Review: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Recap: When Sam Masur finds himself in a subway station in Boston, he never expects to see in the crowd Sadie Green. Or maybe he does. Maybe he was low-key hoping for this moment for years: a chance meeting that would reunite the two who were so close as children, until Sam learned the “truth” about why Sadie was spending so much time with him. But in this moment, he’s not focused on that. No, instead he is filled with memories of himself as a young, quiet, sick boy who used to play video games for hours with Sadie. After not speaking for six years, Sam is even more surprised when he approaches Sadie and their encounter ends with her handing him a gift: a new game to play. He returns to his dorm and plays the game, Sadie’s creation, with his roommate, Marx. The two boys immediately notice Sadie’s talent and jump on it. It’s not just an opportunity to monetize a great idea and shoot off into stardom (which is ultimately what happens); it’s an opportunity to form a new bond together as a unit.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow follows Sam, Sadie and Marx as they work together for decades, creating video games and marketing and selling them, building a company in a complicated web of will-they-won’t-they between all three of them. There are falling outs, betrayals and death, coupled with moments of true friendship, saving lives and being there for each other. They all love each other deeply and in different ways, but Tomorrow is a book that showcases that love doesn’t always overcome everything. And neither does success.

Analysis: Tomorrow does a beautiful job of weaving together Sam and Sadie’s stories even though they’re told separately, leaving the reader to decide how to feel about each of the characters. The length of time that the story spans in addition to the depth of Sam and Sadie’s relationship, which is not explicitly romantic, creates an “epic” feeling that parallels the very video games the two are creating. Each of the games they creates also parallels where they are in their relationship. When they are close, their video games are successful. When they are not, the games fall apart because it’s clear there is a split vision. It’s these layers of brilliant writing that make the novel one I couldn’t put down. It’s a slice of life kind of book in that the reader is reading about their lives for so long, one almost starts to wonder where the story is going and what the crux of it is supposed to be.

When that climax ultimately happens, it is dark and unexpected and a game-changer (pardon the pun). And that is the moment when the meaning behind the title of the book becomes more clear. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a reference to famous speech from Macbeth, but once the Shakespearean reference is outwardly made, it’s clear that this novel is acknowledging several Shakespearean plays. For instance, the star-crossed lovers of it all is very Romeo and Juliet. Tomorrow is a beautiful literary piece that even those of us who don’t play video games (me! me! me!) can enjoy for one reason and one reason only: it’s one of those books that makes you think about life.

MVP: Marx. Sam has his ups and downs. So does Sadie. Marx is a labrador retriever of a character who is dependable, lovable and courageous, even despite his flaws. He rarely falters, which is exactly what the other two characters need.

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Review: Verity

Recap: You know the start of author Lowen Ashleigh’s journey is off to a dark start when she’s on her way to a meeting, witnesses a deadly crash at an intersection and finds herself covered in blood splatter. What follows is a man walking behind her until she can get to a public bathroom. He locks himself inside the bathroom with her and offers her his crisp, white button-down to replace her shirt. That’s how Lowen first meets Jeremy. The second time she meets him is minutes later when it turns out her important meeting with him. Jeremy is the husband of another author, Verity Crawford, who is injured from a terrible incident and isn’t able to finish writing the series she had started. Jeremy, along with Verity’s publishing team, now want Lowen to complete the series for her.

Despite all the red flags (she doesn’t want the attention, she doesn’t want the pressure of living up to Verity’s writing, etc.), Lowen signs onto the project in part for the money and certainly in part because she is naturally drawn to Jeremy. Jeremy insists that Lowen stay at his and Verity’s home so she has complete access to all of Verity’s work, manuscripts and outlines. But while there, Lowen finds herself becoming more intrigued by Jeremy and his and Verity’s family. She wants to understand how their two daughters died, what led up to Verity being in this fragile state, what Jeremy’s relationship is like with both Verity and their one remaining child, a son. Lowen also finds something else in Verity’s house: a manuscript, not for the book she’s supposed to finish but for a memoir/autobiography that indicates Verity is much darker than the public, or even her husband, knows her to be. Lowen starts to question the truth about what happened to Verity, what happened to her daughters and whether she’s safe living in Verity’s home…all as the relationship between she and Jeremy evolve.

Analysis: Verity was my entry into Colleen Hoover novels since this is the one I’d seen all over the bookshelves, all over Goodreads and all over the Internet. As such, Verity gave me huge Gone Girl vibes, and I immediately understood why it’s so popular and beloved. There’s the back-and-forth narration between Lowen and the Verity manuscript, the deep, dark secrets, the unreliable narrators, the mysterious deaths of children and the mystery of Jeremy. Reading it promises to put you in a constant state of discomfort in that you don’t know who to trust. There’s nothing you can do but to keep reading to have your questions answered.

And the twists! The twists! There are several. And just when you think there couldn’t be another, Hoover sneaks it in. I tend to find myself a pretty good reader and often pick up on the foreshadowing in books, but I didn’t conceive of what was to come in Verity. Not knowing anything about Colleen Hoover before picking up this book, I didn’t realize that part of what she’s known for her is her sexy writing, and that was a fun surprise. Listen, Colleen Hoover is not a prestige, literary, Nobel Award-worthy novelist. Her writing can be a bit hokey at times. BUT Verity proved her plotline cliffhangers, sex scenes and twists make her books the definition of the kind you simply can’t put down. Making Verity even more interesting is the open-ended interpretation of the ending of this book. The end is finite, but the characters are left wondering why they did what they did, if they made the right the decision and what’s the right thing to believe. There’s no way of knowing, and it’s a fun ending to debate with other friends who have read the book.

