Summary
After deciding to see what her life as a glaciologist is like, she wakes up on a ship and talks to her roommate Ingrid. She finds that they were up most of the night drinking vodka and talking. They discuss the nature of grief. Nora sees glaciers outside of her window and feels proud that this version of herself is living out a true adventure.
Nora walks into the kitchen and talks with some other members of the research team. She learns that she is on duty to watch out for polar bears. She goes outside into the freezing cold and looks out for bears. She spots a walrus and then encounters a polar bear. She is overcome with terror and begins trying to make noise to ward the bear off. She tries to transport herself back to the library but is unable to. In this moment, she also realizes that she wants to live. The bear eventually departs, much to Nora's shock and relief.
After this intense moment, she reflects on her family lineage. She also considers how so many lives resemble each other with their various disappointments and fleeting successes. She also talks to Hugo, another member of the research party. He tells her that he knows she is also someone who is traveling through her alternative lives, because he is doing the same thing. He talks about how his Midnight Library is actually a small video store and how he has seen many different iterations of his life, including some in which they are married.
He explains that different people have their own versions of this space as well as their own guide, who is always a significant figure in their life. He also describes a "gray zone" between life and death, which creates this library. They discuss the complexities of this phenomenon and wonder about how this multiverse can exist. They talk about what an odd representation these libraries and librarians are of this unthinkably complex system.
Hugo also describes his continual yearning to live out all of his different possible lives and how he is never able to stay in a single life very long, as he constantly wonders what another will be like. They kiss and then have a sexual encounter. Nora finds Hugo to be strangely incapable of intimacy, particularly for someone who spent so much time speaking so passionately about abstract ideas. Back at the library, she talks with Mrs. Elm once again, discussing Hugo's perpetual search for new lives as well as her own desire for a big and dramatic shift in her next life.
She then jumps to another life in which she is a rock star. Having chosen to pursue opportunities she had passed over in her original life, she is, in this life, the leader of the band the Labyrinthes. She plays to a stadium full of people in Sao Paolo. While discussing what to play for the encore, Nora says they should do "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a Simon and Garfunkel song she is reminded of because of a music book Ash purchased from her in her old life. They play the song and receive massive applause.
While doing press events the following day, she learns more about this life. She has a massive fan base and a huge following on social media. She had dated and broken up with the famous movie star Ryan Bailey, who she discovers is fairly vain and not particularly interesting. However, the most shocking piece of information she receives comes during a podcast interview. She finds out that in this life, despite the fact she stuck with the band they formed, her brother is dead. This, and the serious mental health problems that are also alluded to in the interview, suggest to her that this life, for all of its glamor, is also not a very happy one. She departs this life and returns to the library.
Analysis
In the moment with the polar bear, Nora rediscovers her will to live. In feeling such a massive rush of terror and adrenaline, she is able to feel—for the first time since her suicide attempt—the desire to hold onto her life. It is an interesting moment in that she only finds this feeling in a moment of abject terror. It is as if the possibility of death reignites her appreciation for being alive. Here, the book suggests that Nora truly does wish to survive, even if the life she regains this feeling in is not the life she fantasizes about having.
Possibility is explored at length in this section of the book. In her conversation with Hugo, Nora ponders the very existence of the Midnight Library. They reflect on how such a place can be possible and why it is given such quaint settings (library, video store) when it contains such an unthinkably vast array of forking timelines. In this conversation, they reveal just how complex this hidden world is, as it needs to be able to house the sum of nearly all of their feasible lives, based on the countless small choices they've made over the course of their existence. The idea of possibility is highlighted here to show how each of their lives is made up of an almost unthinkable number of these choices.
Fame and success also appear as prominent themes in this section. The last few chapters of this part of the book depict Nora's life as a famous musician. She has crowds of adoring fans, an outsized presence in the world, and massive recognition as a singer-songwriter. Still, she struggles with mental illness and is deeply hurt by the loss of her brother. This life bears out the idea that Nora mentions in the Olympic swimmer chapters, where she says every life contains hardships and disappointments. Her fame and success do not shield her from pain, and they even magnify it in some cases.
To slightly comic effect, the idea of romantic love is also explored in this part of the book. In her rock-star life, Nora discovers that she has both dated and broken up with her favorite movie star, Ryan Bailey. While initially thrilled at this turn of events, she finds that as she talks to Ryan he is less desirable than she initially thought. In fact, she finds him to be somewhat vapid and uninteresting. With this scene, the book seems to suggest that what Nora might perceive initially as desirable or exciting in a partner does not necessarily translate into something positive or happy.
This part of the book contains two of the most in-depth looks at parallel lives. In one she is a glaciologist and she succeeds in scaring off a polar bear. In another, she is a renowned rock musician. These lives diverge the most significantly from her original life, but show Nora both how much potential she has to change her life and how they are more appealing, in certain ways, as fantasies than actual experiences to live through.
