# The Cabinet

By Un-Su Kim

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-cabinet-5fdf6a99/

Mr Kong’s filing cabinet contains people who refuse to fit ordinary categories: a man grows a tree from his finger, and a woman’s double ends her relationship for her. He has to deal with their problems as office work. Un-Su Kim’s fantastical novel makes human strangeness both a bureaucratic nuisance and a source of humor, in Sean Lin Halbert’s English translation.

## What makes it funny?

Kong works hard to win a job that gives him nothing to do, then exhausts every combination on an office cabinet’s lock to relieve the boredom. A discovery about humanity’s possible future begins as a way to kill office hours.

### The comedy at work

Kim gives extraordinary transformations the practical inconvenience of administrative work. The callers’ impossible requests grow from familiar unhappiness about love, purpose and the lives they are expected to lead.

### Try this if…

Kong’s case files suit a taste for dry social satire and loosely linked stories about strange people. The speculative ideas come with melancholy about work and loneliness.

### Good to know

The book intersperses the symptomers’ stories with Kong’s life and takes a violent turn; I Should Read That flags graphic torture.

## What to expect

- Genre: Fantasy · Science fiction
- Kind of humor: Absurdism · Dry wit · Satire
- The atmosphere: Whimsical
- Format: Novel
- Length: 304 pages (ebook)
- Audiobook: 10 hr 29 min

## Sources & further reading

- Book information: [Apple Books lists The Cabinet by Un-su Kim and translator Sean Lin Halbert at 304 pages, published by Watkins Media.](https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-cabinet/id1549122606)
- Book information: [Apple Books lists The Cabinet (Unabridged) by Un-su Kim, in English, at 10 hours 29 minutes.](https://books.apple.com/au/audiobook/the-cabinet-unabridged/id1581300098)
- Library catalog: [Long Beach Public Library](https://lbpl.overdrive.com/library/black-voices/media/6021565)
- Review: [Asian Review of Books review](https://asianreviewofbooks.com/the-cabinet-by-kim-un-su)
- Review: [I Should Read That review](https://ishouldreadthat.co.uk/2021/10/28/book-review-the-cabinet-by-un-su-kim)
- Publisher: [Penguin Random House: The Cabinet](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673853/the-cabinet-by-un-su-kim)