{"id":48560,"date":"2021-09-13T11:12:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T15:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=48560"},"modified":"2021-09-03T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T15:05:09","slug":"the-cabinet-by-un-su-kim-translated-by-sean-lin-halbert-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-cabinet-by-un-su-kim-translated-by-sean-lin-halbert-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cabinet by Un-su Kim, translated by Sean Lin Halbert [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-48572\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/09\/Cabinet-Kim-Un-su-BookDragon-500x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/09\/Cabinet-Kim-Un-su-BookDragon-500x800.jpg 500w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/09\/Cabinet-Kim-Un-su-BookDragon.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>Kong Deok-geun is an \u201caverage administrative worker,\u201d a position for which he surpassed 137 applicants for \u201ca job that has no work.\u201d His boredom, so severe that he\u2019s named it \u201cI-would-rather-eat-dog-treats-than-suffer-this-boredom,\u201d sends him to the fourth floor, where he discovers Cabinet 13, then spends an entire week methodically cycling through 10,000 combinations to open the four-digit lock.<\/p>\n<p>The 375 files within are the lifework of acerbic, dying Professor Kwon, who eventually, inexplicably names Kong as his successor. Kwon\u2019s collected research is on all manner of \u201csymptomers,\u201d people who \u201cexist between the humans of today and the humans of the future.\u201d Some survive by consuming inedibles \u2013 gas, glass, steel, newspapers. Some are \u201ctorporers\u201d and lose time. Some deal with doppelg\u00e4ngers or separated-twin souls. Some are \u201cchimera,\u201d with a ginkgo tree embedded in a finger, a lizard for a tongue. The latter group will provoke less-than-friendly outside interest that will threaten Kong\u2019s future forever.<\/p>\n<p>Deftly translated by award-winning Sean Lin Halbert, Un-su Kim\u2019s latest import (after the irresistible <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-plotters-by-un-su-kim-translated-by-sora-kim-russell-in-booklist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Plotters<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>2019) again showcases his sly, surreal, dark humor about all the ways humans are, well, not particularly human.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.booklistonline.com\/The-Cabinet-\/pid=9751385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Booklist<\/em>, September 1, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2006 (Korea), 2021 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kong Deok-geun is an \u201caverage administrative worker,\u201d a position for which he surpassed 137 applicants for \u201ca job that has no work.\u201d His boredom, so severe that he\u2019s named it \u201cI-would-rather-eat-dog-treats-than-suffer-this-boredom,\u201d sends him to the fourth floor, where he discovers Cabinet 13, then spends an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,37,6535,66],"tags":[6608,6668,9912,397,51,9913,216,9914,35],"class_list":["post-48560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-korean","category-repost","category-translation","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-cabinet","tag-humor","tag-identity","tag-kim-un-su","tag-mystery","tag-sean-lin-halbert","tag-speculative-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - 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