I was recommended Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by a couple friends, as well as seeing it appear on a number of last year's 'best of' lists, and I'm glad that I was able to get ahold of a copy. This was a very well-written book.
We primarily follow Sadie and Sam, two childhood friends who used to play video games together in the 80s, who meet up again in college in the mid-90s, and begin a long creative partnership as video game designers. We learn in the first sentence that they will be successful, and eventually famous, and at a number of points, Zevin narrates an event from a future perspective, such as showing how Sam or Sadie will describe it in an interview years laters.
Sadie and Sam have an intense relationship. It's non-sexual, based on their shared love of playing and making video games, and the idea that they bring out each other's best creativity. Their friendship is also difficult. In between being friends as kids and in college, they have a 6-year falling out, and we learn early on from glimpses into the future that they will have another 6ish-year separation as adults.
Sam's college roommate Marx is the third main character, and Sadie's instructor-turned-boyfriend Dov is also important, especially during the early years. Marx is a wonderful human; Dov is awful, and his bad, power-imbalanced relationship with Sadie is realistic and frustrating. Almost everything that happens is realistic. Sam's foot, never fully healed from a childhood injury, keeps getting worse in ways that are accurate to that sort of wound.
And their careers develop in ways that seem grounded in reality, rather than wish fulfillment. We see each character respond in authentic-feeling way to the situations they encounter, and the choices they're forced to make. They are successful, but it's a climb, not an escalator, and at various points it's much easier for one of them or the other. I think we see a bit more of Sadie's perspective than Sam's, but he's a pretty close second.
One of my favorite things about Zevin's writing is that the structure of each section mirrors whatever game they're designing at the time. This is most obvious for 'Both Sides,' which takes places in two alternating worlds, when each chapter is literally split into a Sam section and a Sadie section; and in the 'Pioneers' section, which is narrated from inside the 'Oregon Trail meets Animal Crossing' online game, with headings like posts on the Western town's message board instead of numbered chapters. But it's also true of the section where they design their first game, 'Ichigo,' about a child journeys out and returns home, and the section about Sadie's multiple viewpoint Shakespearean murder mystery. And arguably the book, taken as a whole, mirrors the structure of the 'Ichigo,' in addition to the first section.
Once we reach the event that causes the pair's second falling-out, the book is pretty sad from thst point on, although we do see them reconnect before the end.
I think I tend to introspect a lot when I read literary fiction, and this one got me looking inward more than most. I usually prefer to look at myself like viewing an eclipse through dark glasses, protected by the multiple layers of distancing and metaphor that scifi provides, rather than staring directly into the sun via lit fic. But I'm glad I read this one; I give it my strong recommendation.
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