The Midnight library - A Review

Author - Matt Haig

Pages - 304 pages

Genre - Philosophical fiction

Review

"A beautiful book with a profound message that will pull you up from the weight of your sadness."

Synopsis

“Regrets don’t leave. They weren’t mosquito bites. They itch forever.”

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 differently if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

Review

When Nora tries to end her life, she wakes up in a library filled with books. To her bewilderment, all the books on the shelves are books of her regrets that Nora had accumulated throughout her life. Those books contain different narrations of her being. If Nora can find the right book that holds the life of her desires, she can continue with that rendition of her life and finally be happy.

Initially, I questioned the premise of the book itself. Nora Seed is suddenly thrown into a new situation one after another. It didn't seem plausible or meaningful to throw Nora Seed into new situations, given the state of her mind. It seemed more feasible and appropriate to give it to someone who wants to cling to life or desperately wants to change their life. How is Nora supposed to find a life that she will like or try to adapt to if she is carrying depression in her core? Nora sees herself as a different version of a self, but she is empty in all of them.

The book makes itself very clear from the first sentence that it is a grave book. The subject of death, suicide, and depression has been mentioned many times. Though, the depths of depression are not lucid. It can easily be mistaken as sadness as it has not been explained fittingly. If Nora is suffering from depression, the book has failed to check it under the microscope. How long has Nora Seed been suffering from depression? What are her symptoms? What is her daily life like? The book would be more impactful if Matt Haig would have dwelt on the subject of the depression a little more.

“Want,’ she told her, in a measured tone, ‘is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely.”

By the end, the story became coherent. Nora's day-to-day description of her new avatars seemed more natural than in the beginning. The tone of the book is elementary. The simple dialogues gave the story more gravitas and an in-depth look at Nora's disposition. I appreciated the pacifying, philosophical quality of the book. The book sheds light on many trivial but serious themes that we purposefully neglect in our daily life. Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. While making these decisions, we sometimes overlook a salient aspect of the decision - the consequence. The weight of regrets and unfulfilled dreams are heavy to carry through the rest of our lives. Nora took many decisions in her life to keep people around her happy and satisfied. But now, she is standing on the door of death.

“The thing that looks the most ordinary might end up being the thing that leads you to victory.”

Essence

The book takes on a thematic journey. Each new decision presents us with new challenges and fresh regrets. You try to hold onto something, but something else slips away somehow, like the sand from our finger gaps. So, where are our peace and happiness hidden in this mess? The underlying message is very simple. We can never be completely happy with life. We have to make the best of it. In a way, we all know what we want, what we like, what path to take but that is not always what we do. We leave behind breadcrumbs on our pathway for regret to follow. We are aware that if we take the other track, it will lead us to regret, but we take it nonetheless.

“The paradox of volcanoes was that they were symbols of destruction but also life. Once the lava slows and cools, it solidifies and then breaks down over time to become soil-rich, fertile soil. She wasn't a black hole, she decided. She was a volcano. And like a volcano, she couldn't run away from herself. She'd have to stay there and tend to that wasteland. She could plant a forest inside herself.”

The story soothed more thorns than I had at the beginning. The metaphysical insights of the book calmed many storms by giving me insights into my own life. Matt Haig's words will speak to you personally. It will capture your troubles on its pages and give you the strength to go on with your life.