The Dynamiter

What an odd, wonderful book this is. Sometimes confusing but always absorbing, The Dynamiter (written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson) is neither a novel nor a collection of short stories, but rather a group of tales woven together with a very slender thread. The setting is London in the 1880's. Three bored, aimless, rather useless young men make an agreement among themselves that they will each take up the very next adventure that comes along. They go their separate ways and encounter various individuals who tell them fantastic tales - of vengeful Mormons in Utah ("Story of the Destroying Angel"), of voodoo terror in Cuba ("Story of the Fair Cuban"), of bomb-wielding anarchists in London ("Tale of the Explosive Bomb"), of an abandoned mansion where all sorts of mysterious people show up ("The Superfluous Mansion"). The tales are uniformly gripping, but none of them stand quite alone. Most, in fact, are put-ons, fantasies concocted by a small group of anti-English terrorists (they seem to be Irish, and refer to themselves as "patriots"), led by a man named Zero and a young woman who shows up in multiple exotic guises throughout the book. The mood is at times comic, terrifying, surreal. One of the themes, indeed, might be: what is reality? Aside from the fine writing of the Stevensons, I found The Dynamiter very interesting for two reasons, First, the theme of terrorism: in our modern age of terrorism, it is easy to forget that the fanatic bomber is nothing new, that he goes back at least to Stevenson's time (the book was written in 1883 - it was apparently meant to reflect upon current events, and is dedicated to two courageous policemen, Cole and Cox). And second, it became obvious to me after reading just a little of The Dynamiter, that it was the model, in format and tone, for Arthur Machen's perverse, horrific masterpiece, The Three Impostors. If you are an admirer of that appalling classic, you will probably enjoy The Dynamiter. Fans of Sherlock Holmes might also like the book, set primarily in gas-lit London.

Minsoo Kang is part philosopher part troubadour - telling tales of "history, controversy and geomancy" that take the reader to worlds that feel at once mythical and familiar. His characters are caught in elusive parables with plots that flicker between the heroic and the ironic - a monk who renounces a beautiful girl only to be seduced by his own vanity, a golden emperor trapped in a fantastic world of the utterly mundane, seekers on a journey to the nonexistent center of the universe . . . Kang's stories disturb the mind and enchant the emotions with their poetic scholarship and soulful metaphysics. I would especially recommend this book for literature study at the high-school or college level - Kang's multi-disciplinary style of narrative has many layers to explore. Or better yet - give it as a gift to a good friend. It's a totally original travel destination for the brain they will deeply appreciate.

Minsoo Kang's stories are wonderful, contemplative and alluring tales and I highly recommend this book -- which looks on the surface to be in the fantasy/science fiction category -- to anybody who likes intelligent fiction. Kang has a raconteur's gusto for telling a good tale and is also a historian, disciplined and dedicated to ferreting meaning out of past events. As a result his is a book of stories about stories about unreal places and events -- a smorgasbord for the imagination but one that lucidly guides the reader through its metafictional space. You'll see what I mean. Along the way you'll encounter situations and characters that have, like "real" myths, the power to bore into your subconscious and linger there -- like the king who makes love to a statue until his "seed" brings it to life and an unexpectedly poignant, forgive me, climax. The book jacket mentions Italo Calvino and Borges as pretty obvious comparisons, but I was reminded more of Oscar Wilde while reading the book. You will want to discuss/share these stories with a friend -- they are truly thought provoking.