The Midnight Library By: Matt Haig

Time spent reading: 10 Hrs.

After finishing The Inglorious Empire, which was based on true events, I wanted a change to something not grounded in reality. The title The Midnight Library really attracted me, hinting at a fascinating, imaginative journey.

The Midnight Library was named a bestseller by The New York Times bestseller, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.Good Morning America selected it as a Book Club Pick

Short Summary

"The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig is a thought-provoking novel that delves into the concept of regret and the possibilities of alternate lives. The story revolves around Nora Seed, a woman in her thirties who feels overwhelmed by her failures and missed opportunities. Her life has become a series of regrets, and she believes she has nothing to live for. This leads her to attempt suicide, but instead of dying, she finds herself in the Midnight Library, a place between life and death filled with books that contain different versions of her life.

Nora meets Mrs. Elm, her old school librarian, who explains the library’s purpose: it offers Nora a chance to live different versions of her life based on the choices she didn’t make. Each book in the library represents a life she could have lived if she had made different decisions. Nora can choose any book, experience that life, and see if it’s one she would like to stay in permanently.

Nora explores various lives, each based on significant decisions she once pondered. In one life, she is a successful Olympic swimmer; in another, she is a rock star. She experiences being a glaciologist, a wife, a mother, and a vineyard owner. Each life teaches her something new about herself and the nature of happiness.

My Review

The story is written in the first person point of view and moves in a linear timeline with some flash backs. The times are not hard to follow, though I needed to turn the pages back and forth on a few occasion to get the hang of a few things. The book was written in the 80’s when the writer was concerned about the future of the world based on what was happening in the US political circle then, headed by the religious right who were taking about what they would do to women if they took power. The story is a satirical view of the various religious trend in the US at that time.

The writing is easy to follow; you will not need to sit with a dictionary to follow the language. I however found the description of the places, for example, the town square, the kitchen, the hospital not detailed enough, there is a lot left to the imagination of the people and sometimes you are left wondering what the place actually looks like, is the downtown area the same? How has the radiation and the other stuff effected the buildings, there is however a brief mention of what it has done to the fish population and the agriculture industry. Then again may be I missed the point, may be the details were not meant to be wasted on trial things like location. Let me know in the comments section what you feel about it. The characters however are described in detail and each one has a rich back story.

The writing is simple and the writer does a wonderful job of keeping the reader on their toes throughout the story, suspense rather than violence is the central theme of the story. There are underlying themes of friendship, loyalty, bravery of all kind (one which require action and one which requires in action) and romance. As explained earlier the story ends on a cliff hanger and I do not want to be a bad sport and spoil it for you. I have not watched the TV series so will not comment on that, but the book is definitely worth the read.

My Take

The writer takes the basic human nature of reflective nostalgia and dives into the rabbit hole of what could have been. I would be amazed to find someone who has not daydreamed about an opportunity lost or a chance not taken. The great thing about the story is that in all the worlds the protagonist dreams up, the writer stays true to one constant of human nature: the drive to fight and change something if it feels wrong and makes you unhappy. As you progress through the story, you can feel the protagonist transform. She starts on the verge of giving up on life, but by the end, she stands up and scrambles for the chance to live, even if it means returning to her original, seemingly miserable life. In short, this is a coming-of-age story of a nobody who decides that it's okay to be a nobody as long as you are somebody to yourself.