i read a book! (#3): Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
⚠️ Spoilers ahead!
About the Book
(Taken directly from the front flap of the book) "...two friends - often in love, but never lovers - come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and ultimately, a kind of immortality."
my thoughts:
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin was my favorite book as a child.
not gonna lie, i don't exactly remember what the book was about, but i'm definitely tempted to re-read it!
i was excited to see that another book by Gabrielle Zevin had made it's way into my sights, just coincidentally in passing while i was looking at a friend's story.
with my newly-created library card, i decided to put a hold on the next available copy.
first off, i was thoroughly impressed by how real the book felt.
i am of course aware how much research authors put into their works, but the attention to detail was just incredible.
the things that people asked Sam in their interviews, the ugly feelings that sometimes emerged from the characters.. it all seemed like a story that could've happened in real life.
i really loved the character development throughout the novel.
people have flaws, and Sam and Sadie were no exception.
although i understood their struggles and some of their thoughts - their fear, their paranoia, their bitterness, and their frustrations - sometimes i really disliked Sam, and sometimes i really disliked Sadie.
despite some of these moments where i couldn't understand their actions, i truly appreciated just how human they were.
i think my favorite character was Marx.
at first some aspects of him, such as his frequent changing of lovers, made me think he was kind of a frivolous character.
he reminded me of one of my friends who literally went around saying, "fuck bitches, get money" and often went around with a big ego, doing as he pleased.
but neither my friend nor Marx ever came off as "bad" people.
as i got to learn more about Marx, i realized how compassionate and full of love he was. and how brightly he shined.
one of my favorite parts is when Marx and Sadie bought their house and in the backyard was a Fuyu persimmon tree.
Marx was extremely excited and exclaimed that it was his favorite fruit, and how great it was that they bought a house that has a tree with his favorite fruit.
"Sam used to say that Marx was the most fortunate person he had ever met - he was lucky with lovers, in business, in looks, in life. But the longer Sadie knew Marx, the more she thought Sam hadn't truly understood the nature of Marx's good fortune. Marx was fortunate because he saw everything as if it were a fortuitous bounty. It was impossible to know - were persimmons his favorite fruit, or had they just now become his favorite fruit because there they were, growing in his own backyard?" i think that what is actually fate, appears to us as luck in many aspects, so from a lowly human pov, i would say that luck plays it's part in life.
but i would love to have a mentality like Marx - to be happy with what comes my way and view it as a "fortuitous bounty."
i also really enjoyed seeing the dynamic betwen people in this novel.
Sam, Sadie, and Marx were never shy in expressing their love to each other (with the exception of Sam, but he never denied it).
i don't really know people around me who tell their friends that they love them, and it makes me sad because i really love my friends, in a way different from the way i love my boyfriend of course.
but that love is special in its own way, and i wish it was more easily shared amongst friends.
after reading this book, for some reason i felt like crying.
unfortunately i am in a cafe so i can't burst into tears, but it was the first time i finished a book and felt so touched but also that it's such a shame to have to let these characters and this story go.
i've of course cried after reading a sad book, or memoirs with a lot of emotion such as Crying In H Mart, but wanting to cry over a book with a mostly happy resolution was a first for me.
to being human.
thank you for reading my thoughts!