r/books • u/SawkyScribe • 2d ago
I was really impressed with Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Spoiler
A good bulk of my reading catalogue for the past few years has been non-fiction writing around game development. I love books like Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier and Masters of Doom by David Kushner because of how they explore the turmoil and triumph of people who pour everything into their craft. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin thusly was a delicious proposition of a book for me. A fictionalised documentary on the life and times of two rockstar game devs covering 30 years of their messy personal histories? It was an easy sell before I started, but by the time I had finished the final chapter, I was amazed by the sheer breadth of what this book goes for.
TTT sees estranged childhood friends Sam and Sadie reconnecting in college to make video games together. Gaming is a central point in the story, from the artistry behind how games are made, to their importance in comforting the downtrodden. Zevin writes so competently about them that the biographical elements of the book are a huge draw on their own. So often, I read a book or watch a movie where games are spoken about like the writer has only ever experienced them third hand. Here, you can really tell the author did their homework to try and speak about the making and playing of games in a way that feels true to what they mean to people in real life.
The other recurring theme here is about the value of relationships. Whether it’s parental or platonic, we see how love is absolutely transformative in our lives, how it sustains us and gives us the ability to push past both daily defeats and great tragedies. Of particular focus is the friendship between the two leads. Even if their chemistry may not be electric in their dialogue, the love language of the creative process they share is at times hypnotic to read, and can feel more palpable than a lot of love stories put to paper. The constant push and pull of their dynamic can be frustrating at times, but I was quite touched by how Zevin opted to navigate the messiness of a guy-girl best friendship.
These were just the most immediately obvious points of discussion, but as mentioned up top, it is hard to capture how much ground is covered here. Everything ranging from disability, mixed identities, misogyny across a number of industries, grief, endemic violence in America, and so much more become topics of discussion. All of this is portrayed through non-linear storytelling and incredibly varied structures in the prose that meant that every chapter was bringing something new and interesting to the table.
While I was certainly never bored, I wasn’t always blown away by some of the writing decisions. Many people are going to bounce off of this book because the constant lack of or poor communication between Sam and Sadie can come across as downright melodramatic at times. While I was satisfied how things are left with them, I can imagine many others will be left annoyed and disappointed with how their friendship didn’t mature with the pace it should have. Some of the supporting cast also suffers in the writing in a similar fashion, lacking some interiority to the point of feeling like caricatures. The most distracting thing for me has to be plot threads that get introduced that never get proper pay-off or come to unsatisfactory conclusions.
The book implies that Sam’s inflating ego is going to have a destructive effect on his work and life, but it only ever drives a wedge between him and Sadie. The woman in question also has an abortion that gets two pages of writing before disappearing from the plot and feels like it was only there to give yet another reason for her and Sam to fight
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow does so much and I think it does a lot of it well. It is a love letter to people who make games and the people who play them. It is a fascinating exploration of what compels us to do the things we do and how the people around us drive us to action. In this great scope, so much hinges on how much you can buy into the relationship between Sam and Sadie. For some, it’ll be a slam dunk and for others, it’ll be a bit of a let down. I personally recommend you give it a try either way.
Edit: broken spoiler tag
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u/Kitlun 2d ago
This is an unpopular opinion on Reddit, whenever this book so mentioned about 80% of comments are hating on it. Which goes to show popular books and Reddit opinion do not align.
Personally, I loved TTT and glad someone else did. I liked the imperfect, frustrating main characters, I liked that they never get together and but stay friends, that they mess up their relationship constantly, I liked the plotting and the flashbacks, I like that they're very flawed people. I've seen people say it's quite cliche, but to me it seemed to deny clichés of novels about videogames and about romance.
I also see people criticise the sex scenes which, imo, in any novel are always slightly awkward or clunky, but from what I remember, they quite accurately showed how the characters think about sex, in a not very sexy, almost comically disconnected way.
