We just have to close our eyes and savour the taste of the drink in front of us and listen to the song as it plays. Nora's cat's name is Voltaire, and this alludes to both the philosopher himself and his character Dr. Pangloss, who says that he lives in the best of all possible worlds. There is also a dog named Plato in the story, and indeed, Nora is searching for the ultimate reality. Then, she is fired from her job of twelve years. My views may probably be a little surprising for some, given that this book is an award-winner and has a rating of more than 4 out of 5 on various review websites. Finally, there are plenty of allusions in this novel. Julia Nemirovskaya) review - writing battle-lines, Sally Adee: We Are Electric review - currents that run through us all, Extract: The Northern Silence - Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture by Andrew Mellor, 'I let it emerge': an interview with Fiona Benson on the cusp of the TS Eliot Prize announcement, Jaan Kross: A Book of Falsehoods review - plague, power and deception in 16th century Tallinn, 10 Questions for writer and translator Saskia Vogel, Bob Dylan: The Philosophy of Modern Song review - a book that contains multitudes, Kelefa Sanneh: Major Labels review - diary of an omnivorous musicophile, 10 Questions for Bruce Lindsay, biographer of Ivor Cutler, Patrick Duff: The Singer review - agony and ecstasy of a rock'n'roll life. WebThe Midnight Library According to Mrs. Elm , the Midnight Library is the physical embodiment of a state between life and deathan in-between state. . Nora Seed is the main character of the novel. However, death is not that simple, as Nora embarks on a journey of other potential lives she could have lived. Good choices, she comes to understand, do not necessarily correlate to good outcomes. An exquisite depiction of existential depression and the lessons it can reveal, The Midnight Library is a captivating story and an uplifting antidote to the cult of self-improvement: a manifesto for true self-acceptance. There are so many versions of you out there. By the end of The Midnight Library though I was left feeling like an even keel doesnt really cut it. When Nora tries to kill herself, she ends up in a library with Mrs. Elm, the school librarian she knew in her childhood. The library offers her the chance to reflect on her life and her regrets and to try different lives, lives where shed made different choices. She explains how dissatisfied she is to the world in one final Facebook post before attempting suicide. I usually read three books at This suggests that the relative importance of any one of these individual lives is only incidental, and to live mired in universal regret is to ascribe an unnecessary degree of importance to the reality at hand. Nora's father dies when she is fairly young. The library functions as a symbol of Nora's parallel lives. Joe is Nora's brother. She later reappears as a younger version of herself in the Midnight Library, where she assists Nora in traveling to her various unlived lives. Nineteen years later, after a series of painful events, including the loss of her job and the death of her cat, Nora feels that the world would simply be better off without her. Moments later, Nora wakes up in a personalized limbo replicating the library that once comforted her on her worst days, and with Mrs. Elm now appearing as her spirit guide. Nora thought Self-harm is discussed throughout the novel, with calmness and grace, as Haig describes the tell-tale scar lines that Nora notices on her body in some of the different lives that she enters. The basic premise is that a woman called Nora decides to kill herself, and before she dies she finds herself in the Midnight Library. WebThe Midnight Library by Matt Haig. D) It indicates that the book will end when Nora dies. You are the power source. The warped logic of severe depression is honestly and clearly expressed, as Haig describes the inescapable feeling brewing in the darkness when Nora sees Voltaire, her dead cat, lying on the road. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime. As the main character, Nora Seed, traverses through her different life possibilities, the library becomes the main place where she returns to reflect upon the paths she could have chosen. She is a woman in her thirties, who leads a life she finds lonely and disappointing. Maybe even the most seemingly perfectly intense or worthwhile lives ultimately felt the same. This both suggests the potential for change in Nora's life and reveals the mechanism that allows her, using the "Midnight Library," to travel to different versions of her life. It became in itself a kind of connection. What is the theme of the short story "Games at Twilight"? She fights for her life and succeeds in throwing up the pills she took earlier that night. In the speech she gives in her champion-swimmer existence, Nora says that the outward appearance of her life does not really convey the struggles she has endured and that the very idea of a "successful" life is misleading. Petrified by fear, Nora realizes she has to do something to scare off the bear before it mauls her. I particularly enjoyed the way the library was affected by the choices Nora made, culminating in a climactic ending when Nora Seed sealed her final decision. Mrs. Elm is her guide, a figure of authority but also of companionship and wisdom. Aim to look and act and think like you. Dan is Nora's ex-fianc. C) It reveals to readers something that Nora likely does not know. