The Midnight Library - Book Review
November 13, 2021
Life is worth living when we have love, and the positive things we do in life make a difference - not just in our life, but in other people's lives.
From the Back Cover
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices.... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?
Details
- Author: Matt Haig
- Published: 2020
- Publisher: Harper Avenue
Let’s Discuss
The Midnight Library is a work of fiction where Nora Seed, the protagonist of the novel, comes to realise that understanding what life throws at you is not as important as living with what life throws at you and accepting that you do make a difference.
In Matt Haig’s novel, there is one particularly powerful quote that describes the novel, “You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.”
Nora suffers from depression and a lack of self worth that leads her to regret the choices she has made in life. She feels that leaving this world is better than staying in it. So, Nora makes a decision to end her life; and, as her life slips away from her, she finds herself in a library - a large library full of books representing all the possible paths her life could have taken if she had made different choices.
As Nora explores the different realities created from the different choices, she begins to see that none of them are really her. They are either just as bad, worse, much worse, better, or much better. However, in each different life, Nora knows she is an imposter - it’s not who “she” is. As Nora continues living different lives she comes to the conclusion that her true life has meaning, and she has made a difference in people’s lives. This conclusion pushes Nora to want to live and continue in her original existence - her life has meaning and has changed people's lives for the better.
To come to this realisation Nora has to fall down a deep well of depression and attempt to end her life; experience the different paths her life could have taken had she made different choices, and come to the conclusion that living the life you havev has meaning and is worth living.
Fall Down a Deep Well of Depression
Nora’s life sucks. She feels she has made bad choices throughout her life. From giving up on swimming, to giving up on a career in music, to giving up on a marriage, to giving up on an adventure an ocean away, Nora feels that she has accomplished nothing and has made everyone she has ever loved angry and disappointed in her.
The feeling of a lack of self worth is evident as Nora sees everything she is doing as a failure and that people have given up on her. Her being fired from her job makes her feel that she is the reason the business is failing. Her elderly neighbour telling her that the pharmacy is now delivering his medication and that she doesn’t need to pick it up for him anymore makes her feel like she is being abandoned. Her brother being in town and meeting up with a former band member friend but not her, cements her belief that no one cares or needs her. She is alone and abandoned in this life - a life she feels is more of a burden than a blessing to people.
This is summed up very well when Nora looks down at her deceased cat, Voltaire, and the author writes, “As she stared at Voltaire’s still and peaceful expression - that total absence of pain - there was an inescapable feeling brewing in the darkness. Envy.”
In her self absorbed state, Nora sends her farewells to those she once loved, writes her suicide note, and attempts to take her life through an overdose of medication.
Experiencing Different Paths Life can Take
At the cusp of life and death at the stroke of Midnight, Nora is transported to a library where all the shelves are lined with books - books that tell different stories of Nora, stories that would have happened if she had made different choices.
As Nora picks up and begins to read each book she is transported to that book's reality, where she experiences the life of the "Nora" in that book. The life she would have had if she had made a different choice. Some stories were good and some were bad. In each story, Nora comes to the realisation that these people, even though they are her, are not the person she has grown to become.
A Life has Meaning and is Worth Living
Nora progresses through various alternative lives until she comes across one that is idyllic; where she has everything she really wanted: people who care for her and people she cares for. As her life in this existence continues, she visits those from her original life and finds that these people’s lives have changed as well, some for the better (like her brother), some worse (like her student). Shocked at the situation befalling those who fared worse, Nora sees how her life had actually made a difference in their lives, and that her existence did matter.
The pain growing inside Nora from seeing those whose lives have taken a bad turn eventually comes to the surface and she realizes that, “... the fundamental problem with [her root life], the thing that had left her vulnerable, really, was the absence of love.”
With this paradigm shift of realization, Nora decides that the best place for her is where she started and returns to her original existence. After recovering from her near fatal suicide attempt, Nora pushes forward and rebuilds her life. She knows that no matter how small of a choice, that a choice does makes a difference - and when that choice is based on love, it makes a big difference.
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this novel. It's a good read, go out there and read it. :)
