“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C.S. Lewis
Too bad Clive didn’t live long enough to experience Coke Zero. Oh, the bubbles! I just finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the must-read that some reviewers are calling “the book of the summer,” and I must say it wasn’t long enough to suit me. Gabrielle Zevin’s characters got a hold of this girl’s heart. I quickly became invested in the lives of 3 brilliant young gamers. Yes, that said gamers (turned video designers). Don’t stop reading if you’re a noob like me. It’s safe to say I know as much about Pixels, RPG, and texture-mapping as bringing a sapient monster to life in a highly unorthodox science experiment. You know where I’m headed here, right? Powerful novels, whatever their subject, immerse us in a world unlike our own. Frankenstein does a bang-up job of this, so does Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Designing a video game becomes intriguing like drawing lightning from the sky.
Note: T & T & T isn’t necessarily a book about gaming. This is a love story. Not in the schmaltzy sense or even in the way you are likely imagining. It’s about love in its purest form: friendship. Zevin’s exploration of Sadie Green and Sam Mazur’s friendship, born in a Children’s Hospital game room, underscores the beauty and roughness of relationships. They create together, therefore they are. Sadly, I haven’t read any of Zevin’s previous novels, but I was taken back by her ability to capture the fickle nature of human connection. And the complexity of it. This book has a heartbeat. I loved the insights that flowed throughout—shining like pearls and rubies. John Green’s praise did not come as a surprise to me: “Utterly brilliant. In this sweeping, gorgeously written novel, Gabrielle Zevin charts the beauty, tenacity, and fragility of human love and creativity. [It’s] is one of the best books I’ve ever read.” Like I said, it wasn’t long enough to suit me.
P.S. It’s hard for me to resist a novel whose title derives from a Shakespearean soliloquy. Too Good.
One last P.S. Rae could school Sadie on the intricacies of friendship.