Before diving into some more weighty tomes, I opted for this mental palate cleanser of light fiction. Very entertaining and enjoyable.
Meet Nora, whose life is not going well. After a series of terrible turns and even worse choices, she finds herself alone, jobless, friendless, cat-less, and broke. She decides to end it all. Losing consciousness, she finds herself in the Midnight Library, a way station between death and life where one can visit all the parallel lives one might have had by making different choices at any of the nearly infinite junctures in life. Initially presented as regrets being undone, Nora gets to experience her life many times over, with individual large or small changes, and comes to learn that no life is perfect. What all of those alternative realities lack is the potential of her real life. But to escape the Midnight Library, she must choose the life she wants to live – her own.
Like my previous Haig read (How to Stop Time), this book was engaging and imaginative. Nora’s time in the library is like a choose-your-own-adventures story, where you can always wind your way back to the beginning and try again. Sprinkled throughout are maxims from various philosophers that serve as lessons and guideposts for Nora, with the ultimate messages about truth, connection, expectations, and potential. Several of these came from Henry David Thoreau, who I read about earlier this year.
Fate: I won’t read this again, and since this is a readily available book in most stores and airports, I won’t bother sharing it with a friend, but will add it to a little midnight library near me.
This book fit into no categories for the book club, but may end up as a wild card come year end.
rclr 
Leave a comment