Kim Un-Su

The first part of this book focused on the contents of Cabinet 13, describing strange stories that the narrator encountered. The way the narrator told those stories gave us a glimpse on him as a person. Additionally, there were sections that focused on his life & work. The second part of this book, while still including some stories based on the cabinet's contents, started to focus more on the narrator's life as he navigated changing circumstances in his work. The third part went really off the rails, & got gory in a way that I was not expecting based on what I'd read up to that point. I could understand it as part of a larger narrative about modern South Korean office culture/society, but I could also understand if others found it upsetting. Throughout the book, the narrator had a satirical tone that I thought worked well & was enjoyable. Some of the other characters were not terribly likeable, & there was some fatphobia that I thought was unnecessary.

Overall, this was an engaging book that I generally enjoyed reading & was quite well-written. There were just some parts that were not the most pleasant.… (meer)

Orphan child Reseng was taken in by Old Raccoon and trained to be an assassin at the Library of Dogs. Old Raccoon is one of the leading plotters of political assassinations, and Reseng is his prize weapon, his hands and feet.

Reseng is acutely aware of his likely future; successful assassins usually end up on some other plotter's assassination list, and sooner or later he is likely to be killed himself. As the story starts, his missions seem to be getting sloppy; he departs from the script, annoying the plotters who engaged him. He starts to suspect that his time is coming and that he needs to take steps to protect himself. Then he encounters a plotter for the first time, in a most unexpected quarter.

This is a somewhat different crime story with a few clever twists and an engaging protagonist. Good stuff.… (meer)

Ich habe nicht das Buch gelesen, sondern die komplette Lesung als Hörbuch gehört.
Auf die Story war ich gekommen, da mir jemand gesagt hat, das wäre wie eine koreanische Version von Murakami. Alles in Allem fand ich die Story interessant, wobei mir aber der Anfang (Den Part mit dem alten Mann und dessen Geschichte mit dem Wal) am besten gefallen hat. Nach dem Anfang dachte ich, das Buch würde in eine andere Richtung gehen, doch es hat mir gut gefallen. Manchmal waren die Namen etwas verwirrend und gegen das Ende hin fand ich es etwas fader. Einige Parts fand ich auch etwas unlogisch (Vor allem den Part, wo Old Racoon den Killer ganz einfach findet, obwohl er untergetaucht ist. Das war für mich ziemlich unlogisch, denn dann hätten ihn auch seine Widersacher mit Leichtigkeit in seinem "neuen Leben" finden können )
Alles in allem aber eine sehr interessante Story in einem fiktiven Korea.… (meer)