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u/ChrisV2P2 2d ago
I dont understand the "cliche" accusations. All the concrete criticisms always seem to be that it didn't match peoples expectations of a more conventional book. For example, that they didn't like the main characters. I think that's a valid reason not to like a book, but it sits awkwardly with accusations of cliche. The author was not going for likeable and failed. The characters are supposed be to be exasperating, because the point of the book is the nurturing of a creative spark between two people even in the face of fully justified interpersonal frustration.
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u/jump-back-like-33 2d ago
Ngl most of the criticisms I’ve seen on Reddit seem like thinly veiled disappointments that the video game stuff is inaccurate and just not realistic to the reader.
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u/glassmethod 2d ago
Unironically I think that's the reason the book is so disliked on Reddit especially. Obviously I'm not saying that's why everyone dislikes it and I think there's plenty of valid criticism, but also there's definitely a subset who will never be able to look past the fact that it was wrong about gaming.
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u/TequilaBuffalo 2d ago
I’m not a fan of the zio subtexts, its passive writing style, and it’s clunky plot. it feels like it’s a young adult novel that’s trying to be an adult.
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u/ChrisV2P2 2d ago
I will say, that extended in-game sequence at the end didn't land for me at all. I liked the book in spite of that.
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u/AmongFriends 2d ago
I just think that video game books just generally aren't liked by Reddit. There's a visceral reaction to them, considering the people who frequent the site
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u/RetroRaiderRun 1d ago
Seems like a very valid criticism.
It's like sci-fi. If you have scientists in your book, and they're poorly written, people are going to call it out. "A PhD scientist in quantum physics that can't do basic math...?" Some audiences won't have problems with it, but others are going to have great chagrin.
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u/AmongFriends 2d ago
As a fellow fan of TTT, every time there’s a post about it, I’m like, “Oh boy. Here we go,” as I enter the comments
I said it in a different comment but my favorite aspect of the book is that it’s about a work relationship instead of a romantic one, and just how intimate and loving that can be in itself.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
It was only when I finished the book and checked online that I realized this book has such a big anti-fandom online.
I think the uncomfortable sex in the book is very intentional. A recurring theme here is that sometimes friendship can mean more than romantic or sexual connections. Showing how sex can exist so far on the periphery of people's lives lends a lot more credit to the idea Sam and Sadie's friendship has an almost transcendent quality to it.
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u/hellofemur 2d ago
TTT isn't nearly popular enough to be as hated as it is on reddit. It's really baffling to me. There's something about the pretentiousness of the characters that really rubs some people the wrong way but I'm not sure what it is. I think gamers tend to really hate it.
I enjoyed it though. Sure, it touches on some cliches, but that reminds me of Umberto Eco's essay about Casablanca "The Cliches are Having a Ball". Nothing wrong with taking the cliches out for a swim now and then. And I agree with you that the friendship between flawed characters turned out to be very interesting, and personally I honestly don't come across a lot of books that focus on that.
Criticizing the sex scenes for being awkward and clunky just seems so weird to me. They're meant to be awkward and clunky because that's who the characters are.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
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u/GammelGrinebiter 2d ago
But Asian guy got the girl? Marx is half Korean
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u/Gay_For_Gary_Oldman 2d ago
He's half korean and half Japanese. I thought it was Sam who was half Korean and half Jewish.
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u/jhewitt127 2d ago
Glad you enjoyed it. I did not, and personally I wouldn’t recommend it to someone.
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u/pasta_chovie 2d ago
I’m convinced that book is only popular because it circulated early on the BookTok algorithm.
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u/TequilaBuffalo 2d ago
agreed. always happy when people like something, but this was my least favorite read in a long time.
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u/Aaaddde 2d ago
I'm happy it highlighted the Shakespearean line from Macbeth. The intro to the more famous...Out, out brief candle!
Otherwise....it was ok. Not the worst use of a few hours doesnt live up to the hype but how many books do? Felt like a racy screenplay and they'll probably make a good movie based on the book.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I think there's actually a movie in production! I feel like a movie adaptation is probably going to soften up the characters a fair bit which should make them more palatable for people
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u/ForceOfMortality 2d ago
I enjoyed it a lot too. I understand the haters on some level, and it’s not a perfect book by any means, but it’s creative, ambitious and memorable.
