The Midnight Library - Matt Haig Book Review
“The only way to learn is to live”
I know I say when I begin every ‘good’ book review, but a round of applause is truly necessary for the work of art that is “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig.
The award for the most life-affirming book of the decade goes to Matt Haig’s “The Midnight Library”.
Prose’s Premise - Dickens Meets Haig.
Like every one else, I am sure you were forced to read “A Christmas Carol” an inordinate amount of times every Christmas.
The premise of the canonical text is ingrained into the literary psyche of most book lovers within much of the English-speaking world. The gruff protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, despises Christmas to such a malevolent degree that his stark depiction within the prose is almost a caricature of a cartoonish villain. Scrooge dislikes joy and all things festive before a series of poltergeists present themselves to the unwitting protagonist.
Through a series of odd guilt trips, Scrooge is presented with all the lives he could have lived, before merrily ending the novella by decreeing his love for Christmas.
It is a story as old as time, and though I personally found the premise to be problematic, the tale nevertheless raises some speculation within the reader as to how their actions in life can have not only a consequential effect on their own personal future, but also on the lives of other people around them too.
This thus brings us swiftly into the modern age, where within “The Midnight Library”, author Matt Haig presents the audience with protagonist Nora Seed. In an era where success is determined in a material, and quite honestly superficial manner, pertaining to how much many you have, how large your friendship circle is etc, protagonist Nora Seed becomes so distressed with her life that she attempts suicide.
After attempting suicide, we the reader thus become transported with Nora to eerie world of the midnight library, guarded by librarian Mrs Elm; Nora’s former school librarian.
Within the midnight library Nora laments every decision she ever made, and was fretful about how she believed these to be ‘bad’ decisions, quite simply because she believed herself to be a failure.
In a clever literary technique, the metaphorical becomes quite literal as Nora is made to pick up books that recount her life as if they were chapters in a book,
We see Nora as a wife, a mother, a glaciologist, a rockstar, an olympic gold medalist but fundamentally, a human.
Through clever writing and world building we see Nora soon come to the gradual realisation that these ideals are just that; unrealistic ideals and musings on a world we see with rose-tinted glasses. She was never truly happier in these lives, she just appeared so on the surface.
The reader is thus presented with a heart-warming happily ever after as Nora decides she wants to live and finally enjoy life, and Haig concludes the book with this jovial and life-affirming sentiment.
Biggest Take-Aways from “The Midnight Library”
Because I am soppy and tend to overshare to a profuse degree within my blog posts and book reviews, I will devise a list of my biggest take-aways from this book, which are truly inspiring and life-affirming,
You should not measure success in life on superficial values.
In the book, Nora truly believes herself to be a failure because she is isolated and unemployed, among other variables. As the book progresses she slowly begins to realise that none of these things were her expectations of what pertains to a ‘good life’, but were the values and expectations that others placed upon her,
Do not determine your happiness and levels of success in terms of other people’s expectations.
Nora is truly miserable due to the unrealistic expectations placed upon her by people like her former fiancé and father. Focusing on the latter, in one chapter of the book, Nora’s father dreams she become an olympic swimmer, due to her talents in the pool. Though it is presumed he probably just wanted the best for his daughter, Nora was left bereft as she believes she should have followed a decorated life of success and sport, and internalises the belief that she has somehow disappointed her family. Feeling like you have disappointed your family is a completely valid and legitimate fear that affects many people. Whilst I do not wish to invalidate this legitimate fear, I feel it is worth mentioning that there is a level of toxicity to this belief. Nora believes herself to be so unworthy in the eyes of her family that she attempts suicide. Once irrational fears begin to manifest into internalised beliefs that you are so unworthy your life isn’t worth living, I think we can collectively agree that this is a major problem; a problem that needs a serious societal overhaul.
Cut out toxic people.
Nora’s life is plagued by a series of toxic, and quite frankly superficial people. The most evident example comes from her awful, thankfully former, fiancé. Nora finds passion and solace in music, yet one chapter of the book sees her marry an awful man who continually invalidates her and makes her give up her passion for music. Furthermore, despite making herself miserable to please her superfluously cruel spouse, he still cheats on her, humiliating her and furthering her misery. It may be a cliche feminist mantra, but ladies, please, never change yourself for anyone, especially a man who is supposed to love you yet doesn’t reciprocate your feelings and emotions.
The effect you have on other people is far more macro than you think!
There are many layers to this. Firstly, due to presumed depression, Nora begins to isolate herself from friends and family, to the point where she truly believes nobody would miss her if she were to die. Not only is this truly not the case for Nora, but it is not the case for anyone. The book illustrates this by ending the prose with Nora reuniting with her brother following her suicide attempt, despite previously believing their relationship to be void. However, the prose also demonstrates that you do not have to go to the extreme of suicide to have an effect on others. This is demonstrated in one penultimate chapters, where Nora finally believes she has found in ‘good’ life, in a happy marriage with children. She holds this belief until she sees a familiar face get handcuffed by police. Upon closer analysis, Nora soon realises that the cuffed youth is a child she would give keyboard lessons to in one of her previous lives. Distraught by the realisation that her music lessons had such a profound impact on the life of the boy who turned to crime in her absence, Nora soon realises that her impact on this boy’s life was beneficial and worthwhile. Haig cleverly uses this analogy to illustrate how small gestures of kindness go a long way.
Finally, societal expectations pertaining to money, awards and so-called success do not define your value and happiness as a human being - true happiness and ‘success’ comes from within.
Through the midnight library, Nora was able to live many lives before coming to the conclusion that the life destined for her was the life she was already living. As this list has displayed, when you focus all your efforts into appeasing the values and standards set by society, and not yourself, you begin to slowly invalidate and delegitimise your true self and forget the underrated values and ideals that you already possess that go a lot further than any materialistic or monetary entity. Being happy is a success, having a moral compass is a success, and being comfortable in yourself is a success,.
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(5 out of 5 stars).