Saed News: How Did "The Midnight Library" Become a Beloved Work for Book Lovers? Here's a look at the book that has captured the hearts of readers worldwide.
According to Saad News: How did "The Midnight Library" become a beloved work for book lovers?
The concepts of depression, regret, and death play a prominent role in the book, with regret being the most significant. The protagonist, "Nora Seed," feels her life is pointless.
Matt Haig, the author of The Midnight Library, had once struggled with depression during his younger years. He never imagined that he would suddenly fall into the deep and dark hole of depression and endure immense difficulty to emerge from it. After overcoming such a terrifying experience, Haig wrote The Midnight Library and used the book to share a tangible and relatable experience of depression with his readers.
Depression, regret, and death are key themes in the novel, with regret standing out the most. Nora Seed, the protagonist, feels her life has no meaning. Her cat has died, she’s been fired from her job, and it seems no one loves her—not even her brother. She feels the deepest sense of loneliness. To escape, one night she tries to take her own life. However, Nora’s suicide leads her into a purgatory-like place, where instead of dying, she finds herself in a library filled with books. Each book shows her a different life she could have lived. Now, Nora has countless opportunities to experience different versions of herself and can choose which life to pursue. In the library, she becomes a music star, an Olympic champion, and a scientist in the Arctic. In other lives, she finds her perfect partner and her dream job. All she has to do is open a book, and if she finds a life she likes, she can remain in that reality forever.
However, every life she experiences has its own challenges, fears, and failures. In none of these lives does Nora realize her own flaws and shortcomings until she starts experiencing her regrets. Through these experiences, she understands that there is no reason to regret, as every life has its flaws. People in every situation face some deficiencies, and no one has a perfect life.
Through her journeys across different lives, Nora realizes that the problem wasn’t in the lives she regretted, but in the regret itself. Regret destabilizes our will and shakes our hearts, becoming our greatest enemy. Nora’s adventures across multiple lives give her profound lessons, and she comes to truly understand the meaning of life. She begins to appreciate how small, seemingly insignificant things in her current life were important to others. She realizes the unique qualities of her present life—qualities she had previously taken for granted. She learns that if she really tries, she is capable of doing remarkable things. The greatest realization Nora has is that "life begins on the other side of despair."
In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig presents an incredible idea and conveys some very important messages. No one can say that alternate versions of themselves would lead to better lives, and certainly no life is without its flaws. We don’t have to do everything or be everything. The simple fact that every morning we wake up beneath the infinite sky, with a future full of endless possibilities, should remind us that there is no reason to feel hopeless. The book rightly mentions that if you are patient, life can suddenly show you new perspectives, or as philosopher Henry David Thoreau said, "It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see."
The novel serves as a masterful exercise in dealing with depression and anxiety. It celebrates the simple things in life that we tend to forget amidst the hustle and bustle. It teaches us about ordinary revelations, good moral traits, and ethical decisions that plant the seeds of goodness in our lives. In the final pages of the book, Haig shares an invaluable lesson about appreciating the opportunities life offers: "Sometimes, our mental games trap us. To be happy, you don’t need a vineyard or a California sunset, not even a big house or a perfect family. You just need possibility, the opportunity, and now you know how powerful you truly are! How had you not realized that before?"
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction in 2020. The novel follows the life of a woman named Nora Seed, who is filled with regret over the choices she made in life. She believes her life has been useless and wonders if things would have been different if she made other decisions. She decides to end her life but instead, she ends up in a library full of books. Each book represents a different life she could have had.
Nora is given the chance to experience all of these alternate lives. She starts choosing different lives she once dreamt of—becoming a mother, a famous and wealthy person, a talented swimmer, and even a refrigerator expert. The book of regrets becomes smaller with every decision she makes.
In each choice, Nora seeks a life that is perfect, where everything goes right and she experiences no pain. However, she eventually realizes that no life is without hardship. No life is free from loss or pain, and sorrow is an inherent part of our existence. Through her journey in parallel worlds, Nora learns that every choice she makes leads to a different outcome, but no life is perfect.
At some point in life, we all doubt our decisions. We may wonder if we made the right choices and whether the path we chose was the best one. Every stage of life brings its own set of decisions, and there's no universal measure of good or bad. We can never be sure about the results of our decisions. Uncertainty is part of our lives, and it’s something we have to accept as part of being human. We often expect life to be all about happiness and success, but is that possible? Can life always go as we want it to? Can we live without ever facing challenges?
The Midnight Library invites us to reflect on the true meaning of life through an amazing, beautiful, and meaningful adventure. It helps us understand that we cannot predict everything, and that we can never be sure if our choices are the best ones. This book encourages deep thought about what truly matters in life. Through Nora’s adventures, we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our paths. The novel inspires deep questions about life, death, happiness, and meaning.
Finally, it’s important to note that when we experience deep sadness or suffering, it can be very hard to overcome it alone. Sometimes, we sink so deep into despair that we can’t even take the first step toward improving our condition. In such moments, the support and attention of others can help us find light in the darkness. Finding someone who can offer such support is not always easy, but you can seek help from psychological professionals.
If you feel like Nora, if you feel like you've wasted time and your life is full of regret and mistakes, if you think it’s too late to make new decisions and your life will forever continue on the same path, if you’re drowning in sadness and hopelessness, we suggest seeking help from a counselor. You can create a new life with new choices.
