The Tomorrow Game

Rival Teenagers, Their Race for a Gun, and a Community United to Save Them

De: Sudhir Venkatesh

Narrado por: Soneela Nankani

A New York Times bestselling author’s gripping account of a Chicago community coming together to save a group of teenagers from gun violence.

In the tradition of works like Random Family and Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Sudhir Venkatesh’s The Tomorrow Game is a deeply reported chronicle of families surviving in a Southside Chicago community.

At the heart of the story are two teenagers: Marshall Mariot, an introverted video gamer and bike rider, and Frankie Paul, who leaves foster care to direct his cousin’s drug business while he’s in prison. Frankie devises a plan to attack Marshall and his friends—it is his best chance to showcase his toughness and win respect for his crew. Catching wind of the plan, Marshall and his friends decide they must preemptively go after Frankie’s crew to defend their honor. The pressure mounts as both groups of teens race to find a gun and strike first. All the while, the community at large—a cast that includes the teens’ families, black market gun dealers, local pastors, a bodega owner, and a veteran beat cop—try their best to defuse the conflict and keep the kids alive.

Based on Venkatesh’s three decades of immersion in Chicago’s Southside, and as propulsive as a novel, The Tomorrow Game is a nuanced, timely look at the toll that poverty and gun violence take on families and their communities.

What is THIS????

I can't figure this book out. It reads like the beginnings of several unrelated novels. He introduces a character and tells you the level of poverty, history of abuse, work history, what the family thinks about it and slowly transitions to introducing a new character. The book never starts. There is no story. I legit don't know if this book is fiction or non-fiction. I don't know if there is supposed to be a message or if there is some kind of education that is intended. Sudir Venkatesh actually did write a very interesting (though poorly written and out of focus) book when he started his career. In "A Gangster For a Day" he talks about following gangsters and what he calls Hustlers and talks about the alternative economics that develops when there is not enough money to circulate. There is nothing like that here. There is nothing like anything here. No point ever starts to develop. I can't tell what this is supposed to be about, I gave this book a very strong chance- I was excited to hear what he had to say. I eventually had to resign the book because I could not remember even one character since every sounds the same and there is never any kind of story to make these characters relevant