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u/msperception427 1d ago
I really wanted to enjoy it. But I barely got through the first 100 pages before I just quit. It was not my cup of tea at all. I thought the video game aspect would be fun but I truly wasn’t invested in either Sam or Sadie as characters. I don’t need like a character but I do need to care what happens to them good or bad. And I just didn’t with this book. It just wasn’t for me. And that’s okay. I’m glad it was for you.
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u/scaryspice489 2d ago
I finished it despite disliking it. I guess I hoped something would turn around, given how extremely popular it is. But to the end, disliked the writing and found it to be too soapy. Unfortunate because I really do think the premise is brilliant.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
That's fair, sorry you didn't enjoy it. Aside from the hope of something different happening, what carried you through to the end?
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u/boringfantasy 2d ago
I liked a lot of it. I had no issue with the characters and how flawed they were, because that's just real life. Loved the weird surrealist parts where we become implanted in some sort of obscure video-game allegory. Strongest chapter is definitely the one where Marx dies.
I only took issue with it being incredibly overwritten at times (feels like fancy words are just chucked in for a bit of wow factor, rather than for elevating the description at hand). And perhaps, the plot was a tad too predictable in some areas. I do feel like the book could've actually ended a few chapters earlier, with little lost.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
Surprised this is actually the first mention of Marx in this post lol. It's funny you talk about Marx and flawed characters because he's basically perfect? He's handsome, intelligent, competent, super generous, and always knows the right thing to say. How did you feel about his role in the novel?
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u/Backstaged 2d ago
If you enjoyed this I’d heartily recommend One Day by David Nichols. Focuses on two friends who meet at university, and catches up with them once a year on the same day.
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u/pirates_fan_1988 2d ago
Just finished this book today and was happy to see your post about it. I loved the book. My favorite books are those that take me to a place I’ve never been (I’m not a gamer), and do it with characters that are genuinely (and sometimes painfully) human. No book is perfect, but this one did that for me. I’m surprised to hear that so many people apparently hate it … but, hey, it’s social media. Everybody’s an expert, and everybody hates everything.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
Even if you're not a gamer, if you enjoyed this, I really recommend checking out some books about real world game development. They are great testaments to the spirit of human creativity
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u/Faye-Vozora 1d ago
The game dev angle is what got me to pick it up too. Nice to see a book about making games that doesn't treat them like a joke.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
I was expecting 600 pages of virginal turbo nerds speaking in nothing but empty pop culture references or hitting ctrl+alt+del and programming minecraft but that didn't happen!
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u/Smallworld_88 1d ago edited 1d ago
I absolutely loved this book and it always makes me a little sad to see the hate it gets on Reddit. I think it’s more loved than this sub makes it seem. I felt like many of the Sadie parts had somehow come out of my own head, to a greater extent than I’ve experienced from any other book. I mean yeah there was too much melodrama with the plot, but the parts of the book that connected with me more than made up for that.
For context, I’m familiar enough with gaming and gamers to understand a lot of the book references but I’m not a gamer, so I don’t know the topic well enough to be super critical about it. Maybe that helped me enjoy it.
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u/shannonxtreme 2d ago
I really wanted to like this book, but the style of writing was super hard for me to connect with. There was a bunch of repetitive wording that my brain latched on to to the point that my immersion broke over and over again. I still finished it, but I struggled to do so because the writing combined with characters who I thought were really unlikeable just...threw me off too much I guess
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u/3bobbyshmurda 2d ago
Started the book for this one and gave up before the end of the second chapter. Found it exhaustingly cliche. Also thought the main character / first narrator was unlikeable
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u/embolalia1 2d ago
I didn’t think the writing was amazing but if you think a character being unlikeable is a problem then I’m not sure you’ve got much high ground to criticise from. He’s supposed to be unlikeable!