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. The Question and Answer section for The Midnight Library is a great If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. This feels somewhat at odds with a lot of the things we are taught about the pursuit of happiness. The second is the date of As a consequence of her self-critical thoughts, Nora overdoses and is surprised to find herself in the library, where the time on her watch is stuck at midnight. Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Log in here. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. WebSymbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place. She decides to overdose on pills,but does not meet the oblivion she was hoping for. WebIn the Midnight Library, Mrs. Elm says that she can't overlook minor decisions, because, in chess, every piece has the potential to radically change the course of a game, just like these choices can reshape a life. The feeling she experiences is envy: she is jealous of the cat's complete absence of pain. Nora's inner landscape is artfully rendered on the page: She was afraid of motherhood.The fear of deeper depression. I felt my gut wrench as I read this sentence never before has a writer so perfectly captured my experience of the power of mental illness to haunt and destabilise, to instill a fear of further suffering. But it is boring. Like Nora, our regrets encourage us to make different decisions in our future, and redirect our time and energy towards activities, people and ways of living that make us feel happy. This means that by the time you reach the middle of the story, the plot starts getting repetitive, and the development of the character stalls. "And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Would your expectations have changed, and as a result, would your reaction have changed? It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living. Throughout the novel, Nora contemplates the meaning of life in terms that are often influenced by major figures of Western philosophy. It is important to the plot, as it reveals that, unlike Hugo, Nora cannot stay in this transitional space forever. WebMrs. But in her life as a competitive swimmer, he is alive. Ed. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. You alone, can climb the stairs of the strange, old Victorian mansion and be somewhat welcomed by your Hosts, Miranda Merrick & Mr. She begins to reflect on the nature of success and she finds that even in her most glamorous or widely admired lives there is still disappointment and sadness. This is a must-read for those of us given to endlesswhat ifs. BookRiot, Haig is one of the most inspirational popular writers on mental health of our age and, in his latest novel, he has taken a clever, engaging concept and created a heart-warming story that offers wisdom in the same deceptively simple way as Mitch Alboms best tales. Independent (UK), Just beautiful . One of the pivotal moments in the book happens when, in one of her parallel lives, Nora is confronted by a polar bear. Nora realizes that she has life fright. This, too, is a central metaphor. I think this is a really interesting, really important hypothetical. Most heartbreakingly, after choosing to go for a coffee with her kind neighbour instead of turning down his offer, Nora meets the seven-year-old daughter they could have had together. Easy to wish we'd worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga. Sitting in a gloomy high school library, she is playing chess with the schools librarian, Mrs. Elm. WebThe midnight library is magical, for a start, the library has a limitless number of books, and these books are far from ordinary, Haig sprinkles gold dust in each book, offering Nora It makes for a great philosophical read about the regrets we have in life. In The Midnight Library, thirty-five-year-old Nora finds out from a handsome young surgeon, Ash, that her beloved cat has been killed. After her overdose, the novel follows her imaginative journey through the various lives she didn't lead. The pivotal moments for Nora dont happen when shes just CONTENT. As she explores her infinite possible lives, she encounters experiences from the ordinary to the remarkable, including narrowly avoiding being eaten by a polar bear in Norway having changed her university course from Philosophy to Geology and taking a role at the Polar Research Institute. She loves this life and finds herself feeling both content and fulfilled, working on a book about Thoreau and spending time with her daughter. Going to go away and think about that. Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered. After losing World War One in 1918, the Germans were in an utter state of disillusionment and despair. 2023 . In this timeline, she is happily married to Ash, a surgeon who is her neighbor in her real life. The Midnight Library explores the complex psychological dynamics of choice and regret. And that chaos builds with every single move you make., When you stay too long in a place, you forget just how big an expanse the world is. The novels simple yet fantastical premise renders Noras story a modern day parable, exploring regret, pain and the richness of the ordinary in life. In each of them, she gradually gathers details about the life she is inhabiting from conversations and the physical feeling of her body. As a reviewer, my own lived experience with existential depression and suicidal ideation meant that I faced this book with a tightness in my chest. That was how she had felt most of her life. These figures appear as both brief references and conspicuous plot points: her cat is named Voltaire; she contemplates Bertrand Russells perspective on life and his many infidelities; and in one life, a favorite line from Thoreau is tattooed on her forearm. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. She is a woman in her thirties, who leads a life she finds lonely and disappointing. Contact Us Get Involved, uscannenbergmedia.com 2022 USC Annenberg Media. And yes, it is about that the plot isnt surprising in that sense but its about something else too, which Im not sure I had expected or appreciated quite as much. Melendez, John. . 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This brainy, captivating pleasure read feels like what you might get if TVsTheGood Placecollided withWhered You Go, Bernadette. People, Clever, emotional and thought-inspiring. Jenny Colgan, author ofThe Bookshop on the Corner, Amazing and utterly beautiful,The Midnight Libraryis everything youd expect from the genius storyteller who is Matt Haig. Joanna Cannon, author ofThe Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Noras life is burdened by regrets. This is the best life for me. Then, she is fired from her job of The second date is today's Matt Haig fills his novel The Midnight Library with many literary devices, especially symbolism, metaphor, and allusion. Maybe that's what all lives were though. They werent mosquito bites. Symbolism is especially heavy in this story. Despite the fantastical nature of the plot, Nora is the anchor of the story: whether at home on the verge of taking an overdose, or browsing through magical books in the midnight library, she is absolutely real. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. WebMatt Haig's unique novel The Midnight Library ponders the infinite possibilities of life. Matt Haig has written several books that draw from his personal experiences with depression, suicide and mental wellness, The Midnight Library Tackles Regret and Choices in a Quirky Way. You have more to offer. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The novel opens with her playing chess with Nora and talking about the possibilities of life. Elm is the librarian from Nora's elementary school days. This seems initially surprising, especially given the fact that she seemed to find many seemingly good versions of her life, but the reason for this becomes quite clear in the last chapter. "The Midnight Library Characters". I have no other type of thinking available., And that sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness. Once the lava slows and cools, it solidifies and then breaks down over time to become soil - rich, fertile soil. She later reappears as a B.A. The Last Family in England: First Few Pages, The Last Family in England: Deleted Chapters, The Last Family in England: Deleted Chapters 1, The Last Family in England: Deleted Chapters 2, The Last Family in England: Deleted Chapters 3, The Last family in England: Deleted Pages 4, The Last Family in England: Deleted Pages 5, The Last Family in England: Authors Commentary, The Possession of Mr Cave: First Few Pages. 4 Mar. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?". She discovers that he cheated on her in the past and that in this timeline their relationship is deeply fractured. Accessed 4 Mar. Then she wakes up in a mysterious library filled with books of other lives she might have led and an invitation from the librarian, Mrs. Elm, to enter their pages. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original We know well by now I think that life isnt about being blissfully happy all the time, but often this is replaced with the idea of the pursuit of contentment a low key level of satisfaction that comes from appreciating small things in life, managing our own expectations and generally trying to keep on an EVEN KEEL. You couldn't let a few less desirable parts put you off the whole. "This is the best life. WebThe Midnight Library Quotes and Analysis "Doing one thing differently is often the same as doing everything differently."