[Book Review] I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

I  Want to Die but I Want
to Eat Tteokbokki

by Baek Sehee
Translated by Anton Hur

Non-fiction; Psychology; Memoir

There were some poignant lines, and profound realizations by the author. The honesty about judgmental views was refreshing.

In must confess that I had no whatsoever expectations when I opened this book, & only ever started reading it out of curiosity.

I have to say, it was very insightful to learn about another person’s thought-process, especially about dysthymia. This is actually the first time I’ve learned about such mental condition, which is interesting in and of itself, but it was also interesting how it affected the author’s personal relationships with her family and friends, and especially her romantic ones.

The whole time I was reading, I kept thinking about the correlation of one's environment to one's thought-process, and years of trained negative thinking can only be undone through long-term therapy, and conscious cognitive behavioral approaches. So if your parents / guardians raised you in an unsafe environment, the consequences are life-long -- definitely makes one re-think progeny and parenting.

Although the topic of this book is a bit heavy, it’s also eye-opening. Just because one’s struggles don’t manifest physically, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

I don’t know if it’s because of the translation, but there were some advises from the psychiatrist which felt off to me, because he sounded like he was dismissing the author’s feelings, but I also have to confess that I’ve never been to therapy.

All in all, this was a cozy and insightful read. I would definitely recommend it to people who might be interested in delving into light non-fiction reads (light in the sense that it’s not information-heavy and it’s not that long).