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u/jhewitt127 2d ago
I’m a supporter of giving up on books you don’t like, but not even making it through two chapters seems pretty unfair, even for me.
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u/Insanity_Pills 1d ago
>Thought the main character/first narrator was unlikeable
I will never understand how this is a real issue people have with books. Characters don’t have to be likeable to be interesting, and often characters can still be likeable if you make an honest effort to empathize with them.
Sam is 100% a massive asshole, but I still found him quite sympathetic. Same goes for Sadie. But even if they were not sympathetic it wouldn’t be an issue.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I read through the firsr few chapters and did not pick the book up again until a year later. I was not in love with Sam, but as time went on, I really started to appreciate what the story was doing with him and I also appreciated having a disabled character getting to be as messy and terrible as anyone else in the cast.
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago edited 2d ago
Both main characters were really unlikeable throughout so nothing really changed. A good DNF.
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u/coffin_flop_star 2d ago
Yeah, its marketed to be about the power of friendship, but that power didnt make them better people.
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think we kinda all know two people that are annoying separately but together make each other fucking intolerable so maybe that’s the power the author was going for.
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u/AmongFriends 2d ago
It's not marketed about the "power of friendship."
It says on the back:
This is a story about Sam and Sadie. It's not a romance. But it is about love.
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u/sum_dude44 2d ago
it's the most hyped, poorly written, cliched book of past decade. Don't make me post that awful sex scene
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u/ChrisV2P2 2d ago
What are these cliches, exactly?
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u/sum_dude44 2d ago
star crossed lovers, manic pixie muse, work shooting, bad sex talk, angry nerd, melodrama killing of main character, will they won't they...it was a 90's cbs sitcom full of them
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
Star crossed lovers
But they aren't. Not once are we every under the assumption these two will get together
Manic Pixie Muse
No? Manic Pixie Muse implies Sadie had no story of her own and ignores that she was the major work horse of the team
Work place shooting
This isn't even a common trope. The book draws a lot on gaming's history so a discussion of gun violence around the Doom era feels fitting for the story
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u/Weird-Tomato-2080 2d ago
One of my very few DNFs the past 5-6 years. It was somewhat insufferable. And I LOVE gaming. And reading.
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u/WeWantLADDER49sequel 2d ago
It's a great book that is often misunderstood by people because they just do not get the tone these characters use with one another. I have known so many people like the characters in this book so I know that helped me understand it better.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
So much of the dry banter in the book reminds me a lot of my friends. I can absolutely see people finding the dialogue too terse, but if you know people like this, you know the amount of affection or layered meaning behind even some simple lines
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u/greenwillow17 1d ago
I enjoyed it overall but I got the sense the writer does not play video games! The references were very basic, more like a lay person's understanding of gaming rather than particularly well researched. I feel they could have replaced "gaming industry" with "film industry" or "music industry" and the novel would be pretty much the same. Which was a bit of a let down.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
Interesting take! I actually thought the way the actual games was discussed reads to me as someone who has been deep in the weeds of games discourse for a while. Dov's hatred of shooters for example really reminds me or Reddit's vitrol towards ball & gun games.
I think the brevity on the specifics of the games was fine. The author mentions Persona as an inspiration for Counterpart High, and I don't think a lengthy explanation of Persona being a life-sim/dungeon crawler spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise would be of much service to the plot
I think painting in broad strokes is good for general audiences who may not play games and would almost definitely not be familiar with the retro gaming scene of the 80s-2000s. Hopefully it makes them curious enough to check some games out!
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u/AmongFriends 1d ago
I highly disagree on this. Game creation is a metaphor all throughout the book. Sadie's game she wants to make is a representation of who she was. Who Sam was in his game as the lead character was also reflective of his persona vs who he actually was. There's a huge sequence in the end using an online game world as acts as a metaphor for grief and acceptance and healing that only works as a video game of being someone else. I don't think you can just sub all that out into the film industry and have it be the same
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u/TheMightosaurus 2d ago
I enjoyed it, it wasn’t War and Peace, but it was a fun, enjoyable read. This book is hated quite a lot on Reddit for some reason.
