Wish You Were Here

The story of Wish You Were Here revolves around the idea of survival, of “the resilience of human spirit in a moment of crisis.” In keeping with this, the book explores the question of what drives this survival, and a key theme that emerges is how, at the heart of surviving a crisis, lies an inextricably interwoven trio of elements—isolation, adaptation, and evolution.

The element of isolation is emphasized at the very outset, with the story set in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Irrespective of location, the characters in the book are affected by the pandemic-driven isolation—Finn in hyperconnected, over-populated New York City, as well as Diana on the remote island of Isabela. Despite being in a familiar environment, Finn is dealing with unprecedented circumstances; Diana, in turn, is stranded in an unfamiliar environment with no support or resources. However, even when Diana wakes up from her ventilator-induced psychosis and is reunited with Finn, and eventually her home, she still feels disconnected and lonely. Thus, isolation within the context of the book is not merely a physical circumstance. The title of the book, Wish You Were Here, posits an isolation of the psychological kind as well, one characterized by loneliness and longing for connection.

Diana writes to Finn, telling him how the isolation she is experiencing is forcing her to introspect and reflect (77), which helps her adapt. That adaptation is crucial to survival is posited even before the story begins, as the epigraph outlines how the survival of a species depends most on its ability to “adapt and adjust to [a] changing environment” (Megginson, Leon C. “Lessons from Europe for American Business.” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 1, 1963, p. 4). Diana is faced with a need for both in the Galapagos, as well as back in New York. While this need on Isabela is obvious, she faces a different kind of crisis as she awakens. Along with needing to relearn how to use her body again, she is also reeling from the experience of having lived a whole other reality.

This last challenge that Diana faces points to the nature of evolution—the change that is wrought in a fight to survive is a permanent one. Just as birds evolved to grow wings, the Diana who wakes up in the hospital is a different Diana than the one who first entered it. Her time on Isabela has permanently altered her—and although one can argue that the experience was an imagined one, the impact that it has on Diana and her life is very real. Diana reconnects with her mother, drastically changes career paths, and ends her relationship with Finn.

This last change also speaks to how the journey of evolution is, ultimately, a personal one. Finn and Diana both technically undergo the same set of circumstances; nevertheless, this same situation yields different individual experiences, and so they adapt in different ways, leading to their evolution unfolding differently. That the individual experiences are so different that they become incomparable is important, for it isolates the experiencing individual from everyone else—and thus, an indisputable link is established between isolation, adaptation, and evolution. Within the context of the book, the three work together to bolster resilience in crisis and ensure a triumphant survival.