So you know those books so hyped which you read and you wonder if you’re the problem? That’s me and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I heard nothing but praise and from people I really admire. When I finished the book, I was just left wondering. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
TW: domestic abuse, emotional manipulation, anti-Semitism, homophobia
For me, the main reason I didn’t love Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was the narration. I wanted to love the characters so much. I deeply empathized with Sadie’s position as a woman in STEM. And I was intrigued by Sam and how he sees the world. But the narration felt distant. Like I couldn’t get enough of a handle on these character’s internal introspection or how they felt. I kept seeing things happen to them, like witnessing the news, but without any insight.
It was like begging to be let in. For me, I need to be able to connect emotionally or in some way to a character for me to become invested. When reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow I was intellectually interested, but not with my heart. Like when you know you should like a painting or piece of art, but it doesn’t move you. Re-reading my notes, I can see all these threads I enjoyed like the gaming behind the scenes looks or the microaggressions against Said. But I lacked the emotional connection to really feel their impact.
I wanted to be deeply invested in Sam and Sadie’s friendship. But I found myself feeling apathetic. Recognizing how they pick up on each other’s strengths and vulnerabilities, but also the ways in which Sam and Sadie change themselves. Yet at the end of the day, I found myself lacking the emotional investment to be rooting either way. And, unfortunately, I feel like it was all down to this kind of distant third person narration and the lack of us feeling the emotional impact ricochet off of them.
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I don’t know. Maybe I’m just missing this key to unlock Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. To be as emotionally moved and invested as some of my favorite fictional worlds make me. If you’ve read this one, I’d genuinely like to know what you think. Sometimes people come into our lives and stay there, or they move out. And while it’s entertaining and certainly fast paced to read, I missed out on this hype that also may have mislead me. Find Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.