Kim Choyeop's science-fiction short stories in If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light explore profound ideas about the choices characters make and what it means for them and those they love. In the titular story, for example, Kim takes an older woman waiting at a train station, sets that station in space, gives her a mysterious reason for her wait, plays around with the time constraints of near-light-speed travel, and a whole universe of meaning and poignancy opens up.
What if a company could distill emotions into consumer objects, such as a stone that induces sobbing when held? In "The Materiality of Emotions," Jungha is skeptical, assuming the faddish products can't actually work as advertised--and why would someone purchase depression or rage, anyway? His position is complicated by his girlfriend's obsession with "Essential Depression," one of these items. Every choice Jungha makes, including suggesting they marry to appease her conservative family, seems to make her cling all the tighter to her Essential Depression products.
The collection's final story, "My Space Hero," offers an intriguing take on the concept of humans biologically modified for space exploration as it follows an astronaut preparing to cross the universe. Gayun, the astronaut, believes that she is following in her Auntie Jaegyeong's footsteps. In the process, she learns the truth about what happened to Jaegyeong, complicating her own dreams of spaceflight.
These stories build on one another, gaining energy as they go. Beautifully translated from the Korean by Anton Hur, If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light is full of thought-provoking questions and new, imagined worlds rendered in gorgeous detail. --Carol Caley, writer