the last third of the book.
Even now I sit here thinking about how I wish I could go back and restart. Maybe there would be a different outcome?
Mijn god, er kwam geen einde aan dit boek. Het voelde steeds weer als hetzelfde verhaal: ruzie met vrienden, games verzinnen en het maken van een videogame, opnieuw ruzie, iedereen wisselt van partner, maakt nog een spel...
Zou u echt maandenlang niet met uw zakenpartner praten? Jarenlang niet met je beste vriend praten vanwege een klein ruzietje? Iedereen beoordeelt dit boek als een geweldig voorbeeld van vriendschap, maar zo zou ik mijn vrienden niet behandelen. Ik hoopte steeds dat het beter zou worden, maar dat gebeurde niet.
If you ask me about what this book is about, I wouldn't be able to answer but it is worth all your time and effort so read it please?
“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.”
This book was...good? yes; kind of grand and sweeping? also yes; a wild portrait of a friendship as it weathers time and art and creation? hell yeah. Did I like it? Holistically speaking, I think so. It took just a little bit to get to where it was going, but once it kinda got there, it got really interesting. I think there were some very cool elements at play here. But, I wouldn't say it “changed my life” as some people in the comments claimed it did for them. And I wouldn't say that's a total disservice: not every book has to do that, it just colored a lot of my expectations going in, so I couldn't help but feel slightly let down at times.
I just have to say, what a concept this book is; a sort subversion of what can happen when a “boy” meets a “girl,” what can come of a relationship, a partnership, how life's trauma can warp said relationship, and, really, one's understanding of what it means to love someone as well.
Smart writing, yet surprisingly simple. Admittedly, made me fall back in love with hardcover. I liked it, that's it. But it's moments like these that really made me wish Goodreads had an option for half-star ratings...
I read quite a bit, but never write reviews. There is something about this one that makes me want to.
I am with Sam on a lot of his thoughts and actions. I have lived most of my life with a physical disability as well. We always think when people look or stare that this is the cause. The book made Marks in the glue, but I think it was Sam.
We got to see so many sides of Sade the vulnerable, insertive, nurturing (motherhood), and a fighter (getting into a school that is hard to get into especially for females) and I could go on. The one thing that I wanted to happen before it did not was her and Sam to be a couple. I guess they are like oil and water, so it may have been for the best.
This book is a must-read, and I hope everyone that does read it likes it just as much, if not more, than I did.
Pixels and Passions: A Journey On The Road to Nowhere-In-Particular Through Three DecadesMaybe I've grown complacent: I love a good, strong plot; a linear story, told in chronological order. Along comes a book, its plot basically consisting of “30 years in the life of Sadie, Sam and Marx”; told calmly, only partly linearly by an omniscient narrator who retroactively fills gaps.And: I am not a gamer and this is a novel about the creation of video games. On the other hand, just like the protagonists (and the author), I'm from generation X. I've played the games Sadie, Sam and Marx would have played. I may never have been a gamer but I've been a lifelong admirer of Richard “Lord British” Garriott (a legend of game design) whose immortal claim to fame is his involvement in the creation of the “Ultima” series of games and who founded “Origin Systems, Inc.”. Their slogan was “We Create Worlds” - and that's what they did.[a:Gabrielle Zevin 40593 Gabrielle Zevin https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503541462p2/40593.jpg] did, too: In “[b:Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 58784475 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1636978687l/58784475.SY75.jpg 89167797]” she creates a world that feels vibrant and alive. Zevin knows her characters intimately - their joy, pain, love. She possesses the enviable ability to bring to life the entire emotional “landscape” and the lived reality of her characters. Many passages have deeply moved me, others were light and clever, enjoyable and relatable.»She had, he thought, one of the world's great laughs. The kind of laugh where a person didn't feel that he was being laughed at. The kind of laugh that was an invitation: I cordially invite you to join in this matter that I find amusing.«I couldn't help but fall in love with Sam, Sadie and Marx because in their beautiful imperfection they always felt authentic and true to life. There were points during the story at which I loathed each of them and yet couldn't help but hope for them getting better or redemption or whatever else they needed. The extensive and intensive “world building” that Zevin achieves effortlessly does, however, come at a cost: The narrative style is leisurely and unhurried. At times, passages seemed to drag, but ultimately everything came together to form a magnificent and unique total work of art, which has given me a lot.In her “Notes and Acknowledgments” at the end, Zevin writes that “»Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a novel about work [...] [and] [...] equally about love.