genre: fiction
In a crowed T stop in Boston, Sam sees someone from his past - a girl who is so tied up with his own story that he's not sure who Sam IS without Sadie. Or at least, who Sam WAS. Because like a lot of friendships, theirs is a particularly complicated one. What grounds them, though, and eventually leads to their reconciliation? Games, particularly video games. For Sam and Sadie, the making and playing of video games is like a chance to recreate themselves and the world over and over - if only reality was as simple.
I know my little summary up there is so vague, but I don't want to spoil it. I do want to say that while it was for some reason a little bit slow going - it was so deep - so painful and lovely - that I just didn't feel like rushing it. It IS a story of a friendship - but it's so much more than that. This book is surprisingly existential. I highlighted so many thoughts because they struck me as sometimes just lovely but sometimes they really hit at a part of me that longs, maybe like a lot of people, for there to was be way to just start a particularly hard part of my life over and do it better this time, just like you can in a game. While Sam and Sadie sometimes frustrated me with the way they managed their lives, I also was super invested in them, in their backstories, their pains and their trauma, their disability and humanity. There is tenderness here, and the kind of bond between people that can hardly be explained with mere words. I'm not a big gamer, but I didn't need to appreciate the beauty here.
No comments:
Post a Comment