I’m a bit of a Gabrielle Zevin fan, having enjoyed the YA novel Elsewhere, and the book The Storied Life of A. J. Filkry, which I‘m told is being made into a movie. She has interesting ideas, and writes relationships between people in a sensitive, real way. Zevin brings those skills to Tomorrow, etc., an ode to videogaming, players and creators, as well as the creative process in general. Sam Masur and Sadie Green, eleven year old kids, meet at a hospital in Los Angeles, in their youth gaming room. Sam has been in a terrible car accident, when his mother died and he is left somewhat disabled, unable to speak due to the trauma. Sadie’s sister is suffering from cancer, so Sadie is ordered out of her room after upsetting her. Sam and Sadie bond over a game of Super Mario, the beginning of a lifelong friendship. After not seeing each other for years, they randomly meet again in their second year of college, Sam a math major at Harvard, Sadie studying videogame production at MIT. After Sam plays a game Sadie created for her class, they embark on the excitement and incredible hard work of creating a game together, Ichigo. The picture is complete when Sadie meets Sam’s roommate, Marx, as Marx becomes their biggest cheerleader, producer of their games, and CEO of their company.

This plot might be superficial and disappointing in a lesser author’s hands, but Zevin brings real depth to the characters of Sam, Sadie, and Marx. They are complex people, behaving and reacting in unpredictable, human, frustrating ways. Their relationships are made more complex than ordinary friendships, in that the heart of Sam and Sadie’s relationship is their creative partnership. When they are operating in that space, they motivate each other, challenge each other, are truly the best match for each other. In most other respects, their relationship does not work, leading to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, bad outcomes. They seem to not know how to respond in helpful ways and need to stay in the creative mode for true compatibility. Marx is the practical fixer, nursemaid, and midwife for Sam and Sadie’s creative output, making everything else happen to bring the duo success. While it may sound as though all will go well if they stick to those roles, life just isn’t like that. Sam is a bit misanthropic; due to his damaged foot, he does not pursue romantic relationships, feeling better about a life detached from body consciousness, which gaming provides. Sam sees the likelihood that Sadie and Marx will hook up at some point, and feels jealous and deeply hurt that he, Sam, cannot extend his love for Sadie to that level. People are complex, we cannot always get everything we want, and others we care for cannot always be for us what we want them to be.

The beauty of games is you can try again and again (hence the title, from a famous quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth), and there will always be another chance to get it right. You can learn, try again, implementing what you learned, and advance a bit farther. Games are optimistic, hopeful, welcoming to risk-taking with no real consequences. Easy to see how games feel much better than life, where you die only once, with no new chance. This is a thoughtful, original novel, worth your time. Recommended, especially for book clubs.