« - and, to me, she triumphantly succeeds at that. What she leaves out is, that it's also about storytelling itself: Storytelling should not be rushed, it cannot be forced; it takes time, dedication, work and love. The result is a novel that feels long and epic and accomplishes to narrate the feelings of at least part of a generation - the Zeitgeist - like few novels before. At times I rolled my eyes and was annoyed while at other times I felt almost overwhelmed by emotions.»She had once read in a book about consciousness that over the years, the human brain makes an AI version of your loved ones. The brain collects data, and within your brain, you host a virtual version of that person. Upon the person's death, your brain still believes the virtual person exists, because, in a sense, the person still does. After a while, though, the memory fades, and each year, you are left with an increasingly diminished version of the AI you had made when the person was alive.«After having read many reviews I can imagine that this will remain a divisive novel: Many, like myself, can't help but love it. Others will loathe it or be left irritated. It is the long road to nowhere in particular. I can understand all reactions to it.When I started writing this, I wasn't sure what my conclusion would be but despite some lengths, etc. I cannot ignore how strongly this novel appealed to me personally: Five stars out of five. And now I'm going to play “Donkey Kong” on original era hardware. Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam
I had originally started this last spring and when classes became busy I had put it down. These past few days I have picked it up again and really enjoyed seeing the relationships unfold and over time come back together in beautiful ways.
I found Sam and Sadie's friendship through the years incredibly enjoyable even when things got rough for them. This was a wonderful and painful journey to be on!
I loved this book. Just the right amount of nerdery for me. Had me hooked right through to the end.
this was so beautiful & devestating and i cried so much!!! maybe in my top 5 favorite books ever <3
It kept me engaged, but the characters, save for one and his storyline is very predictable, are very very veeery unlikeable. We have no one to root for. We're suposed to accept that they're just jaded for their past traumas (mind you Sadie was awful from the start) but it comes a point where you're just wondering if they'll ever grow up.
Pros. The writting style. The coming of age aspect makes you keep reading hoping they get their sh$t together. The video game aspects.
Cons. The characters, especially Sadie, the fact that everyone assumes she' s special because she's jaded, she's awful to everyone but it's because she's brilliant. Not that Sam the antisocial is much better, the self sabotaging aspects, miscommunications, the ending.
Overall, i could read something else from this author, but didn't love this.
This book was decent. I liked the idea of it and a lot of aspects of the book. But I'm taking away a star for two reasons. One, I was really bothered by Sadie saying “hey Sam, leave me alone, I meant it”, and he still comes and pesters her and he is supposed to be applauded as a hero, which happened a few times in the book. Also, the third act was not my cup of tea. I didn't like how Marx died. I felt like they put that in just to add conflict that didn't need to be there.
I did enjoy how the story touched upon aspects of females being into programming. And there were Jewish elements sprinkled throughout the book, too. I would recommend this book to another fellow gamer, as long as you are prepared for an intense (and maybe unnecessary?) third act.
A book tackling just about every serious topic under the sun without feeling too serious and while genuinely providing interesting commentary that doesn’t just feel cringy.
It touches on relationships of all kinds, change in people, mental illness, suicide, parenting (and pregnancy/abortion to some extent), gun violence, radicalization of homophobia on the internet, abusive relationships, physical disability, healthcare in America, it’s all there.
And yet it’s a book that reads positive and feels exciting and hopeful most of the time. It has moments of support and love and forgiveness to match those of betrayal and falling out and violence and death.
It felt wordy at times, but honestly I really did enjoy it. The characters were all believable and deep. Recommend overall, 4.5/5, though it feels that may be a bit high but it was just such a thrilling and deeply thought provoking ride.
Very good book. Took some turns that I wasn't expecting. A tech/gamer book with a good back story to it. I really enjoyed this one.
I have some problems with this book, and yet I could not put it down. It was captivating, it was a chore, it was beautiful, it was cliche, it was a work of art, it made me cringe.
Okay, first, the good:
- ● The book was interesting. I was genuinely interested in where the characters and their games were going.
- ● The drama forced me to keep turning pages in suspense
- ● The book appealed to my emotional sensitivity
Enjoyed reading about them developing games, but otherwise was just ok. Not great dialogue or character development. Did not live up to the hype.
