I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki / Baek Sehee ; translated from the Korean by Anton Hur.
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 judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, 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 desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781635579383 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xi, 192 pages ; 22 cm
- Publisher: New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Original Korean edition published 2018. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Slightly depressed -- Am I a pathological liar? -- I'm under constant surveillance -- My desire to become special isn't special at all -- The Goddamn self-esteem -- What should I do to know myself better? -- Regulating, judging, being disappointed, leaving -- Medication side effects -- Obsession with appearances and histrionic personality disorder -- Why do you like me? Will you still like me if I do this? Or this? -- I don't look pretty -- Rock bottom -- Epilogue: it's okay, those who don't face darkness can never appreciate the light -- Psychiatist's note: from one incompleteness to another -- Postscript: reflections of life following therapy. |
| Language Note: | In English, translated from Korean. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Depressed persons > Interviews. Depressed persons > Counseling of. Depression, Mental > Treatment. Mental health counseling. |
| Genre: | Essays. Interviews. |
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 616.8527 Pae | 31681010302578 | NONFIC | Available | - |
Born in 1990, Baek Sehee studied creative writing in college before working for five years at a publishing house. For ten years, she received psychiatric treatment for dysthymia (persistent mild depression), which became the subject of her essays, and then I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki. Her favorite food is tteokbokki, and she lives with her rescue dog, Jaram.
Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the winner of a PEN Translates grant and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant, among many others, and his translations include Kyung-Sook Shin's Violets, Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny, and Sang Young Park's Love in the Big City.