Four short stories, or really three and a novella, offering us a pair of visions of the world as much of this moment as they are of the future. 

Stories one and four are those of a husband and wife to be, planning for a wedding some years in the future as they both have to face interstellar travel and the effects of special relativity: that an object moving close to the speed of light will appear to be less affected by time. Each seems to miss the other by just enough that they keep trying to jump to meet in the near future, months turning to years to decades. Both are written as a series of letters sent from one to the other. The first, the titular I’m Waiting For You, is written from his view, while the fourth, On My Way To You, is her’s in turn.

The Prophet Of Corruption and That One Life are the novella and third story respectively. Here we enter the fantastical and spiritual as we follow unearthly beings whose spirit makes up the entirety of consciousness in the universe. To learn more about themselves they split themselves apart and form incarnations on earth, from insects and fish to every human being. These beings themselves are all split from a singular consciousness itself. Problems arise, however, when some of them no longer understand that they’re all one being, instead believing in their own individuality. 

Bo-Young has flexed her writing across these two worlds. In the former she deals with emotion and the power of love over space and time, whilst the latter questions the importance of the individual against the importance of connectedness with the world around us. 

I mostly prefer the former and its dealings with perseverance, despite its epistolary format. It's the middle two stories that are much harder to initially understand. There’s a fair amount of philosophy debated on the page as discussion between beings who have faced different aspects of the human condition. Most notably between one who tries to understand life from the viewpoint of those at the lowest of society — orphans, the homeless etc. — while the other does so from the top — CEOs, leaders, even abusers.

Each pair deals with hardship, both as an obstacle that can be overcome to reach something better, but also as an unnecessary experience that separates us from the people and things we love. In the end though, the direct stories of two people trying to find one another, pushing past any logical limit is simply the kind of moving show of heart over head that sweeps me along all too easily. 

I do enjoy the middle pair as well, but its musings just went on for too long and could have possibly been trimmed down a little to not allow as much of the dragging in the middle that goes on. I appreciate that any philosophical story needs to take its time, but not every revelation required the same amount of thought and pause.

 

existential, expansive and heartwarming

I kept it around for months (library book) but I just couldn't quite get into the second short story, I think it was a bit too surreal for me? Or maybe there wasn't quite enough exposition somehow?

I loved the two aligned stories of I'm Waiting For You and I'm On My Way -- brilliant and ridiculous, touching and devastating, these two perspectives of cosmic misalignment and mismanagement of time will cause you to wonder, would I ever aspire to such love? and would I ever mess up so wildly? the middle two stories were philosophical and thought-provokong and worth the time as well.