Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a book which is very much of my time, set in the days where the world of gaming was beginning to blossom into the powerhouse of entertainment that it is today.
This emerging world is used as the backdrop for the tale of two game developers, Sam and Sadie who meet when Sam is in hospital as a child, receiving treatment for an injury which he received in a car accident. He has withdrawn into himself and when Sadie encounters him on a visit to see her sick sister at the same hospital, they discover a shared enjoyment and passion for gaming which links them beyond this episode of their lives.
However, it is not all smooth-running for the friends and a misunderstanding causes a rift between them that lasts years until a chance meeting reunites them. The story starts at this point, and then Zevin takes us into the past as well as showing how their story develops from this reunion onwards. Their love of games is the unifier that keeps them close throughout and Zevin is keen to show a relationship based on love rather than a romance and you do get a sense of two people who together make a whole. But it is the shared passion for games rather than each other that cements them. Throughout the story, Sadie and Sam are supported by the presence of Marx who is Sam’s roommate at university and becomes a facilitator to Sam and Sadie’s ambitions in the games’ world.
I liked this book. I liked the story that Zevin chooses to present and the way that Sam and Sadie fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw. To say that I liked the characters would be too effusive as both Sam and Sadie cause discord in their friendship; but Zevin allows you into their thoughts and processes and so, you feel like you know them and their motives to a degree, even if you do not share their viewpoint. The inclusion of Marx as a pivotal character helps to provide warmth in the way that he is steady and comfortable with the person he is and acts as a contrast to the others.
This is a book about people and living with everything that life throws at you but it is also a declaration of love from Zevin for games.
Scuffed Granny 