Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Nevin – theme – modern love stories.
This book appeared at first to be around computer gaming, but turned out to be a touching story of love and friendship over a number of years, although we thought it was too long. If anyone would like to write a sentence or two about the books, please email me janet.bayliss@esneft.nhs.uk – so we can post to the book group part of the ESNEFT book group website.
The author of Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin is an American novelist born in 1977 of a mixed background on her father’s side and with a Korean-American mother. This is very relevant to the plot of this novel: where Sam Masur meets again with Sadie Green, a friend from his childhood and they begin to work together on video games. The story then charts the ups and downs of their lives, over a period of decades. It is a love story, but also is a novel about work and the path of true love for them is neither straight nor smooth in its trajectory; with many twists and turns and a rather unexpected ending.
There was a general feeling that this book would have benefitted from some editorial pruning, despite the fact that following its publication in 2002, it has been much in the media and won awards, being named in the New York Times list of the 100 best books of the twenty first century. We generally responded to the subtle and poignant love story, which was depicted with sensitivity and the way that other themes such as extremism, racism and disability, were handled in a thoughtful, nuanced fashion. Many topics are covered in this substantial novel, but there are very long passages related to gaming which describe the creative process of writing games albeit in a rather impressionistic way without too many technical details. This approach worked better for some readers in the group than others, although we were intrigued and amused by historic references such as the Super Mario game (from 1985 onwards) and the use of cartridges as vehicles for early computer games. We also liked the reference to famous William Morris textile pattern “Strawberry thief” which is very meaningful to Sam’s best friend’s mother, a fabric designer; and is later incorporated into the games.
Most book group members were not gamers and found that the heavy emphasis on the subject rather off-putting, but responded positively to the strong story and involving side-themes.
We touched on science-fiction in our discussion about the main book and The hunger games series of books by Suzanne Collins was mentioned. The books form a trilogy and have been made into successful films.
From a crime point of view, the novel by Anthony Horowitz, Magpie murders (2016) had been enjoyed; along with its sequel Moonflower murders (2020), featuring his detective creation Susan Ryeland.
We also liked The choice: embrace the possible by Edith Eger, a true story about how a young girl from Hungary survived Auschwitz and forged a successful new life in the United States. Another true story, The penguin lessons, by Tom Mitchell about one man’s relationship with a remarkable penguin in the 1970s (when else?) was another recommendation; as was Iron Hope by James Lawrence, a personal “self-help” type title on how to build mental toughness and perseverance.
For those fascinated by dysfunctional families, we suggested I will crash by Rebecca Watson, a fictional monologue about a difficult brother and sister relationship, along with Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, which speaks for itself.
For the lighter side of crime fiction The cat who caught a killer by L.T. Shearer was enjoyed as a satisfying feline cosy crime thriller – worth a look, especially if you like crime and cats.
Several of the above are on Libby, check them out at the ESNEFT Libby pages.