Love’s Got Everything to Do With It: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This is why I never turn down a good book recommendation.

Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” had been on my radar for several months and it wasn’t until a good friend of mine mentioned they were reading it for book club. So I got off the stick and started reading.

And now I’m just plain sad that it’s over.

The story of Sam and Sadie and Marx (and Dov and Ant and Simon and …) is engaging and touching and deeply emotional. Starting with Sam and Sadie’s first childhood connection at an L.A. hospital all the way through to hopefully not their last goodbye in an NYC airport terminal decades later, Zevin takes great care, almost, dare I say, a game designer’s care, to create a universe in which two people can love each other more than than they’ve loved anyone else without the nuisance of a physical relationship.

It’s no accident that the characters in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” feel as real as they do, given both Sadie’s and Sam’s penchant for meaningful connections between the games they create and the people that play them. (Note to Gabrielle Zevin: Sam is the first character in forever that reminded me of Jude from “A Little Life” and if that’s not a compliment then I don’t know what is.) It’s probably the singularly most important characteristic of their work and their personalities. And thank goodness for Marx, who perfectly completes the balanced triangle, the yin to their yang. In any other story, Marx would be a third wheel that just complicates the relationship. Here, he validates it. Love is messy, love is understanding what’s behind the obvious and the best people just know how to navigate that world with kindness and empathy. That’s Marx.

Now, I’m not a hard core gamer. But I did love a little Oregon Trail. My brother and I had an old school Atari console and I rocked Tank and Breakout. I probably played a little more Minesweeper and Tetris than I should have in my early working-at-the-office days. And Pole Position was my jam. So I can appreciate the overarching gaming world these characters live in. The tension, the turmoil, the hours are what make a lot of creatives tick. But for as much as this novel is about that universe, it really is an old-fashioned love story. And you know it’s good when you get to a certain part and have to just set the book down and try not to cry.

It’s well-deserving of all the buzz and certainly worthy of your time — don’t skip this. Then go call a childhood friend or two.