The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig is a novel with a reprised premise that tries to be deeply philosophical and falls short. Still, MIDNIGHT is a light fare that can be enjoyed with its fantastical plot in which its main character shifts through various lots in life. Nora Seed is the protagonist who felt her life was going nowhere, with no one to share. Her beloved cat just died leaving her bereaved and believing she was without any incentive to live. Haig is a British journalist and author of fiction, non-fiction and Y/A novels. Some of his writings reflect his personal experience with severe depression as in the MIDNIGHT LIBRARY. Nora Seed attempts to end her life taking an overdose of barbiturates and finds herself in a mystical library. "Between life and death there is a library. And, within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived...had you done anything different." Haig uses gimmicks that are over-wrought. Naming his protagonist Seed is an example where the metaphor to branch out or be reborn is redundant. While Nora is in her purgatory state she is assisted by a woman whom Nora calls Mrs. Elm (another name play on limbs). Mrs. Elma is a doppelgänger for a Mrs. Elm who was the kindly librarian from her childhood with whom she played chess. Chess is another overly used simile for making various moves which lead to differing outcomes. Still, Nora makes some exhilarating choices as to lives in which to slide into with varying outcomes. Some of the more surprising choices involved becoming a glaciologist landing in the Arctic, pursuing music and becoming a world renown rock star and going through with the marriage to the fiancee she ended the relationship with. Even more intriguing is how Nora copes in these new life scenarios she's thrust without the knowledge or skill sets that would've been garnered for the people and abilities she needs and would've learned had she lived this life all along. This makes for extremely awkward circumstances as in not having any connection to the husband and child she finds herself in bed with or being thrust on a world stage about to perform. Her adapting to new circumstances is often amusing especially when considering what life Nora might choose to experience next or chose to remain in. Nora discovers in her journeys, "Life is strange. How we live it all at once. In a straight line. But really that's not the whole picture. Because life isn't simply made of the things we do, but the things we don't do too. And every moment of our life is a kind of turning." Nora gained solace realizing, "We spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad. Sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness." Haig includes numerous quotes from philosophers including Camus, Thoreau and David Hume although this doesn't elevate The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY to literary fiction. MIDNIGHT LIBRARY delivers an enjoyable fantasy having multiple sliding door plots but it's not quite as clever as it aspires. The take-away for me came from the faux Mrs. Elm who said, "Sometimes the only way to learn is to live."
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