The Profundity of Loneliness in Good Morning, Midnight


In Lily Brooks-Dalton’s vividly written Good Morning, Midnight, two scientists face the end of the world separated from each other, but somehow together. Brooks-Dalton should be commended for showing these two characters, warts and all, grappling with the end, and finding more of their humanity as the end nears, and for beautifully describing the landscapes they inhabit.

Augustine (Augie) is a once-upon-a-time womanizer, aging and working in the Arctic Circle, and refuses to evacuate the frozen tundra when word reaches him and his colleagues that the apocalypse is upon them. He intends to be alone as the world ends but instead he finds Iris, another who has been left behind.

Seemingly millions of miles away, an astronaut named Sullivan (Sully) is part of a six-person crewed mission to Jupiter. On its return to Earth, the shuttle finds it has no communication with its home planet, and nowhere to go.

The book follows the pasts and presents of Augie and Sully, as they each grapple with the sacrifices they made for science including placing it over family, and the reality that they will never be able to change those courses now.

By placing her characters in their respective locations, Brooks-Dalton nicely sets herself up to explore the loneliness each feels, and to bind them together with this emptiness. The arctic and space are large venues to explore a larger theme, and perhaps she could have done just as well to explore loneliness without the threat of the world ending always present along with it. In this way, the book seems an exercise in “let’s see how these two people would react if the world was ending.”

Thanks to Ross Swofford for recommending Good Morning, Midnight.  

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