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.Virtual Book Club

Resource guides to enhance your Virtual Book Club reading experience.

About the Book

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin

 

From the publisher's website: 

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.

These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.

Previous Discussion Questions

*** WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! ***

Each week, VBC discusses sections of the book together. Below is a collection of weekly discussion questions posed by VBC leadership and members. Be aware that these likely include spoilers, so please do not scroll further if you have not read the book.

 

Week 1: Orientation meeting

  1. The art of video gaming is a major theme in “Tomorrow”. In an interview, the author said she thinks of Instagram and other online experiences as gaming. Do you agree? Do you consider social media to be a video game? What is a "video game" to you?
  2. What would the title of your video game be, and what would be the protagonist's goal?
  3. Managing life’s ups and downs is a theme in “Tomorrow”. A character states: “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Make new mistakes.” Do you repeat mistakes often or make new ones? How do you recommend managing not to repeat mistakes?
  4. Escapism is a major theme in “Tomorrow”. How do you escape? Are there new ways of escaping you are eager to try this year?
  5. A character says: “…so many people …could be your lover, but relatively few people [can] move you creatively.” Do you agree, or disagree? Who is the person in your life who moves you creatively?
  6. How does your creativity show up in your day-to day-life?

 

Week 2: Sections 1 & 2

  1. “Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur –a change of two letters that transformed him from a nice, ostensibly Jewish boy to a professional Builder of Worlds…” (p. 3) Have you ever changed what people call you, at some stage in your life? If so, how did it effect you? How much significance is in a name?
  2. Sam’s advisor says on page 11: “You’re incredibly gifted, Sam. But it is worth noting that to be good at something is not quite the same as loving it.” (p.11) Do you agree with him? What is something you are good at but don’t love or something you love and are not good at?
  3. Alice reveals to Sam that Sadie was doing community service (pg. 37). How do you view Alice’s decision to disclose that information to Sam? Do you think Sam deserved to know, why or why not?
  4. Should Sadie have used Dov’s engine for Ichigo? If you were her: would you?

 

Week 3: Sections 3, 4, & 5

  1. Dov said on page 128: “Ichigo should be a boy.” Do you agree? What gender today, do you think, sells more? How does gender and/or representation affect what you play/ read/ watch and/or purchase? Must you see a specific group and/or range represented to support something? Please explain.
  2. On pages 132-133, “Sadie felt uncomfortable speaking about the work—the work, she naively felt, should speak for itself.” Should Sadie had spoken up more about her work to the public? Is this why she felt “diminished” because she didn’t? How do you manage self-promotion and letting your work speak for itself?
  3. On p. 218: “If Sadie and Sam had been lovers, Sadie was certain she would have been seen as Sam’s helpmate, and not as an artist in her own right. Many people saw her that way already.” Do you agree? Is this statement relevant today?
  4. Dong tells his grandson Sam on page 246: “Maybe you need to let more people know you.” Do you feel you “know” people? Do you feel people “know” you? How do you invite people to really get to know you?
  5. Marx says to Sam in regard to his personal health: “Sam, it arguably is my business. We’re partners, and if you’re going to need major surgery, Sadie and I need to be able to plan.” How do you feel about the doctor telling Marx about Sam’s medical situation? Do you agree with Marx? How much of your personal business is necessary to share with professional partners?
  6. In reviews of Both Sides, the fog in Myre Landings was referred to as “a character”. Do you observe the weather or something in nature to be a character in your life or story? Does some natural phenomenon deeply move or effect you as if it were a person?

 

Week 4: Sections 6, 7, & 8

  1. On page 256 Sam says: “It’s arrogant of you both to assume I would care so much.” Do you agree? Did Sadie and Marx need to keep their relationship a secret from Sam? Why or why not? What is the “real deal” between Sadie and Sam?
  2. On page 258 Sam tells Sadie that Marx is boring. Do you agree? Of the two, Sam and Marx, who do you think is more boring? What do you think Sam thinks makes him more “interesting” specifically in comparison to Marx? 
  3. Sadie wants to work on a new game. Sam wants another Ichigo. Sam askes Sadie on Page 260: “Why does something always have to be new to interest you? It’s almost pathological.” Are you like or unlike Sadie in this way? Do you lose interest in things easily or do you prefer to stick with things for long periods of time? Why do you think you are this way?
  4. Sadie believes that: “[Sam] cared more about making Ichigo than he did about [her] well-being.” On page 264, she explains to Marx that she believes Sam knew she had been in a relationship with Dov. Do you agree? Do you think Sam knew about her and Dov by reading the CD-ROM label? What is the impact of either possibility?

 

Week 5: Sections 9 & 10

  1. How did you feel about the writing style dealing with Marx’s coma? Did you enjoy this style of writing? How did it make you feel?
  2. On Page 304 we read that in his coma Marx is “flying over a strawberry field”. Earlier in the book, Marx tells Sam and Sadie that Ichigo means strawberry. Did you see any significance in this strawberry connection?
  3. What did you think of the literary technique that the author used in the chapter depicting the game Sam made to reconnect with Sadie (section 9: Pioneers)? How long did it take you to get what was really going on?
  4. How do you imagine these unique scenes playing out in another medium such as film?
  5. On page 371 Sadie tells Dov that she isn't speaking to Sam “because he tricked me.” Dov replies: “You’re old enough to stop being so young. Only the young have high standards.” Do you agree with Dov's comment to Sadie? Have your standards with friends raised or decreased as you have aged? What is an example of how your standards have shifted from one age to another?
  6. Page 378 while Sadie reflects on 1996, we read “Sadie had willed herself to be great: art doesn’t typically get made by happy people.” Do you agree or disagree? Do you create more from a happy or sad place? Do you seek one or the other more for inspiration?
  7. Sam and Sadie both finally exchange “I love you” at the end of the novel. Was the departure at the airport in New York City satisfying to you? Why or why not? What was your experience with the end of the novel? Did it feel complete to you? Why or why not?