I READ THIS a month ago and apparently forgot to write a blog post about it. I read it for one of our book clubs, and I probably would not have picked it up save for that circumstance, but I enjoyed it.
One strength of the novel is its offering a glimpse into the world of video games--a world I have no familiarity with whatsoever. As children, the novel's two main characters, Sam Masur and Sadie Green, bond over some of the same games my kids played--Sims, Oregon Trail--so reading about their fascination with the artificial worlds of these games gave me an idea why game-playing was so compelling to my kids and to many, many, many of my students over the years.
Sam and Sadie become friends--despite frequent misunderstandings and quarrels--and artistic collaborators, the creators of fantastically successful games. The key ingredient to their collaboration, however, is their friend Marx Watanabe, as he is the one who helps them navigate past those frequent misunderstandings and quarrels. He is Sam's best friend, eventually (to Sam's chagrin) Sadie's lover, and his charm and savvy make him the linchpin of their flourishing business.
But--spoiler alert--he dies in a spectacularly tragic fashion. Can Sam and Sadie remain successful collaborators without their Brian Epstein?
Marx, before becoming the business whiz bringing Sam and Sadie's company to new heights, was an aspiring actor especially keen on Shakespeare, which gives Zevin an opening to bring in a good bit of Shakespeareana, including the phrase from Macbeth's famous speech that she takes for her title. I was not sure what she was up to with this, but it was diverting to spot the allusions. Maybe the novel was a little game-like itself in this way.
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