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u/FoxRealistic3370 1d ago
I wonder if it would do better as a movie or tv tbh because as a book I just could not endure it. Maybe if its spoon fed to me and all I gotta do is sit I can appreciate
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
The characters really live inside their own heads, so a screen adaptation where they vocalize their feelings more may have some appeal to people. I think something might be coming out in 2027?
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago
You were impressed by this writing?
She put her hand between his legs, wrapping her fingers around the cylindrical chamber of blood sponges that was his (and every) penis.
He felt the corpora cavernosa, commanded by nerve messages from his subconscious brain, fill up with blood, and the tunica albuginea membrane, the penis's straitjacket, trap the blood inside.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
Yes actually. Out of context, this sounds terrible, but it is the crux of Sam's whole character.
Sam is disabled because of a car accident he was in as a kid. For most of his life, his body has been nothing but a shrine to pain and discomfort. This excerpt I think painfully captures him dissociating while having sex because he only understands his body as a series of medical disfunctions rather than something capable of feeling pleasure.
Contrast that with borderline eroticism used to describe when he is making games
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u/jhewitt127 2d ago
To be fair, that’s kind of funny. It’s so un-sexy it kind of says a lot about the characters.
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago
Don’t think that the author was going for funny.
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u/WeWantLADDER49sequel 2d ago
Then you missed a LOT of context clues lol
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I worry people who keep dunking on this line read the book via TikTok shorts
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u/sum_dude44 2d ago
I finished this awful book & it's a miracle I did b/c it was straight to Netflix movie level writing
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago
Dammit you’ve jinxed it. They are definitely gonna make a Netflix movie out of it now.
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u/AmongFriends 2d ago edited 2d ago
To those who haven't actually read the book, this is taken incredibly out of context to the story and the character. It'd help to think why the author chose to write it this way. Think about why the character is thinking this.
This superficial, out of context critique is so absurdly shallow that it almost pains me to have to even address it. I'm not asking people to write an essay on the thing, just literally think for a bit about it. Just a small bit...
This passage isn't the author doing "bad writing." It's a character and story choice. It makes sense in the story and for the character. It's meant to convey story and character, not to convey a steamy sex scene
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u/ChrisV2P2 2d ago
Seriously. Are people under the impression this is supposed to be a hot, sexy scene and the author botched the tone? Baffling.
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u/AmongFriends 2d ago
Yeah, I believe that's the mistaken critique being stated, that this is a passage from a normal sex scene but the writer is "so bad" that they write it this way.
"Look at this writing of a sex scene. It's so cringe. Who writes a sex scene this way? This writing is not good. Author is bad."
People can like or not like the book. It doesn't matter to me. But at least don't take things out of context and at least apply a little bit of thought into the writing before just making outlandish claims
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u/RetroRaiderRun 1d ago edited 1d ago
I can intend to create the best story ever, that doesn't make it so. Your intent does not make the art. We can understand the authors intent and still dislike the final product. It's ultimately up to the readers to interpret that.
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u/AmongFriends 1d ago
The issue is that the commenter is taking this passage out of the context of the character and the story and using it as evidence of bad writing. It’s not that they understood what the author was trying to convey and simply didn’t like how it was done. They seem to think the passage is trying to do something it isn’t (just be a steamy sex scene written in a weird way).
It’s totally fine if someone doesn’t understand what the author was going for, but the commenter is clearly using this passage out of context to make the argument, “Look at how badly this author writes sex scenes. Who writes a sex scene like this? So cringe.” That’s a different criticism from actually understanding the intent and thinking it didn’t work
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u/3bobbyshmurda 2d ago
Had a visceral reaction reading this. Absolutely fucking terrible.
