Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

OMG, I just finished this book and I don't want it to be over. I want Sam and Sadie's story to go on forever. They're my video-game programmers/geeky friends now, and I want to know what they do every day.[b:Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 58784475 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1636978687l/58784475.SY75.jpg 89167797] is a masterpiece on human behavior. [a:Gabrielle Zevin 40593 Gabrielle Zevin https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503541462p2/40593.jpg] makes each character so real we feel their joy and pain. Even their grief.I worried I didn't know enough about video gaming to really get into this book. My gaming life barely exists. A few rounds of Oregon Trail, a little PacMan, and summer fling with Kings Quest IV about sums it up. Turns out, that's really all I needed.I think I loved the asides about video games the most: “To design a game is to imagine the person who will eventually play it.”Or the thought that having a gaming partner is a more precious connection than a spouse. It was also a reminder of times I lived through. The before and after of 9/11. A conversation overheard by Sam and his mother about the 1984 Olympics, where Mary Lou Retton got a perfect 10 and how some guys in a diner said: “She never would have won if the Russians hadn't boycotted. It's not a victory if the best players aren't there.” When Sam asked his mother if that was true, she said:“Even if what he says is true, I think it's still a victory. Because she won on this day, with this particular set of people. We can never know what else might have happened had other competitors been there. The Russian girls could have won, or they could have gotten jet-lagged and choked.... And this is the truth of any game—it can only exist at the moment that it is being played. It's the same with being an actor. In the end, all we can ever know is the game that was played, in the only world that we know.”From that excerpt, you can see how the author can write believable dialogue. It's that way throughout the book. There's the perfect stuff we all want to say (and think in our heads) and then there's the inadequate stuff that comes out of our mouths that is forced to suffice as communication. This author gives us both. She especially good at letting us know what the characters hide from other characters in order to be kind, smart, or vengeful, which in the end usually turns out to be harmful to the relationship.Marx was also a well-drawn character who complemented the fever of gaming that Sam and Sadie shared. Once he was out of the picture, Sam & Sadie struggled to communicate at all. He was almost an interpreter for them. I love the ending. It's the circle of life. READ THIS BOOK.