So, I’ve been travelling recently, and on Monday was stuck waiting for a flight in Miami airport for about 9 hours. I’d ran out of physical books to read, my devices were low on power, and I couldn’t find an outlet anywhere, so naturally, I headed to the books section of the nearest airport convenience store in search of entertainment (or at the very least, a mildly interesting distraction). Predictably, the selection was small (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a James Patterson novel outside of an airport, nor have I ever seen anyone actually reading one of his books, but they all seem to congregate in them anyway!), but I found myself picking up Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I’d heard from a few friends that they’d liked the book, but didn’t know much about it myself, but it seemed like something I would enjoy, so I ended up getting it.
The book spans 30-ish years and follows sometimes-friends Sadie Green and Sam Masur as they play and make video games. Sadie is a rich Jewish girl from Los Angeles, Sam is a poor, mixed-race, frequently hospitalized boy from New York. They become friends as young teenagers, then reconnect in university and decide to make video games together.
It kind of reminded me of the TV shows Halt and Catch Fire and Mythic Quest, so if you liked either of those, you’ll probably like this. Some of the writing didn’t really work for me (there was an entire section written in second person that didn’t have the emotional impact that it was supposed to have), but it wasn’t distracting enough to greatly impact my enjoyment of the story. The characters were interesting – they weren’t always likeable, but they felt real and it was easy to empathize with them. As a woman working in tech, Sadie’s experiences as being the only (or almost the only) female programmer in the room, and having others assume her role in the development process felt especially relatable.
Overall, I liked this, and reading it was a bright spot in an otherwise very long day.