Novels by Ben Reeves and Matt Haig look at life through the eyes of death (literally)

Confronting mortality often illuminates the inherent beauty in daily existence, prompting gratitude, presence, and a recalibration of what truly matters. Ben Reeves and Matt Haig explore these themes through personal experience and literary reflection, revealing how an awareness of life’s finitude can transform both extraordinary and ordinary moments.

Facing Death Enhances Appreciation of Life's Beauty

Ben Reeves Learned That Brushes With Mortality Bring Gratitude and Clarity About What Truly Matters From a Crisis With His Son

Ben Reeves recounts a pivotal personal experience when his young son began choking on food. In the terrifying moment that followed, his wife cleared the blockage, but afterward, as Reeves bathed his son, he broke down in tears of relief, gratitude, and a profound sense of clarity. Confronting the possibility of loss, even briefly and in safety, illuminated for Reeves what truly mattered and enriched his daily experience with new significance. He emphasizes that thinking about death, even a little more than usual, can enrich every day, rooting awareness that mortality touches every life.

Viewing Mortality in "Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt" Reveals Cobwebs, Toasters, and Mice As Symbols of Actively Lived Lives

In Reeves’ novel, "Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt," death is personified in Travis Smith, whose role is to comfort those in their final moments and gently accompany them into whatever comes next. Though Travis embodies death, the book is deeply filled with life, nature, and the vibrancy of different human experiences. The narrative includes vivid observations of ordinary things: cobwebs, old toasters, brittle Christmas trees, and families of mice. These details become symbols of actively lived lives, underscoring how attention to mortality can sharpen the focus on the manifested richness of everyday existence.

Recognizing Death's Inevitability Can Transform Mundane Activities Into Appreciated Experiences Rather Than Tedious Obligations

Reeves notes that writing about death required careful attention to life's smallest details, an exercise that heightened his appreciation for the ordinary. This perspective shift—from seeing activities as tedious obligations to understanding them as fleeting, precious moments—is catalyzed by an honest engagement with mortality. By recognizing that each moment is finite, even routine tasks and minor details gain significance.

Reflecting On Life's Finitude Recalibrates Priorities, ...

The dynamic between authentic selfhood and the allure of outward success is explored through Wilbur Budd’s life, reflecting broader questions about the costs of chasing wealth and ambition.

Chasing Wealth and Status Can Become an Addictive Disconnect From Identity and Love

Matt Haig discusses how ambition and the pursuit of external achievement can become addictive, often serving as a way to fill emotional voids or escape from pain. Haig reflects on his own experience with addiction, noting that although his younger years involved more obviously toxic substances, in adulthood, work and ambition became a subtler, yet equally consuming, addiction. He sees this reflected in Wilbur Budd’s character, who is driven by a need to prove himself and escape trauma by building his bookstore into a national chain. This drive for success ultimately proves isolating, as Wilbur dies alone, having used achievement as a mask for emotional wounds and lost connections. Haig underscores that outward success can sometimes be a form of self-betrayal, disconnecting individuals from their deeper needs for love and belonging.

True Self Lost: Abandoning Passions and Values For Success

Wilbur's journey from book lover to bookstore owner illustrates how the pursuit of success can ironically alienate someone from their original passion. As a child, Wilbur is enthralled by books and the escape and ...

Revealing Richness in Ordinary Life Through Mundane Details and Intimate Moments

Scott Detrow observes that Travis, the character, possesses an almost omnipotent perspective, focusing intently on overlooked aspects of daily life—such as cobwebs, an old toaster, a brittle Christmas tree, or a family of mice. By describing these mundane elements in vivid detail, Travis transforms what might be ignored into signs of rich, lived experience. Ben Reeves highlights a key moment at the end of the story called "A 20 Minute Gift," which imagines a person near the end of their life, given a chance to return for just 20 minutes to the present. During these minutes, Reeves urges the importance of not wasting time on big, impossible changes, but instead cherishing something precious—kissing a partner, playing with children, or simply wandering and exploring the world. This imagined gift brings a focus back to savoring meaningful, fleeting moments in everyday life.

Inhabiting Moments Prevents Regret

Ben Reeves describes how inhabiting Travis’s detail-oriented view changed his own perspective, leading him to intentionally notice and appreciate small everyday details during walks to work. This practic ...

Reviewing "the Midnight Train": Choices Diverting From Authentic Living

Matt Haig’s new novel, "The Midnight Train," uses the story of Wilbur Budd to examine how life choices can steer us away from authentic happiness and deeper connection. At the heart of the narrative is Wilbur’s journey, ignited as an 81-year-old man who dies and finds himself aboard a steam engine traveling through his own past. Haig crafts a poignant contrast between the joys of youthful love and the subsequent isolation bred by single-minded ambition. One striking scene has Wilbur inhabiting his 29-year-old body, reliving his honeymoon in Venice with the woman he fell for as an adolescent. In this memory, Wilbur feels whole, fully present in fleeting happiness, momentarily freed from past wounds.

As the ghostly Wilbur observes the most formative moments of his life, it becomes clear how pain from his brother’s death and the hardships of his childhood fueled a fixation on success. Eventually, Wilbur's pursuit of achievement becomes a hollow attempt to fill inner voids, leading to his solitary end. The novel asks readers to witness how diversion from one’s true self, by chasing external markers of success, may leave only regret.

Haig’s narrative structure takes clear inspiration from Charles Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol." The story embraces the Victorian device of a ghostly guide leading the protagonist through his own life to confront regret and lost opportunity. An epigraph borrowed from Dickens encapsulates this theme: "No space of regret can make up for one's life opportunity misused." Haig updates this archetype, inviting contemporary readers to re-examine the arc of their own choices, not to condemn themselves but to recognize the weight and possibility embedded in every moment.

Course Correction: Consciousness and Intention Can Reshape Life Trajectory

Haig frames fiction not as prescriptive self-help, but as a reflective space where readers can process what it means to change with the benefit of hindsight. By letting Wilbur’s consciousness revisit past joys and missteps, "The Midnight Train" encourages an awareness that deliberate intention can redirect one’s life at any stage.

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Meaning Arises From Genuine Connections With Loved Ones

Scott Detrow introduces Travis, the personification of Death, as someone who avoids close relationships due to the heavy burden of his role. However, Travis becomes drawn to Dahlia, a midwife and single mother, and her daughter Lela, who live across the hall from him. Despite his reluctance, Travis finds himself enchanted by the normalcy and simplicity of their family life. Dahlia’s everyday routines and Lela’s genuine interest—including invitations to birthday parties—pull Travis in, letting him experience the subtle beauty of ordinary existence. Travis covets what they have because, burdened as he is by watching people die and never forming attachments, he sees in their loving family dynamics a kind of meaning and fulfillment that his own existence lacks.

Ben Reeves emphasizes that Travis’s encounters in the story highlight how meaningful lives arise from intimate connections and shared moments rather than from status or accomplishment. It is not the extraordinary achievements but the presence, attention, and authentic bonds with others that give life significance.

Seeking Meaning in Money and Status Misunderstands Fulfillment's True Source

Ben Reeves points out that society is currently starved of meaning and often seeks it in misguided ways—chasing after more money, status, or external success. However, these pursuits often fail to provide true fulfillment. Reeves suggests that meaning is typically already present i ...