‘I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki’: Compelling confessions of an exhausted millennial

Two-hundred pages of transcripts from the remedy session of an insecure millennial lady doesn’t sound like an particularly interesting learn. Who would wish to hear such indulgent, cringey confessions usually meant just for the nonjudgmental ears of a medical skilled — and who would have the gall to publish their very own? And but, Baek Sehee’s “I Wish to Die however I Wish to Eat Tteokbokki” is a surprisingly compelling and genuinely helpful psychological well being memoir.

Baek was in her 20s and dealing at a publishing home in South Korea when she began seeing a psychiatrist to deal with dysthymia, a type of persistent melancholy characterised by persistent low vanity, hopelessness and a scarcity of vitality or motivation, however which is much less extreme than main melancholy. In 2018, Baek revealed the transcripts from 12 weeks of classes as a guide. “I Wish to Die however I Wish to Eat Tteokbokki” grew to become a bestseller in South Korea, was listed by rapper RM of BTS as one in all his guide suggestions and prompted a follow-up guide in 2019. This 12 months, it was revealed in English by Bloomsbury Publishing, with translations by Anton Hur.

The textual content is sort of fully uninterrupted dialogue between Baek and her psychiatrist, with occasional parentheticals and quick reflections bookending the chapters. Baek comes throughout as a sympathetic narrator — sharp, delicate and hardworking. On the similar time, she could be unlikeable — determined for approval, liable to mendacity and extremely judgmental of others. Which is to say, she comes throughout as totally human.