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The Cabinet

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About this listen

Winner of the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea’s most prestigious literary prize

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.

Translated by Sean Lin Halbert

File Under: Fiction [12,000 Cans of Beer Memory Mosaicers Will Execution Inc. Monkey of All Bombs]

©2021 Un-su Kim (P)2021 Angry Robot Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Magic Funny
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The Cabinet makes some good points about modern society, capitalism and work cultures and the symptomers were weird and wonderful. The Cabinet is kind of hard to categorise - is it SF or magical realism? Or horror? Some of the body horror in the symptomers' stories (the lizard tongue woman and the Ginko tree man especially) really made me cringe, as did the torture scene in the third act. I'd have liked to see more detail about the real world consequences of being a symptomer - I.e. of being a torporer and sleeping for long stretches. How do they live if they can't hold down jobs??? There was also some disturbing, off-hand misogyny directed towards the protagonist's co-worker, though I noticed women don't do much in the story overall either. The narrator, Jun Hwang, does a great job, I especially enjoyed his voices, i.e. for the cat man. Overall, though, I was never particularly invested in the story, which was loose and episodic, at best, so it's a 3 star read for me.

Interesting

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This easily became my favorite book. I found the book refreshing and easy to follow. It takes magical realism to a new level compared to similar books I've read, I'd say it is a must read if you like that genre.

The narrator is very pleasant and makes the characters come alive even more with different voices.

It is not something epic or heavy that you read and then you feel like you ate the whole menu at the restaurant. This book is the water.

On repeat

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A twisted view into work culture with an eerie sci-fi undertone.
A great story which maintains it's mystery throughout.

An immersive and detached thriller noir

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