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago
I think the author was going for ‘these characters are complete nerds so this is how they think about sexy time’ but in any case, the output is just pure cringe, as the kids say.
And not in an intentional way.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
So the two main sex scenes I can think of are the one you pulled out of context and repeated instances of a 20 year old being sexually taken advantage of by professor who has an inordinate amount of control over her life and career
If you're reading that and thinking it's flat stereotyping, I just don't think you were readinf very well at all
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u/the_answer_is_RUSH 2d ago
“Am I so out of touch?”
“No it must be the
childrenreaders who are wrong.”13
u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I'd accept that I'm wrong if you could do more than take a paragraph out of context to point and laugh at. It's really shallow critique
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u/sum_dude44 2d ago
this book is so bad & this is display no 1. Worst written sex scene of past (and every) 20 years
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u/splifficated2019 2d ago
What makes the premise so interesting is how video games become a way for the characters to express things they struggle to say out loud. It makes me wonder how differently this story would work if they were creating music or films instead.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
I'm really glad the story wasn't about more traditional artistic mediums. It not only makes it more unique but also sells Sadie and Sam's connection.
It'd be one thing if Sam made a short film about him and Sadie reconnecting. It's another thing entirely for him to create an entire MMO just to give her space to live out her grief before they reconnect.
In film and music, you are a passive observer, but when you play games, your actions make the work a collaborative piece between the art and the observer. For Sadie who had stopped acting at all in her real life, a safe digital playground was the perfect therapy for her
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u/ottopivnr 2d ago
I'm surprised at how divisive this book is. I quite enjoyed it. That being said I hated The Secret History and am very meh about Station Eleven, two very popular books, so it just goes to show there's no accounting for taste in books.
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u/horsenbuggy 2d ago
I was embarrassed that a woman wrote such a 2 dimensional female character. I hated Sadie and how completely unreasonable she was. That does not relate to my experience of being a woman or having female friends.
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I understand finding Sadie abrasive but where did you find her being 2D and unreasonable?
I think she has the most dynamic journey of anyone in the plot, constantly fighting to not be defined by the men in her life in a male dominated industry. She was the sister of a cancer surviving child and I think the book does a good job of showing how being made to feel secondary impacts her outlook on the world.
As for her being unreasonable, is this in reference to her constant break ups with Sam? If so I understand how it's frustrating to read but I wouldn't call it unwarranted.
She has reason to believe Sam put her back in contact with her abusive for his own gain. He is largely credited as the creator of their shared first project and she has to do the bulk of the work on the sequel while he's off doing press tours. He is a complete ass when she starts dating Marx and then has to raise said child alone after his passing.
I also wouldn't want to talk to Sam much
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u/ambadawn 1d ago
I didn't get past the first chapter after seeing at least 3 poorly shoe-horned in sci-fi/gaming references.
It felt like it was going to be another Ready Player One.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
I think the book does a good job of not devolving into 'member berry fluff like Ready Player One. Most of the references are to anchor the story in time or directly tie to the plot.
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u/AmongFriends 1d ago
Well, it's far from a Ready Player One nostalgia trip. The references are usually to establish context of where we are in the timeline. Hideo Kojima gets referenced in the late 80s/early 90s, for example. It's more a character story about three people struggling to find out who they are and it happens to have video games as the center of it.
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u/No-Tennis-8343 2d ago
I need to reread this as it has been awhile but I enjoyed this book so much thank you for posting about it!
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u/RentSpecial4997 1d ago
I had a good time reading it. I liked how the main relationship was platonic between a guy and girl which seems to be uncommon. I appreciated how the author didn’t force a romantic connection between them.
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u/shadowdra126 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow 1d ago
Quickly became my favorite book. I was completely enthralled reading it.
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u/Common-Economics1867 13h ago
I enjoyed it too. I liked the subject matter, and found the characters engaging.
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u/JAdoreShopping 6h ago
I am SHOCKED by the number of negative comments. I absolutely LOVED this book!! The chapters at the end narrated by Marx were some of the most heart wrenching I’ve ever read.
