REVIEW: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

A short review of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

“Unobserved, a graying man watches two teenagers swim in a pond. You can smell the man’s longing, stronger than lavender, and you think, Humans want so much. I am glad to be a bird.”

I should have known that I would give this book 5 stars simply because it takes its title from one of the best monologues from Macbeth, but I still wasn’t prepared for what was inside.

The book is a love story, but not a romance, not about a couple, but about the need for other people, connection, compassion, care without conditions. The book follows Sadie and Sam throughout their life, whether close or apart. After first meeting in a hospital game room at the age of 12, the only thing that made much sense to do after reconnecting years later was to make their own game, together. After unexpected and immediate success, Sadie and Sam both have to come to terms with their now connected futures as well as to reflect on the tragedies in their pasts that have made them who they are.

I never really played video games growing up. Every now and then after school when my parents had late meetings I would hang out with other kids and we would play Poptropica together. That was my only foray into the gaming world. But not being a gamer did not take away from reading this book at all. No matter what you use, whether it be games, crossword puzzles, exercise, or meditation, we all have something that helps us forget about the world we currently inhabit and let us enter another. A world where challenges are completable, levels are easy to climb, and if you mess up, you can easily just start over again. That feeling of needing an escape is something everyone can and will feel. Gabrielle Zevin has a way of using Sam and Sadie’s games to express this emotion in a way that uniquely touches the reader, and that I have personally never encountered before.

Zevin’s writing is truly outstanding. She lets us see inside every character so that we feel that we know them. No character is perfect, all have their flaws and their issues, but their problems are so human, their needs so understandable. She writes tragedy and grief better than most authors whom I have read, expressing how it is to feel alone even when surrounded by people. I am nothing like Sadie and Sam, but I can see and feel my own past grief and sadness within theirs. It has been a long time since I have openly cried while reading a book, and from page 283 on I was crying so hard I could not see the pages in front of me.

This book may not connect to everyone in the same way, but for me this was an easy 5 stars.

5 STARS

Where to buy online: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow/gabrielle-zevin/9781529115543

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