PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?
ME: I don't know, I'm – what's the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail?
Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgmental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends, performing the calmness her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favorite street food: the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?
Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a twelve-week period, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness. It will appeal to anyone who has ever felt alone or unjustified in their everyday despair.
There is a lot of Buzz about this book. It was a massive hit in South Korea, where Baek Sehee is from and translated into at least 8 languages. Part self-help book, part memoir I read about this book and was curious. After receiving an eGalley from Bloomsbury Publishing, I started to read and really liked Baek's matter of fact writing and the way it was written in dialogue between her and her Psychiatrist, and her thoughts in between. One thing I did read was that South Korea has one of the highest rates of suicide in world, and so Baek hopes in sharing her "story" that it can help others cope. Publishing date for this is November 1st! In the meantime, keep your eyes out for my review..
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