I am still not sure what I think about the book. If it wasn’t for Anton Hur’s translation (who also translated Violets by Shin Kyung-sook and Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung), I probably would never read it. Usually I am not a fan of self-help books (because I consider it one), and I wouldn’t say that I particurarily loved it… but it did make me feel less alone.
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (this title!!!) is a transcription of counceling sessions that the author had with her psychiatrist. On the surface it sounds boring – who would want to read the conversations between a random person and their doctor? – but it shows the traps we all fall into: of low self-confidence, the fear that we are not productive enough, not likeable enough. There is no advice given to the reader – all we have to do is to follow the conversations and notes of the author and perhaps see our lives reflected in her story. And even if someone doesn’t treat it as a self-help book, it is then a story of a particular person and their mental state in our society.
Why do I think though that publishing this is important, even though the book wasn’t particularly important to me? Because we need to read all kinds of books written by authors from different cultures. We need literary novels, we need poetry, but we also need self-help books, comics, bookbooks and romance novels. Baek SeHee’s book has been a huge hit in Korea and we should be grateful (especially those of us who like Korean popculture such as K-dramas) that we have a chance to read (and discuss) it too.
