On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that …
On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
structurally flexible. engaging characters. lightly nostalgic (but not too much!). devoured in 4 days: it was enjoyable!
it was sad, at times. i think i enjoyed all characters? except for probably dov. the rendition of relationships over such a span of time is something i don't recall ever reading. the internal monologues and renditions of conflicts from different points of view were something special, i feel
This is one of those books that attracts you from the very beginning and you can't stop reading (until you realise that you don't want it to end that soon, either!). An interesting and well-written story that follows the successes and failures of its complex characters, driven by their passion for video games and full of lights and shadows. This is a story about gamers, and video games. But it also about life, passion, success and failure but, above all, about human relationships, and lives and worlds that could be but are not. Like a video game with the greatest engine: our imagination. Like a book.
Review of 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
3 Sterne
3,5 Sterne
Für mich 1. ein Buch über Freundschaft, die Zusammensetzung von Teams/Gemeinschaften und die Rolle, die jeder darin "spielt" 2. den Tod 3. das Selbst als Kontextabhängig 4. Erzählungen als Bedürfnis
Charakterzeichnungen: voll gelungen! Mich wundert oft davon zu lesen, dass die Charaktere unsympathisch seien. Nö, gerade Sam konnte ich so was von nachvollziehen. Ihn beschäftigt durch das Buch hinweg eine körperliche Beeinträchtigung. Er bollert meist recht empathielos den Leuten alles vor den Kopf. Vor Marx ziehe ich meinen Hut. Er ist für mich der Held des Buches und des "Spiel des Lebens". Sadie macht meines Erachtens die größte Entwicklung durch. Jeder hält vor den Anderen immer etwas zurück. Das macht die Beziehungen untereinander recht spannend.
Die Welt der Computerspiele wird leider zu oft, sehr plakativ genutzt, um die typischen Aussagen zu generieren: wir sind unsterblich, Flucht vor der realen Welt, ich kann alles sein.... blaaaa.... Das ist sprachlich …
3,5 Sterne
Für mich 1. ein Buch über Freundschaft, die Zusammensetzung von Teams/Gemeinschaften und die Rolle, die jeder darin "spielt" 2. den Tod 3. das Selbst als Kontextabhängig 4. Erzählungen als Bedürfnis
Charakterzeichnungen: voll gelungen! Mich wundert oft davon zu lesen, dass die Charaktere unsympathisch seien. Nö, gerade Sam konnte ich so was von nachvollziehen. Ihn beschäftigt durch das Buch hinweg eine körperliche Beeinträchtigung. Er bollert meist recht empathielos den Leuten alles vor den Kopf. Vor Marx ziehe ich meinen Hut. Er ist für mich der Held des Buches und des "Spiel des Lebens". Sadie macht meines Erachtens die größte Entwicklung durch. Jeder hält vor den Anderen immer etwas zurück. Das macht die Beziehungen untereinander recht spannend.
Die Welt der Computerspiele wird leider zu oft, sehr plakativ genutzt, um die typischen Aussagen zu generieren: wir sind unsterblich, Flucht vor der realen Welt, ich kann alles sein.... blaaaa.... Das ist sprachlich alles nicht sonderlich anspruchsvoll. Auch irgendwelche Aussagen und Erkenntnisse, die im Spiel oder im realen Leben gewonnen werden, müssen nochmal an Beispielen aus der anderen Welt belegt oder gegenübergestellt werden. Hier stellt sich dann ein deutliches Übererklären ein.
Der Mittelteil ist zu lang geraten, bzw. langweilig hoch zehn. Es kommt zu Wiederholungen und eigentlich bewegt sich die Story nicht vom Fleck. Immer wieder neue Spielideen fließen ein, der Rest stagniert.
Mein persönliches Problem: Ich lese ungern Bücher in denen Beziehungen und zwischenmenschliche Konflikte im Mittelpunkt stehen. Genau das bekommen wir hier geboten. Es wird die Freundschaft und Beziehungsgeflechte von Kindern/Teens zum Studium bis ins Erwachsenenelter mit Ende 30 verfolgt. Streits, Auseinandersetzungen und Beziehungskisten.
Ein Buch, das sich für mich nicht sonderlich gelohnt hat, ich aber durchaus nachvollziehen kann, dass viele es lieben.
Review of 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
5 Sterne
This is the first book in a while that I've had trouble putting down, it kept me reading later than I intended more than once. It's a complex, touching story about friendship and the value of play, which spans several decades. During that time Sam and Sadie meet, have quarrels, make up again, quarrel again, fall in love with other people, and make video games both together and separately.
It's set in the world of video game development so knowing some of those terms probably helps a little but I don't think it's really necessary; it's more about creating art together than the games themselves. (The game making is a little simplified, and as someone who works in the game industry I found it a little unbelievable in places - making an MMO with the staff they appeared to have? No way.) But waving those beside in suspension of disbelief, …
This is the first book in a while that I've had trouble putting down, it kept me reading later than I intended more than once. It's a complex, touching story about friendship and the value of play, which spans several decades. During that time Sam and Sadie meet, have quarrels, make up again, quarrel again, fall in love with other people, and make video games both together and separately.
It's set in the world of video game development so knowing some of those terms probably helps a little but I don't think it's really necessary; it's more about creating art together than the games themselves. (The game making is a little simplified, and as someone who works in the game industry I found it a little unbelievable in places - making an MMO with the staff they appeared to have? No way.) But waving those beside in suspension of disbelief, I doubt they'd bother anyone who doesn't actually make games for a living.
Really the book is about friendship, and flawed, complex characters, and art, and loss, and being human. It's refreshing to read an entire book about a couple that is about friendship rather than romance. It was sweet, and touching, and thought-provoking, and also occasionally annoying when the characters are clearly being idiots, but they're so well written that at least you can understand why they're being idiots. I would highly recommend this book.
Trigger warnings: there are a couple of violent deaths mentioned, and there's non-graphic description of an inappropriate teacher-student relationship with non-consensual bondage elements. These are not dwelled on any more than needed for the story's purposes, but are unavoidable elements of the plot.
