Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Do not expect groundbreaking literature.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Narrated by Carey Mulligan. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, 2020. 9 hours (approx.).

Matt Haig is an English novelist and journalist. He’s written many books for adults and children. His novel The Midnight Library was shortlisted for the 2021 British Book Awards “Fiction Book of the Year.” It was also adapted for radio and broadcast by BBC Radio 4.

The novel begins with our protagonist, Nora Seed, having the worst day in recorded history. She loses her job because her depression turns off customers. She misses a music lesson with Leo prompting his mother to cancel further lessons. Her cat dies ostensibly due to her negligence.

Her relationships are also in shambles: Nora lost her mother to cancer some years before; she backs out of her brother’s band just as they were about to sign a major record deal; she declines an invitation to move to Australia with Izzy; finally, Nora jilts her fiancé two days before their wedding.

And with this we arrive at the first criticism of the book. All this misfortune is piled on the character in the first few chapters. It is understandable because Haig wants to quickly establish Nora’s motivations for suicide and move on to the heart of the novel, which is what happens after her “death.” But the pace leaves the reader un-invested in the protagonist. We do not feel for her, and we wonder at her drastic reaction to life’s hardships.

Nora awakens in a strange place. She quickly locates the titular library. Here time stands still. The books that populate the shelves are portals into an infinite number of alternative lives. She may visit each life for an indeterminate amount of time. If she approves of a life she may stay. If not, she returns to the library to try again. This gives Nora an opportunity that many of us wish we had: to ask, “What if?” and then find out the answer. What if Nora had continued with competitive swimming? What if she had married Dan or went on that date with Ash? What if she joined her brother’s rock band? Or became a glaciologist? And so on.

We needn’t evaluate each life in any great detail for this review. It will suffice to say Nora learns each one comes with its share of hardships and pleasures. For example, in one life she marries Dan and they open a bar together. The business, however, is failing and Dan has committed adultery. 

Whatever life Nora enters she has no memories of that life. This puts her in awkward situations. When she enters the rock star life, for example, she is in the middle of a performance. She doesn’t know any of the lyrics to her own songs. Quick on her feet, Nora suggests they perform a cover tune that she does know. This kind of thing has been done before, but Haig makes great use of it here. It prevents the book from becoming boring.

One life we ought to take a special look at occurs at the midway point of the novel. In it, Nora is a glaciologist. She meets a Frenchman named Hugo. Like her, Hugo is “trying on” various lives. His library is a video store. He offers an explanation for what they have been experiencing.

Hugo describes the many worlds theory that, in part, says every outcome that might happen does happen in a parallel universe. He also explains the library (or video store) is the mental representation of a quantum state of indeterminacy, namely the superposition of life and death. Like Schrodinger’s cat, Nora is neither alive nor dead until the wave collapses.

None of this will come as a surprise to the astute reader. However, I am not sure what this explanation adds to the story. To this point the mysterious nature of the midnight library was fine. Perhaps it was an afterlife in the Christian tradition. Perhaps not. Perhaps it was a dream. Perhaps not. We didn’t know, and we didn’t need to know. Indeed, unmasking the library with Hugo’s “scientific” theory subtracts from the enjoyment of the novel. One may speculate on Haig’s motivations for this - and I have - but let's not engage in gossip.

Hugo names people like himself and Nora “Sliders.” I don’t know which would be worse: if Haig came up with this term himself without Googling it or deliberately borrowed the term from the 90’s sci-fi series, Sliders.

In the same Nora-as-glaciologist universe, Nora is tasked by the other researchers to keep an eye out for polar bears. One shows up intent on killing her. Facing down the bear, Nora realizes she wants to live. This is a significant milestone in the character’s development. But her problem is still not solved. It will take the entire second half of the book for Nora to learn what she needs to learn: “It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from. That the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective.”

The problem with Nora as a protagonist is her passivity. So much of what she experiences is done to her, rather than by her and thus nothing is her fault. In the Nora-as-bar-owner life it is her husband who cheats. Although her boss blamed the lack of sales on Nora’s personality, it is later implied that was not the case. Similarly, her cat’s death was due to a medical condition and in no way due to Nora's negligence.

Through out the novel Nora is discovering what she wants, but in doing so she wants nothing. All this makes Haig’s protagonist a mere observer when she ought to have been an actor.

Anyway, the library burns down. Nora wakes up and vomits the pills she had taken. She gets help from a neighbor. The final chapters suggest Nora recognizes the potential of her “root” life and is taking steps to realize that potential.

In conclusion, The Midnight Library is a fun, light read. It is one part It’s a Wonderful Life and one part A Christmas Carol. Its message is a positive one: if you’re not happy with your life, take responsibility and fix it. While the characters are flat, the plot simple and the themes heavy handed, you will enjoy Haig’s novel. Just don’t expect groundbreaking literature.

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