THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY
Finding The Story of Your Life
Matt Haig’s newest best-selling book is similar to elements of three movies, like a cross between Sliding Doors, The Twilight Zone, and It’s a Wonderful Life. His main character, Nora Seed, is in a bad way. In the space of twenty-seven hours, this 30-something gets hit with the following blows:
- fired from her day job.
- dumped by her only piano student.
- reminded that she quit competitive swimming just a pool-length from the Olympics.
- confronted by a former bandmate of the rock band she ditched right after they got a record deal.
- got texts from the man she abandoned two days before their wedding.
- her cat dies.
No longer able to roll with the punches, she tries to end it all. She finds herself hovering between life and death and between an end and a beginning (depending on your beliefs.) In this literal limbo, her old middle school librarian appears and informs her, ‘Between life and death, there is a library,’ she said. ‘And within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived.”
If you could open a book and live life minus one mistake or wrong decision, would you? Would I? Hell yes! Don’t make the mistake of not reading this book.
Haig is the patron saint of the anxiety-ridden and depression-prone. Not only does the guy write fiction that rings true, but he also engages his audience on social media in a genuinely honest way. The man is an open book. Like Nora, he struggles with anxiety and depression. When he is having a hard time, he says so; the same goes for happier times. His Instagram posts, which are usually just text, are an open diary. Just a quick look at the comments he receives, one can see it is clear that he has a positive impact.
The Midnight Library shook me awake. Through laughter and tears, we all must decide the life we wish to lead every day (every moment) despite whatever.