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u/furious_femme_fatale 2d ago
I was enjoying it, but yeah the writing was clunky and odd, there was also a painful quality as a Palestinian reading how one of the most relevant characters was living in Israel with no commentary on the genocide that has been happening for the past 80 fucking years, and the almost romanticize nature of he and his family living there… it’s disgusting
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I understand the frustration with the lack of commentary on the genocide, but in the book's defense, Dov is the closest thing to an antagonist as the story gets.
He is a predator and an abuser who uses his success and status to frequently run from his failing marriage and broken family. I'm not sure if I'd call it a romantic look of life in Israel
The book spends a great deal of time talking about the struggles of occupying marginalized and ethnic identities, so a greater focus on the predominantly Jewish cast feel about the continued crimes of Israel could've been an interesting addition
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u/furious_femme_fatale 2d ago
Your final point is what I’m sort of getting at, but I understand how you interpreted his family life. In my reading it felt as if he was escaping their to have the perfect nuclear family life even if he himself is a fuck up. But to imagine that there are happy, non assuming families less than 20 miles from where settlers are terrorizing the West Bank and the other direction an open air prison in Gaza, is disgusting to me.
I am a writer myself, and I think there’s something to be said that so many authors can write characters in Israel or visiting Israel without ever mentioning the suffering and genocide while it is inherent in my and my people’s story of how these colonizingC gemociders came to our land and slaughtered and mirdered and raped and continue to do so today. And if I write about my experience o have to mention that aspect.
Sorry if this is mottled, it’s early by me and I have too much to say
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
I get what you mean. I lived in South Africa for quite a while and whether a story is real or fictional, the omission of how apartheid historically and contemporarily affects the country always sticks out.
I don't know anything about Gabrielle Zevin, but I could say her own Jewish heritage makes this topic of discussion a blind spot for her or she felt it fell outside the scope of the story.
I don't want to ascribe malicious intent to the author but your grievances are very valid and I'm wishing the Palestinian peace and relief from the barbaric suffering they are going through.
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u/Prior-Throat-8017 1d ago
Loved the book, hated Sadie lol
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
I felt really bad for Sadie. She's a kid who grew up feeling like an afterthought who then has the most challenging decade of her life midway through college
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u/WordSafe 1d ago
I didn’t like the book and also didn’t like the Zionism.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
I'm asking this in good faith, what did you take away as Zionism from the book? Sam, Sadie, and Dov are all of Jewish descent but I don't remember anything that read as nationalist propaganda
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u/WordSafe 1d ago
Hm okay I read it a year ago so I only remember broad strokes but having an Israeli character / mentioning Israel in a non-critical light to me is the normalization and legitimization of a settler-colonial, genocidal apartheid state. Everything authors do is intentional.
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u/SawkyScribe 1d ago
I said this to a different commenter, but I would hardly say the protrayl of the Israeli character is uncritical. Dov is the most hateable character in the book by a country mile
His grooming and subsequent abuse of one of his student was always matched with a retreat back to his broken family life in Israel. I took this as a subtextual dig at a society who invade and rape and steal while trying to maintain an air of normalcy to the rest of the world but I understand that might be a bit of a reach
There was room and maybe there should have been a greater critique of Israel as an apartheid state, but maybe in trying to write in her own experiences of the Jewish community, Zevin might have paved over its close ties to Zionism in a modern and historical context
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u/LaPasseraScopaiola 2d ago
Impressed like disappointed?
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u/SawkyScribe 2d ago
You can read the post and find out how I felt!
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u/AmongFriends 2d ago
What I love most about TTT is that it’s a love story but not a romance. It’s a love story about a work relationship and how intimate that can be.
The book frames it how a romantic relationship can be amazing but it is also oddly ordinary, but finding someone who you want to create with, who you can give your heart to and make something out of nothing through the creative process, that’s beautiful and romantic in itself. Finding someone like that is worth keeping around
One of my favorite love stories