The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
Published by Cannongate Books, 2020, 288 pp.
I love this book. Simple as that. I was amused, interested and in the end really moved by this story. To the extent that I nearly missed my stop on the train, and had to hurry onto the platform with tears on my face; emotion that was not sadness or pity or disappointment but a welling up of life-affirming possibility. Corny, perhaps, but some books can do this.
It is no spoiler to write about the framework of the book because it is revealed in the back-cover blurb. It begins with a depressed young woman, Nora, on the verge of a messy and untimely death. But instead of the welcoming oblivion she finds herself in an extraordinary library. Every one of the infinity of books is a possible life that she can inhabit, experience, and possibly choose. The other lives she could have lived. And after finding herself in the library, she finds herself in the library…
Although starting from zero self-esteem, Nora has a resource of philosophy to draw on, apt quotes and concepts to illustrate and frame her experiences. She spars with Plato and Thoreau and Aristotle and many others, making new choices that change the course of her own and others’ lives. She addresses all her regrets, the choices that have haunted her root life, and explores the fine line between small kindnesses and indifferences that can transform the world for good or ill.
It would be possible to dwell on the often quoted theory of the multiverse (or more precisely the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics), in which a new parallel universe is spawned off every decision, every choice. It is a theory that, for me, is fringe physics – positing unobservable entities without limit – but that is irrelevant. In this book, the theory provides a living metaphor for the infinity of possibilities at play in this story. Nora’s story of many lives in many universes is often funny, charming and in turns upsetting, unexpected. The infinities are also illustrated through games of chess that Nora plays, and the engaging discussions with her old school librarian, Mrs Elm.
As I read I was trying to trace the comparable ideas of It’s A Wonderful Life and Groundhog Day but Matt Haig’s book is neither moralistic nor mindlessly repetitive. Nora’s character grows through these other-world-ly experiences. And in a small measure, so did mine. The Midnight Library has entertainment, humour, imagination and some germs of wisdom that I have a feeling will stay with me, and just maybe open my eyes to look out for life’s possibilities and the opportunity to be kind to others.
Oh yes – and there’s a cat called Voltaire and a dog called Plato. What’s not to like?
Elsewhere
Films: Groundhog Day, It’s A Wonderful Life, Everything Everywhere All At Once, etc. etc.
Books: A Christmas Carol, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland