YOLK

A young woman struggles with body image, sexuality, identity issues, and her place in the world.

College student Jayne Baek majors in marketing at an unnamed New York City fashion school and strives to belong to in-crowds even as her first-person narrative voice delivers searing appraisals of artifice and curated personae contrived to attract attention and adoration. Jayne’s perfectionist streak combines with her hunger for acceptance and affirmation, feeding into obsessive, compulsive—and ultimately self-destructive—behaviors, including hookups and rituals of bulimia, all providing only the illusion of control. Accustomed to an heir-and-spare dynamic with her elder sister, June, who got a full scholarship to Columbia and a hedge fund job, Jayne’s existential insecurity crystallizes upon learning the shocking news that June has cancer. Jayne’s fancily attired therapist emphasizes co-pays before referring her to a support group, with the advice that people—not places—will make Jayne feel at home, offering the opportunity for nuanced commentary. Reconnecting with Patrick Jang, an acquaintance from her San Antonio, Texas, childhood who is also of Korean descent, becomes an emotional salve and anchoring influence for Jayne, especially as mutual consent is sought at every stage of their intimacy. Portraying intergenerational immigrant experiences with a Korean cultural focus, this poignant story underscores self-sacrifices that prove to be life-sustaining in the name of sisterly love.

Intense, raw, textured.