← Back to kit
Question cards Bookmarks Scorecards Download PDF
Want this emailed to you? or just download it above. We'll send a reminder before your meeting too.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Book Club Night - Deep Discussion night

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Gabrielle Zevin

A decades-spanning novel about two collaborators building video games together, Zevin's book uses play as a lens on art, identity, grief, and the strange intimacy of creative partnership.

Reading level: Moderate Pages: 416 Best for: Clubs that like layered, character-driven literary fiction and arguing about what a book is really 'about'

Discussion

Warm-up

  1. 1.The title is borrowed from Macbeth's soliloquy on meaningless time. What expectations did that framing set before you opened the book, and how did the novel push back on them?
  2. 2.Zevin opens in a specific time and place rather than with backstory. What does that structural choice signal about how she wants us to read Sam and Sadie's relationship?

Digging in

  1. 1.The novel insists on calling what Sam and Sadie do 'work' rather than 'art' or 'play.' How does Zevin complicate the boundaries between those three categories, and is she arguing one is primary?
  2. 2.Games promise the player infinite second chances. How does Zevin use that promise as both metaphor and critique, and where does the metaphor strain or break?
  3. 3.Consider how the book handles Sam's disability and pain, Sadie's gender in the industry, and Marx's racial identity. Is Zevin making an argument about whose suffering gets aestheticized and whose gets erased?
  4. 4.Marx is repeatedly described in terms that flirt with idealization. Is he a fully realized character, a deliberate archetype, or a structural device, and what does your answer say about the novel's moral center?

Going deep

  1. 1.Critics have split on whether the romantic-but-not-romance arc between Sam and Sadie is the novel's great insight or its great evasion. Which reading do you find more defensible, and what textual evidence supports it?
  2. 2.Zevin uses embedded games, alternate selves, and recursive references to other texts (Shakespeare, Hokusai, Oregon Trail) to layer the narrative. Is this intertextuality doing genuine thematic work, or is it largely decorative? What is she ultimately arguing about authorship and influence?

On the table

Cheese and bread board
Simple, shareable, and easy to graze on so conversation never has to stop
Bowl of clementines
A quiet nod to California and the book's recurring imagery of small, perfect things
Salted dark chocolate squares
Bitter-sweet, like the book; minimal effort, maximal mood

To sip

Black coffee or strong tea (no alcohol)
Late-night studio fuel for a serious talk about ambition and burnout
Dry red wine
Unfussy, contemplative; pour and let the discussion lead
Japanese whisky, neat
A subtle gesture to the book's Hokusai motif; one bottle, small pours

Run of show

7:00
Arrival and graze
Low music, board out, no agenda; let people settle
7:15
Opening frame
Host reads the Macbeth title source aloud and poses the two warmups
7:35
Thematic round
Work through the four theme questions, one at a time, with silence allowed
8:20
Break and refill
Five minutes to stretch, refill drinks, and let arguments cool
8:30
Deep dive
Tackle the two deep questions; encourage citing passages
9:15
Scorecards and closing word
Fill cards in silence, then each person offers one sentence

Host tips

  • Ask people to bring the book and at least one flagged passage; close reading raises the level fast
  • Resist resolving disagreements. Let competing interpretations stand as the point of the night
  • Keep food and music in the background. Dim overheads, use lamps, and reduce visual clutter

Playlist

Pensive, melodic, slightly melancholy; background only, kept low

  1. 01Lovely Head - Goldfrapp
  2. 02Teardrop - Massive Attack
  3. 03Holocene - Bon Iver
  4. 04Mad World - Gary Jules
  5. 05Aerodynamic (Daft Punk) - Daft Punk
  6. 06Spiegel im Spiegel - Arvo Part
  7. 07Videotape - Radiohead
  8. 08Avril 14th - Aphex Twin

Trivia

  1. 1. From which Shakespeare play does the novel borrow its title? (Macbeth)
  2. 2. In what year was the novel first published? (2022)
  3. 3. Who wrote the novel? (Gabrielle Zevin)
  4. 4. What Japanese artist's famous wave print is referenced in the book? (Katsushika Hokusai)
  5. 5. What industry do the central characters work in? (Video game design)
  6. 6. On which U.S. coast do significant portions of the story take place? (Both, but much of it on the East Coast (Cambridge/Boston) and later California)
  7. 7. What classic educational computer game is referenced as a formative childhood text? (The Oregon Trail)
  8. 8. Is this novel Zevin's debut? (No; she had published several earlier novels, including The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry)

Rate the book

Thematic ambition ☆☆☆☆☆
Structural craft ☆☆☆☆☆
Character complexity ☆☆☆☆☆
Moral ambiguity ☆☆☆☆☆
Lasting resonance ☆☆☆☆☆
The strongest argument this book makes is: ______________________
The interpretation I am least sure about: ______________________
One passage I want to reread: ______________________
You're invited
A Serious Night on Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Bring the book, a flagged passage, and an opinion you are willing to defend. We are reading slowly and talking deeply.