“Das Leben beginnt,” hat Sartre einst geschrieben, “auf der anderen Seite der Verzweiflung.”
Die Mitternachtsbibliothek p. 3041
The wildly successful novel Midnight Library (2020) by Matt Haig (here translated as Die Mitternachtsbibliothek by Sabine Hübler) isn’t perfect, but I am glad I read it this summer after I got it as a belated birthday present. For many reasons, I’m glad I started the book in an already life-affirming setting: waiting for my goddaughter to finish swimming practice, next to a toddler excitedly telling his mother about dinosaurs.
I found the idea of a liminal space between life and death as a library where you get to discover alternate versions of your life and tackle your regrets charming, and ultimately healing. The first quarter (about 60–70 pages) is tough and can be genuinely triggering (the main character decides to die). The second half feels a bit odd in terms of pacing and how the different lives are weighted.
Maybe I’m just too cynical right now for the more heavy-handed hopeful parts of the book –but maybe that’s exactly why it was good that I finally read it. It’s entirely possible this book will do me more good than it gave me pleasure.
- “‘Life begins,’ Sartre once wrote, ‘on the other side of despair.’” ↩︎
Thoughts?