Wow! I am searching for the words to describe the phenomenal experience of reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

I am not a gamer but I have worked alongside engineers at a tech startup who are gamers and my daughter is a gamer. Reading this book was like a peek into another world. A gamer is a builder of worlds. Readers do not need to be gamers to thoroughly enjoy this literary treasure.

Zevin masterfully creates the rhythms of friendships that enthralled me. She references torri gates in Japan as symbolism for moving to new openings, new passages, new portals and new worlds.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is from Shakespeare and it represents infinite rebirth and infinite redemption. Nothing is permanent. Games provide the ability to continually start over.

Zevin’s book illustrates the journey three friends make over several decades and how they handle the ebb and flow of life events, as well as “starting over” with their friendships. Early in their gaming careers, it was described as a bottomless pit of ambition where one’s tastes exceeded one’s abilities. It’s a story of failure and perseverance and the life of artists. Art isn’t typically made by happy people.

The moral of the story is that true collaborators in life are incredibly rare.

Professional gamers work hard to improve their skills, they learn from others, and they practice their craft frequently. While reading Zevin’s book, I continuously looked up new vocabulary words that were used throughout the book. Some of the many words I looked up included: tautology, queef, detritus, somnolent, reticle, propitious, verisimilitude, grokking, eponymous, hirsute, palimpsest, ouroboros, auteur, and many, many others.

Thank you, Zevin, for helping me improve my vocabulary and possibly my writing skills.

Highly recommend!