The Cabinet by Korean author Kim Un-su shows that there are many different ways to live and that it is difficult to understand them all.
The Cabinet synopsis
Cabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet. Except this cabinet is filled with files on the ‘symptomers’, people whose weird abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species.
But to Mr Kong, the harried office worker who spends his days looking after the cabinet, the symptomers are just a headache; from the woman whose doppelganger broke up with her boyfriend, to the man with a ginkgo tree growing from his fingertip. And then there’s that guy who won’t stop calling, asking to be turned into a cat…
A richly funny and fantastical novel about the strangeness at the heart of even the most ordinary lives, from one of South Korea’s most acclaimed novelists.
Book Review
From the first page, The Cabinet is such a refreshing read. The author’s rich imagination makes this a fun book to explore: who knows what eccentricities, what symptomers, you will read about on the next page. Or whether or not the overarching story will lead to a climax. Think of a ginkgo tree growing from a man’s finger or people eating gasoline or glass. One man even ate a piece of the Golden Gate Bridge because it was too beautiful to resist. These are people for whom the line between reality and fiction has dissolved.
Absurdity that hits close to home
Many chapters feel a bit absurd, in a good way, but you get used to it and the fascination lessens. For example, the content of the book of Ludger in the story Why, Ludger Sylbaris, Why? is rather amusing. In this first chapter you don’t yet know enough about the world to interpret the words. He describes the eccentricities of the people in Saint-Pierre. With graphic detail. I wonder why.
The narrator is a cabinet manager who discusses people’s stories after reading the records of extraordinary people from the cabinet of curiosities. He staffs his post to get a paycheck. You can analyze his life and the lives of the symptomers he talks about. But is a Torporer who sleeps long to relax and escape life very eccentric? Many people feel like they don’t belong and the only one they can talk to is the cabinet manager.Â
One chapter that hits home is I’m Over Here, Too, a story about the order of evacuation of objects and people: when you are deemed less important than a strategic object, you may find a newfound interest in objects. If you were to read this chapter separately, it wouldn’t make a big impression on you. But together with the other chapters, it leads to a sense of isolation and loneliness, of not being valued for who you are.
Diversity and inclusion
There is an overarching story for the cabinet manager. People from one chapter are mentioned in other chapters, sometimes their stories continue later. When you read this book, it feels like you are exploring the unknown and unseen extraordinary elements in this world.
For me, this book is about diversity and inclusion. There is no system in place for the people who are different. Nor are they considered strange or pitied. The narrator’s ordinary life is contrasted with the lives of the “special” people who make more of their lives than he does. He just processes all the wonderful opportunities that exist in the world.
There are many different ways to live and it is difficult to understand them all. The more you think about it, the more realistic it becomes. This is us.
Conclusion
The Cabinet is an interesting book that may feel different on re-reading, when you know how it ends and why certain aspects are introduced to the story. But what is the real story? Fiction and reality will blend together differently for you than they do for me. This book made me think and go back to earlier chapters to find more meaning in them. It is not a plot-driven story, it is meaning-driven.
Interested?
Get your copy of The Cabinet from Amazon (available 12 October 2021).
Book details
Title: The Cabinet
Author: Kim Un-su
Translator: Sean Lin Halbert
Language: English
Publisher: Angry Robot
Pages: 312
ISBN (13): 9780857669179
Publication date: 12 October 2021
About the author and translator
Un-Su Kim made his debut as a writer in 2002 through the Jinju News Fall Literary Contest with short stories, Easy Breezy Writing Class and Dan Valjean Street and the 2003 DongA Ilbo Spring Literary Contest with his mid-length novel Farewell, Friday. His first full-length novel The Cabinet received the 12th Munhakdongne Novel Award.
Sean Lin Halbert, born and raised in Seattle, graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Korean Language and a B.S. in Applied Physics.
Many thanks to Angry Robot and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
