미드나잇 라이브러리-꿈꾸는 것은 우리일까

(English review is at the bottom of the page)

 

미드나잇 라이브러리 by 매트 헤이그

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

photo from kyobobook.com

❤️한국어 💙English

❤️미드나잇 라이브러리는 단연 화제의 책이었다. 특히 영화 '어바웃 타임'의 제작사가 영화화를 구상한다는 뉴스가 나온 후에 그 영화가 꽤나 인기였던 한국에서 더 관심을 모았던 것 같다. 내가 가지고 있던 책은 짙은 푸른색의 표지를 가진 구 버전이지만 다 읽은 후에 책 바꿔읽기 프로그램에 참여하며 내 품을 떠나보내서, 교보문고에서 신판의 표지를 이미지로 가져왔다. 개인적으로는 밤하늘을 연상시키는 파란색 표지가 더 어울리는 듯 하다.

    입소문을 탄 베스트셀러인만큼 400쪽 가량의 짧지않은 두께의 책임에도 불구하고, 잘 짜여진 구성 덕분에 어렵지 않게 읽어낼 수 있었다. 전체적으로 몰입도 잘 됐고, 다시 한 번 읽고 싶다는 생각이 드는 이야기였다. 하지만 화려한 광고문구나 일부 리뷰들과 다르게 신선한 충격을 받지는 못했다. 엄청나게 감동적이고 마음을 움직이는 메세지를 읽어내기도 어려웠다. 하지만 누군가가 책에 대해 물어본다면 읽어보라고 추천하고 싶은데, 그 이유는 다음과 같다.

• 현실적인 이야기를 담았지만 독특하고 판타지스러운 설정이 흥미롭다는 점
• 자칫 단조로울 수 있는 묘사나 시점들을 적절하게 활용했다는 점
• 교훈적인 내용이라 뻔할 수 있지만 위로받는 느낌, 마음에 힘을 낼 수 있게 응원받는 느낌이 들어 좋았다는 점

    너무 분석적인 리뷰처럼 느껴질 수 있겠지만, 그냥 책의 전체 줄거리를 요약하는 것은 처음부터 끝까지 다 읽지 않은 사람에게는 의미가 없다고 생각한다. 또 작가와 출판사에 대한 예의도 아니라고 생각한다.

 

💙Midnight Library received a lot of attention worldwide in a good way. In Korea, I think it became more popular after the news that the production company of the movie 'About Time', which was pretty popular in Korea, bought the license to make a movie based on the original book. I had a paperback version with a dark blue cover, but I did a book swapping after finishing it, so I just pasted an image of the new version with an orange cover here. Personally, I think the blue cover fits better to the story itself because it reflects the setting of 'midnight'.

As a best-selling book, I enjoyed reading this, even though 400-ish pages were quite a lot to read. The whole story of Nora, which consists of several of her different life, was really well organized. I could easily be engaged to the story and after finishing the book, the first thought that arose in my mind was 'I should read this book again'. However, even though I liked this book, it was not as phenomenal or incredible as the reviewers said in the promotional ads. Neither was the story very heart-warming or moving. It was because the message that the writer tries to deliver is very clear, obvious, and predictable. Nevertheless, if someone asks me about this book, I would recommend reading it. Because - 

• The background of the story is set as a fantasy, which is very unique, but each chapter (which is about Nora's different potential lives in a so-called parallel universe under the question, 'what if Nora chose A over B?') reflects our life in a hyperrealistic way;
• The way the author describes all the details and the perspective of the speaker in the novel is very well-designed and not boring;
• Even though the message of this book is banal and can sound almost didactic, you can find emotional support throughout it.

I tried not to write down the summary of the whole book here; instead, I tried to analyze the style of writing and subjects. You can never understand what a book wants to say to you only with the summary of the story. You never understand the true meaning without the context and the sentences before and after. Also, I believe that you should respect the author and the publishers by not retelling the whole story on the internet to people who don't value books (or e-books.)