Page 11 - Palm City Spotlight - March '23

Palm City Spotlight, Page 11

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The Midnight Library to make the Olympic different life, rather than the one from which she has decided

team, she decided to escape. If she finds one that fulfills her, she can stay and
By Nils A. Shapiro to give up the sport. complete it; if not, she will return to the Midnight Library and
Have you ever wondered A talented piano try another. But at some point her time will run out.
what your life would be like player, songwriter Mrs. Elm reaches for a particular volume from a shelf
now if you had made different and member of her near her, The Book of Regrets, as a possible reference for
decisions at various critical brother, Joe’s, band, Nora to consider.
moments in your life? Taken a the Labyrinths, she I will leave it for you to discover the life that Nora believes
different job? Decided to take quit just as they were will make her happy, among them:
that vacation trip instead of about to get their • The life of a rich and famous rock star she became by
canceling it? Asked a different big break. Inspired staying with her brother’s band.
girl out on a date? Married a by her interest in the • The comfortable wife of the kind, gentle man whom
different person? environment, she she had always regretted turning down years ago when
Each decision you make considered becoming they were young and he asked her out for a cup of coffee,
has the potential to change everything about the rest of a glaciologist, but gave and now he is a successful surgeon and she the mother
your life. up the idea. That’s the of their adorable daughter.
What if you were offered the opportunity to see what your way her life has been, Or, as the author puts it (with ellipses added here to take the
life would have been like if you had made different decisions for reasons she chalks place of text left out for lack of space): “She had been a rock
at those critical moments? up to problems in her relationship with her parents. star, an Olympian, a music teacher, a primary school teacher, a
That is the intriguing premise of author Matt Haig’s newest The book’s brief opening section begins, “Nineteen years CEO, a PA, a chef, a glaciologist, a climatologist, an acrobat, a
bestselling book, the third of his novels that I have thoroughly before she decided to die, Nora Seed….” Several pages later tree-planter, an audit manager, a hairdresser, a professional dog
enjoyed and will have now reviewed in this column. The earlier we begin, “Twenty-seven hours before she decided to die, Nora walker, an office clerk, a software developer, a receptionist, a
two were: The Humans, about an alien sent to our planet by his Seed.…” A knock on her door provides for an already depressed hotel cleaner, a politician, a lawyer, a shoplifter, the head of an
kind to assassinate a college professor who has made a major Nora yet another blow: A young man is sorry to tell her that her ocean protection charity, a shop worker (again), a waitress, a
scientific discovery they feel is too dangerous to be left in the cat, Voltaire, has been hit by a passing car and is lying on the first-line supervisor, a glass-blower and a thousand other things
hands of “inferior” Earthlings, and How to Stop Time, an equally street, dead. Nora writes a brief suicide note, swallows a few … There had, in short, been a lot of lives … Sometimes she was
captivating story about the life of a 400-year-old man, member antidepressant pills and a bottle of wine, then passes out. in a life for less than a minute, while in others she was there for
of a small, secret global society of ageless humans who dare not Not expecting to awaken, when her eyes open Nora is days or weeks … It seemed the more lives she lived, the harder
let the rest of mankind know they exist. Their one cardinal rule: surprised to find herself outside a strange building. Inside it was to feel at home anywhere.”
Never fall in love! You can make no personal attachments. is a single giant room filled floor to ceiling with countless Importantly, what Nora – and we – learn is that the
Instead, he must change identities and move often aisles of books covered in shades of green, on metal racks decisions we all make affect not only ourselves but others
before people realize that he ages so slowly as if not at all. as far as she can see – all of the racks moving rapidly back in our lives as well, sometimes profoundly, and must be
In the present, he is a college history teacher – the perfect and forth, stopping, then moving again. weighed in the consideration.
role for one who actually performed with Shakespeare Suddenly, she sees one person, a woman she recognizes: There is, very near the end of the book, a one-and-a-half
and lived through the centuries of events he discusses Mrs. Elm, the kind, gentle librarian she knew from her high page note ostensibly written by Nora, but which I assume to
with students. A wonderful book! school, who explains to Nora that she is now in the Midnight reflect the views of the author. Under the title, “A Thing I Have
The Midnight Library is another absorbing read, 288 pages Library, a place between life and death … and that each of the Learned (Written By a Nobody Who Has Been Everybody),”
that I finished in three sittings. many books on the shelves is the story of a life that would have it is a wise and thoughtful reflection about life that for me is
Nora Seed is a 35-year-old woman who has given up on life. been Nora’s if she had made a different decision from the one the most memorable passage in these pages – one that deserves
She lives alone, except for her cat, Voltaire. Volts, for short. she did make at so many important points in her life – each to be copied, printed and hung in every home as an uplifting
Everything she had thought she wanted never panned out. taking her down a different path toward a different journey. reminder about the present lives we have chosen for ourselves.
Among the top high school swimmers in America and certain And now Nora was being offered an opportunity to select a This one belongs in your library, any time of day or night.

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