TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin

I struggled with this book and don’t understand why it has received so many accolades.  I had a long career as a software developer, so the technology aspect did not turn me off.  However, the two main characters, Sam and Sadie, did.  Yes, they experience a lot of trauma and grief, but Sam is very buttoned up emotionally, and Sadie just goes into hiding occasionally, waiting for someone to draw her out.  These two collaborators in video game design just got on my nerves.  I also found it odd that Sam does most of the speaking engagements whenever publicity for a newly launched product is required; he seems to relate better to strangers than to friends and co-workers.  My favorite character was Marx, Sam’s college roommate who joins Sam and Sadie’s company, Unfair Games, as a producer, but there’s just not enough of him spread across the pages.  I also loved Simon and Ant, who join the company much later, but they are basically NPCs (non-player characters, in video game jargon).  Every time I picked up this book I hoped to read about anyone but Sam or Sadie.  Near the end of the book, however, is a section that follows a player (or players) through a game called Pioneers.  Characters in this game interact in a more empathetic and heartfelt way than the human characters in the novel, although, of course, the players inhabiting the characters in Pioneers are human.  Plus, for non-gamers like myself, the game sequence gives more insight into how such games work and why they are popular.  This novel needed more stuff like this, although Pioneers did not really appear to be fun.  My takeaway is that video games provide an outlet for some people to shed their insecurities and interact with other people in an alternate universe.  I’m  not judging here but rather offering a not necessarily valid conclusion.