Bookworm, Issue 27

The Book: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Despite recommendations from many people, I put off reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow knowing that much of the story revolved around video games. As a child, I rarely played video games (preferring to read books instead), and into adulthood I continued to avoid them, biased against the violent content in so many. Thus, I was truly surprised that I adored this book.

Protagonists Sam Masur and Sadie Green are friends who play and develop video games together. Gaming is what they do, and oftentimes for these two creative and driven characters, it’s inseparable from who they are. While the gaming content in the story is smart and engaging, author Gabrielle Zevin truly shines when she considers questions of identity and worth. It’s something to which we can all relate, and therein lies this novel’s success.

Sam, Sadie, and a compelling cast of supporting characters, have stayed with me for weeks, but I’ve struggled to articulate why. So, I’ve paired the book with a wine that offers me a similar tasting experience – one that lingers but is hard to define. The wine is a chillable vino rosso from Piedmont, Italy, with a distinctive and intriguing identity.

Both Sam and Sadie grow up in Los Angeles, but while Sadie is affluent and Jewish, Sam is raised by his working-class, Korean-immigrant grandparents. His mother is dead, his Jewish father is mostly absent, and he has difficultly walking due to a childhood injury. Gaming together as children cements Sam and Sadie’s friendship, but after a falling out, they do not reconnect again until college in Cambridge, Mass. There they develop a video game that catapults them into the public eye. They form Unfair Games together with their friend Marx and return to Los Angeles to start their business.

Part of what makes this novel memorable is Zevin’s thoughtful exploration of the human side of video game technology. The perception of play as an intimate act reoccurs throughout Sam and Sadie’s evolving friendship. “To allow yourself to play with another person is no small risk. It means allowing yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt…To play requires trust and love.” Much about the two friends’ relationship is revealed in the games they develop. And as with any creative endeavor, moments of beauty and brilliance coexist alongside ambition and failure.

Despite their closeness, Sam and Sadie’s friendship is fraught with misunderstanding, misplaced judgement, missing empathy, and missed opportunities. Sadie’s urge to make art clashes with Sam’s desire to design a blockbuster. Neither protagonist is consistently likable; they are flawed and their emotional lives are messy. But their lasting relationship proves how real-world human connection – imperfect as it may be – transcends virtual experiences.

The writing is ambitious, but nothing in the novel feels forced. Interesting cultural references range from Oregon Trail and Donkey Kong to Shakespeare, Hokusai, and Emily Dickinson. In addition, Zevin addresses an array of serious contemporary issues related to disability, class, sex, and race. Along the way, her far-reaching vocabulary continuously engages the mind. But rather than come across as pretentious, these diverse elements build upon one another, cleverly, to capture the complexity of modern life.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is packed with humanity. It’s about an enduring bond and the deeply human desire to be understood. Sam and Sadie create dazzling games together, but at times, their choices hurt the person they love most. If given the chance to start over, like in the video games where they first found camaraderie, perhaps they can play again.

The Wine: Angelo Negro, Vino Rosso, Piedmont, Italy, 2023 $21.99

Pretty pinkish-red and hazy with unfiltered residual yeast, a maverick right from the start. This red wine is light and chillable, impulsively quaffable, but even better when savored for a bit. Tart, fruity, and floral, with just a hint of pepper spice; specifically, fresh and sour cherries, pomegranate, candied strawberry, rose, violet, pink grapefruit, orange peel, and white pepper. Refreshing on the palate with lively acidity, modest tannic structure, and 12.5% ABV. The enjoyable finish is expressive and sensory.

Serve this wine to impress your most curious friends. It’s aromatic, intriguing and complex, but remains easy drinking. “Chill, shake, serve!” at 50-59 F.

Made from 100% Brachetto. Fermented with native yeast and aged in stainless steel for 5+ months on the lees of Arneis, a Piedmontese white grape variety. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. The Negro estate, which dates to 1670, is located in the Roero subregion of Piedmont. Winemaker Angelo Negro works exclusively with indigenous grapes, and the family is committed to biodiversity, healthy soils, and organic viticulture.

Why the pairing works:

In my tasting note, I call Angelo Negro’s unfiltered Vino Rosso a maverick because my first experience with it was bewildering. “What is this?” I wanted to know. The wine is indeed crushable, but it’s worthy of serious consideration.

Brachetto is more commonly made into a sweet, fizzy, low-alcohol, light red wine. This vino rosso is dry, and interestingly, is aged for a short time on the lees of another grape from Piedmont, white-skinned Arneis. It’s bottled unfiltered, and the result is a beautiful, hazy, aromatic wine that looks and smells and tastes unlike anything else.

Simultaneously playful and complex, the wine pairs perfectly with a novel about video games that is actually about being human. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is about a friendship that endures despite hardship, and it’s about identity, creativity, and ambition. Both the wine and the novel are deeper than they first appear and will linger in your mind and on your palate.