Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow book club questions

1. 1.

   The novel resists resolving whether Sam and Sadie should have been together. Did you find that restraint satisfying or withholding?

2. 2.

   Zevin uses video games as her medium the way earlier novelists used painting or music. Did the games-as-art argument land for you, or did it require you to take that on faith?

3. 3.

   Sam and Sadie hurt each other repeatedly over thirty years without it ending the relationship permanently. What keeps them returning?

4. 4.

   The novel spans decades but feels intimate throughout. How does Zevin manage that compression without losing character continuity?

5. 5.

   Marx — Sam's roommate and eventual partner in the studio — is a quietly crucial character. What does his presence give the novel that would be missing without him?

6. 6.

   The AIDS crisis, the dot-com crash, and other historical events pass through the novel without becoming plot drivers. Is that restraint or avoidance?

7. 7.

   Sadie carries a significant secret for part of the novel. When it's revealed, did your sympathy for her change?

8. 8.

   The Macbeth reference runs through the novel's title and its themes. If you know the play, how does it deepen the reading? If you don't, does the novel stand alone?

9. 9.

   Sam's relationship with pain and his disability shape his creative work. Did the novel handle that connection honestly, or did it edge toward making disability a source of artistic depth?

10. 10.

    Compared to Daisy Jones & The Six — another novel about creative partnership — where does Tomorrow land harder in its understanding of what making things together does to people?

11. 11.

    The ending is not happy in a conventional sense but feels complete. Did it earn that feeling?

12. 12.

    The novel is set primarily in the game industry of the 1990s-2010s. Did the period detail feel nostalgic, or did it serve the story?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.