Title: |
The Midnight Library |
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Author: |
Matt Haig |
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Category: |
Literature |
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Rating: |
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Date Reviewed: |
February 25, 2024 |
Nora Seed has no one to love, and no one loves her. Her cat has died. She lost her job. Why not overdose on pills and end it all? After swallowing the pills, Nora finds herself in an infinite library, presided over by Mrs. Elm, who was the kind, understanding librarian of the school library when Nora was in grade school. Mrs. Elm informs Nora that each book in the library represents a different life that Nora could have led, if only she had made a different choice at some point in her life. Nora now has the opportunity to see how her life would turn out if she had decided to do things differently in her life. There is a catch however - Nora does not get transported back to the point where she made a choice, instead she steps into that life at her current age and assumes that role going forward. For example, Nora was an excellent swimmer as a youngster, winning impressive junior medals. But in her "root" life, Nora gave up on swimming. Now she can step into a life to see what her life would be like if she had stuck to the swimming. It turns out she is an Olympic gold medal swimmer, but at this point in her life she has already retired from competition to a life as a motivational speaker. Nora suddenly finds herself at a conference where she is about to give a speech to an audience of fans. But the Nora-who-wished-to-commit-suicide has had a different life experience than the Nora-who-stuck-to-swimming. Who are these people surrounding Nora? At least she recognizes her brother, who, in Nora's "root" life, is suffering from addiction. Nora tries a bunch of different lives - should she go ahead with Dan and start a bar? Should she travel with her best friend to Australia? What about being a glacier-scientist? Mrs Elm warns Nora that she doesn't have an unlimited amount of time to decide which life she might like to lead, but then Nora goes on a binge of different life experiences - sometimes married, sometimes having children, sometimes successful careers, other times practicing music or studying philosophy. Yet none of these lives are perfect for what Nora is looking for. Very early in the book, I guessed exactly how it would end. Reading this review, and you probably have already guessed the ending as well. I did not like Nora Seed, not at all. She is given the opportunity to assume the life of any of her parallel universe versions of herself, and never once does she stop to consider that she is stealing the life of that opposite number. In her longest stay, Nora spends weeks (months?) living a dream life in an ideal situation. Nora has a loving husband, a wonderful daughter, a stress free life - but this is a life that a different Nora Seed built, and "root" Nora has no compunctions about stealing it from her? I would feel terrible knowing that I was denying such a good life to a better version of myself. Not even a twinge of guilt in "root" Nora. At one point, Nora senses she is going to be whisked back to the Midnight Library by tomorrow morning, so she drinks down the rest of a bottle of wine, knowing that it won't be her who has to deal with the hangover in the morning; it will be a different version of herself with a pounding headache. Adding suffering to a different version of herself apparently is of no concern to Nora Seed. There is not much to like here. I didn't think Haig's ideas were original or clever. The only real character is Nora, and I found her unlikeable. |
