Book Review: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
Fiction: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
Sam and Sadie met in a Los Angeles hospital as pre-teens. Sam was contending with injuries from the car accident that killed his mother. Sadie was with her family; her sister was hospitalized with a treatable cancer. The two quickly bonded over a shared love of video games and even after Sadie’s sister was released, Sadie continued to visit the hospital to spend time with Sam.
As can happen with kids (and adults) a misunderstanding pulled them apart for several years until their paths crossed again by chance in Boston. Sam was studying math at Harvard but his heart was not in it. Sadie was at MIT studying programming. The two of them renew their friendship and begin a collaboration that will shape the rest of their lives.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a love story between two people who need to learn how to love. Sadie and Sam never become lovers. Calling them “friends” is hardly adequate. They are as close–and as far–as any two siblings could be. Those whom you love most deeply are the ones who can hurt you the most. Sometimes, though, they are the weapon you wield against yourself to make the deepest cuts.
Gabrielle Zevin looks as deeply into the human heart as any author I have read. Sadie and Sam both struggle to see past their own pain and understand the hurt the other feels. When they are able to move out of their own shadows they bring light to each other. They are able to see the light from the other and let it brighten their path for a while.
The danger of having someone who knows you so deeply, so intimately, so beautifully, is that you can forget that they cannot know you perfectly. Love can take us far within the heart and mind of another, but only as deeply as we permit. When we assume someone has seen us more deeply than we have actually revealed to them, we can use that assumption to wound our own hearts to the very core. After all, if they did not know something about us, something we never revealed, something so deep and secret that we can barely admit it to ourselves,, they must be either evil or obtuse.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is unexpected and fresh, a love story that is breathtakingly modern and yet timeless in its depth. Not many of us have friends as close as Sam and Sadie. Not many of us dare to become that vulnerable to anyone. This book is a reminder that love comes in many expressions. In every expression, it carries the power to transform a life.
Book Review: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
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