MVP: Jeremy and Verity’s son. The reality is none of the lead characters in this novel are good, likeable people. But maybe that’s the beauty of this book; that even so, it’s still a great, entertaining read.

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Review: Popism: The Warhol Sixties

Andy Warhol is an artistic icon, a legend in the art world, photography, film industry and pop culture. He’s known for the big risks he took in pop art and being one of the few artists to become a household name by becoming a celebrity in his own right in the 1960s. I’ve always been fascinated by him because, quite frankly, who hasn’t, with his silver white hair, oddities, fangirling around with the most beautiful models of yesteryear and successful Marilyn Monroe and tomato soup pieces of art? But after visiting The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, I realized there’s a lot I didn’t know about him. So I picked up this book, maybe or maybe not realizing in that moment that he co-authored it. Written years later, Warhol and co-author Pat Hackett detail what it was like to be Andy Warhol in the 1960s.

He spent most of his time in New York but of course made big trips to Los Angeles too. But he was a city boy through and through, and The Factory in New York was his biggest canvas. The Factory was where Andy lived during this time and hosted dozens and dozens – no, maybe hundreds or thousands of parties? I say thousands because practically everyday and eveyr night was a party at The Factory. He writes that people would just show up. Sometimes he knew them. Sometimes he didn’t. But always, it was fun. Until the end.

What’s interesting about Warhol’s writing in Popism is that it’s just as you would expect. Fairly nonchalant and matter-of-fact like a blase journal entry, and yet, there are tonal shifts in these moments of pure poignancy that remind us why Andy Warhol is one of the most iconic artists of all time for a reason. At the end of a paragraph, he’ll make a statement full of deep meaning that clues the reader into just how observant Warhol really was, and how even though he was so “cool” and “nonchalant,” things mattered to him just as much as the next person. Warhol was never too cool to feel.

Popism is extremely detailed and assures me that Warhol had so much of his life documented. That’s the only way he could have remembered all the shenanigans, all the pranks, all the art, the people, parties, trips, drugs, and extravagances. The time he was shot. The friends who disappeared and later died. The book may be best for those who lived through that time, who would be more familiar with some of the mega name drops throughout the memoir. But anyone who reads it will be fascinated by the lifestyle, whether they recognize those name drops or not. And everyone can appreciate the warmth, yet distance Warhol holds in his heart for the fun times of youth before they turn sour and the ability to look back on those times with the benefit of age and wisdom, knowing when to leave it behind and grow up.

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Review: The Hurricane Sisters

Recap: It’s hurricane season ins South Carolina, and while a big storm hasn’t happened yet this season, Ashley and her mother, Liz, have their own personal hurricanes brewing. Ashley is a young, beautiful artist who’s working a pretty easy job and has a crush on a local lawmaker. So when he notices her at a party, she starts to think her life about it be right on track to be the artistic wife of a politician. But when they start dating, she pushes all red flags aside: his temper, his territorial and controlling nature and his ego. Some of her friends and family see it, but she refuses to accept that he’s not the “one” for her. Meanwhile, her mother is losing sight of her priorities as she hits middle age. While her work in the nonprofit world is going well, her mother, Maisie, is driving her nuts with her quirky elderly boyfriend, and she thinks her husband may have a sidepiece up in New York, where he often travels for business.

As Liz uncovers more family secrets and Ashley and her roommate come up with schemes to make some fast cash (they are poor twenty-somethings, after all), the truths are revealed about the men in their lives and suddenly things aren’t so perfect after all. Everything peaks as a massive hurricane is set to hit the coast where Ashley lives. Amid the internal and external storms, three generations of women must determine their next steps and whether they want to stay with the men who have done them dirty.

Analysis: This book came recommended to me, so I expected it to be a fairy high quality piece of literature. So I was surprised to find it was fairly reductive, predictable and lazily written. Upon more research, I learned these kinds of books are author Dorothea Benton Frank’s M.O. She is known for her chick lit beach read fare which often takes places in the South Carolina Low Country, where she’s from. She’s the author of many bestsellers. Knowing that, I kept with it and better appreciated it for what it was.

While the writing didn’t impress me much and I found myself mentally yelling at Ashley as her boyfriend started to abuse her, I did actually like the way Frank brought everything together in the end. The storylines started to feel as serious as they were, and the characters ultimately made the right choices. Liz even made some decisions I didn’t see coming, as did Ashley. Both of them proved to be much stronger characters, ultimately, than they seemed to be in the onset or even throughout the journey

The women stood together in the end in a way that was very hokey. A bit too saccharine for me. I don’t know that I would read another Dorothea Benton Frank book again unless I was in the mood for particularly light, brainless summer fun.

MVP: Maisie. The grandmother in this novel is a lively, elderly wackadoo and I loved it. She offers some lightness and playfulness that helped offset the melodrama of the women surrounding her in the novel. We could all use someone like Maisie.

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