The Midnight Library
Matt Haig
Allen&Unwin, $29.99
If Edith Piaf truly regretted nothing, as she claimed in song, she was highly unusual. How many of us can honestly make that claim? The exciting job turned down, the romance broken off, the lottery ticket not purchased, the capitulation to a stubborn family member …
The Midnight Library, in the same vein as films like Sliding Doors and It’s a Wonderful Life, posits a wide range of alternative scenarios based on different life choices. A New York Times best-seller, it has sold more than two million copies.
Thirty-five-year-old Nora Seed, its protagonist, is depressed. Her cat has died. She has lost her job. Her childhood was unhappy. She is estranged from her brother, who has held a grudge for years because Nora left the rock band they had formed years earlier.
Instead of death, Nora finds herself in the Midnight Library, where Mrs Elm, the librarian whose kindness had been a beacon of light for the school aged Nora, presides. In this library, Nora can choose her own adventure – parachute into the life she would have had, had she chosen differently at numerous life junctions.
Nora, who lost interest in swimming despite being a talented swimmer and promising Olympian, gets to sample a life where she keeps up her grueling swim training rather than quitting. She dips into stardom as lead singer/songwriter with the band that she abandoned in real life. Nora samples life with the man she almost married. She joins an Arctic exploration as part of her dream – encouraged by Mrs Elm – to become a glaciologist. Perhaps not surprisingly, each road not taken comes with plenty of potholes.
Of course, Haig seems to be saying, we never know how that unchosen path would turn out. Will the perfect partner soon turn cranky and jealous? Will the swimming medals and exuberant music fans make up for the sacrifices and tragedies that accompany them?
The Midnight Library is funny at times, particularly when Nora, parachuted into her new lives, has to hit the ground running, arriving in the midst of her alternative lives with no instruction manual. There is a sense at times of Nora having to undergo trial after trial – from fending off polar bears in the Arctic to trying to figure out the name of her young “daughter” who runs to her in the middle of the night after a terrifying nightmare.
British author Matt Haig writes with deep compassion about Nora and her depression. At age 24, Haig himself nearly took his own life; his struggle and recovery are recounted in his acclaimed Reasons to Stay Alive (2015).
The last few sections of The Midnight Library do stray a bit toward self-help tropes; Nora learns how her seemingly small actions have had profound effects on others, and how important it is to stop and look at the flowers: “silently communicating the breathtaking majesty of life itself”. This is, however, a minor quibble with a book that is highly readable, poignant and funny while dealing with serious issues.
