Title: THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY
Author: Matt Haig
Read: May 2021
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the
universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one
the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along
with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a
different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives
might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for
yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds
herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her
life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups,
realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself
as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling
in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
My musings:
I love the idea of a multiverse, of a “sliding
doors” concept that lets us explore how different our lives would have been if
we had made different choices. The thought of a library where you could read
the book of an alternative life sounded intriguing and compelling. Wouldn’t
that be fascinating? It’s a bit like googling and old boyfriend and feeling
relieved (or not) that your 17-year-old self had the good sense to break up
with him.
Nora is in her thirties and feels
bogged down with regrets. Her life is stale, she has no partner or children,
her cat has just died and her brother is not answering her calls. So she
decides to take her life. But instead of dying, she is magically transported
into a magic library where she can explore all her regrets and see how her life
would have been if she had been more courageous and made “better” decisions. As
soon as she opens a different book of her own life, she is magically
transported into her alternative life as it would be right now had she made a
different decision in her past – to stick with her band, to study glaciology,
to continue with her swimming career. The strange thing, I thought, was that
Nora was dumped into these other lives without context or knowledge of her past
in that particular life, or the people surrounding her. I found this extremely
anxiety provoking! But I won’t give anything away here, because I don’t want to
spoil your fun exploring this premise for yourself.
I wanted to love this book as much
as I liked its premise, but strangely didn’t find it as compelling as many other
readers. Don’t get me wrong, it was an original and somewhat intriguing read,
but didn’t grab me emotionally as much as I thought it would. I also found the
ending predictable, though I hoped until the last page that the author would
prove me wrong – he didn’t. Maybe my expectations were just too high. And
because I can’t discuss the finer points without giving away spoilers I will
just leave it at that. Thousands of readers have loved this thought-provoking
and magical tale, so it’s best you go and judge for yourself. It certainly made
me reflect on those crossroads in my life that may have led me into a totally
different direction. An interesting read with some magical realism and food for
thought that would make a great bookclub choice.
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