The Cabinet

An interesting read but it ended pretty abruptly which made the story feel unfinished to me.

The premise is: 'symptomers’, humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species.

The stories of symptomers were interesting and engaging, but they end about 2/3rds through.

To me it is well worth reading for the different (South Korean) cultural viewpoints on modern life and the idea that it could be causing evolution into a new species.

Content warning for eating disorders, body horror and torture.

I read this from the Digital Library of Korean Literature which permits anyone to make an account: library.ltikorea.or.kr/aboutLibrary

"The Cabinet" is a narrative told by a young man who - when bored at his do-nothing job at a research institute - discovers a cabinet of files detailing the cases of "symptomers" - people experiencing strange physical or metaphysical phenomenon, who can sleep for months, disappear for years or replace their tongues with reptiles. He becomes the caretaker of these files and an unwilling therapist/sympathetic ear to the symptomers. For some reason this never really jelled for me. Structurally it doesn't feel like it's leading anywhere, and it ends abruptly - the best parts are the interactions with the symptomers, but those fall away in the third act. If you're expecting the X-Files or X-Men it's definitely not that but there are some great parts.

Content warning for emetophobia, eating disorders, body horror and torture.

This is an intriguing novel - but it isn't particularly engrossing. It's a collection of interlinked short stories which, sadly, are never quite bizarre enough.

The whole thing has an air of "magical realism" - after accidentally maiming himself, a woodworker slowly turns into a wooden puppet. The sort of thing which I find works quite well in flash fiction, but there isn't enough momentum to sustain a short story. At times it feels like wading through a dreamscape of half-remembered impossible situations.

Each story is a fun or weird little vignette of a strange happenstance. Sort of like a Fortean Times article. But it never quite ties together in a cohesive whole. The original won the 2006 Munhakdongne Novel Award but I can't help but wonder if something got lost in translation.

In the end, I was left nonplussed. Without anything to tie the stories together or any overarching theme it feels a little humdrum. The end descends into a weird torture session which feels completely out of step with the rest of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. The English version is available from September.