Books: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020)

“Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. 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.”

The Midnight Library is a book that seemed everywhere at one time. What I saw, everyone seemed to love it and recommend reading. The book is sort-of self help novel about a woman who seems to be at her wits end in life and decides to not see the next day. But between the moment of passing in the real world and whatever exists beyond, she wakes up in some mysterious elsewhere –a library of her life, apparently, where a helpful librarian (who resembles the erudite and wise librarian when Nora was a child) gives her options on how to live her current life or go into the undiscovered country. So Nora, for lack of better word, quantum leaps not into different people, but into various versions of herself that exist within the multiverse. And while it takes a few moments for her to sync up in whatever new universe there is –always awkward- she then gets to decide if this road –yes, the road less traveled- is one she really wants to spend her life in.

The gist of the book is life is messy and we all should try to make the most of it, because even if given a choice to visit the universe where you went left instead of right, there are always unintended changes (such as universe where her dad or brother is dead, but mom is alive, or where she is a successful athlete and motivational speaker, but has a shitty personal life). 

And Nora was just an uninteresting character, which affected my reading, because I knew how the book was going to end – it’s predictable, really, from the start. So while The Midnight Library is a quick read, with short chapters and all, eventually I could care less where she settled –in some parallel universe or whatever exists beyond this mortal coil. 

The problem for me, I guess, is I’m just too cynical of person to get anything out of it.

Books: How to Stop Time By Matt Haig (2018)

“Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries (439 to be exact). Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life. So Tom moves back to London, his old home, to become a high school history teacher--the perfect job for someone who has witnessed the city's history first hand. Better yet, a captivating French teacher at his school seems fascinated by him. But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

I’m unsure how this novel became described as a “love story across the ages.” Because this is not like The Time Travelers Wife, which had a love story, but How to Stop Time has no real time travel whatsoever (though the book time-jumps between chapters –more on that later), and Tom’s wife Rose is long dead. And author Matt Haig’s character spends a massive amount of time wallowing in self-pity over having been alive so long. There is also a bit of conflict with a group called the Ablatross Society, which is run by an abla named Hendrich – a man so obviously manipulative, it makes Tom look like an idiot for not catching on faster.  But really, Tom’s hand-wringing comes tedious, as he whines about how everything changes, but really doesn’t. This becomes a mantra throughout the book, as the author tries to come up with more and more clichéd ways of saying this.

The book has short chapters, and as mentioned, time-jumps between modern London and days of yesteryear. While this may sound like a great idea, these jumps actually slows down the narrative –and most seem almost pointless. Tom also becomes a sort of a Forrest Gump of Time as he interacts with historical figures as Shakespeare, Will Kemp, James Cook, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Omai (who was, according to Wikipedia, was a young Ra’iatean man who became the second Pacific Islander to visit Europe). The name dropping and historical-events dropping becomes tedious after awhile.

Long before the How To Stop Time comes to an end, however, you understand the coda that Matt Haig is foisting upon his readers:  don’t be afraid of happiness and love. So yeah, I did not love this book, but I can’t say it’s awful either. It’s a collection of good ideas, with a depressing douche as a lead. Sort of like all the roles actor Dylan McDermott plays.