As someone who has only read Korean novels in English translation, I have lately been sensing a rising trend towards whimsical stories that until now seemed nonexistent: whimsical, slice-of-life stories that seem to promote self-healing. I had seen plenty of these types of books in translated Japanese works. They were always a delight to read and could be called a guilty pleasure, but they were not something I had really come across for Korean works.
Now, it looks like Korea is starting to gain some traction in this genre with the publication of Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop earlier this year, and now The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee, released in English in July.
“A third of our lives are spent in sleep, yet as we dream we venture to wondrous and bizarre places,” Lee writes in the Author Note. “Are dreams merely subconscious illusions? Or are they something more profound?”
At first glance, Lee may not seem like someone who would have time to think about imaginary dream worlds. She studied materials engineering, and became a semiconductor engineer for Samsung. Through a crowdfunding effort in 2020, she was able to publish her book through the publishing company Sam & Parkers, when she was 30 years old.
The Dallergut Dream Department Store is about a city humans can access once they fall asleep; it is a place they can shop for the dreams they want to have that night. The world is filled with Noctilucas (which I always imagine to be oversized sloths) rushing to dress naked visitors and doing clean-ups throughout the city. The streets are so clean people can walk around in their socks, and food trucks prepare various items such as caramelized onion milk, known to help induce sleep.
Penny, the protagonist, gets her first job at the renowned Dallergut Dream Department Store, which is owned by the Dallergut family, the founding family of the city whose ancestor is rumored to be one of the three disciples of the Time God. The department store has five floors, each with its own specialty, all managed by very different personalities.
There is the persnickety, meticulous, and arrogant Vigo Myers who manages the second floor with a no-nonsense attitude; the cheerful and youthful Mogberry, whose carefree nature allows her employees to be more expressive with their personalities; the super-charged Speedo who wears a jumpsuit to work to not waste time, even in the bathroom (there’s a zipper in the front); and calm and patient Weather, who has worked the longest with Dallergut and manages the first floor, which sells dreams that are in high-demand, special order, or limited edition.
The store uses a deferred payment plan where customers only pay if they experience satisfaction, but these payments are not monetary and instead consist of “half the emotion a customer feels after they dream.” Customers are connected to a Dream Pay Systems program that automatically processes the emotion, which gets funneled into a safe. These emotions are then deposited into a bank, which Dallergut can choose to invest.
Each chapter shows how Penny adjusts and grows under the mentorship of Dallergut and Weather, but some also focus on struggling people in the real world with issues big and small.
For instance, there is Ah-young and Jong-Seok, who are both dealing with relationship issues. Na-rim dreams of being a screenwriter but has hit a creative rut, while Song-yee has recurring anxiety nightmares connected to the time she was in high school, and Do-hyun struggles to make it as a singer and songwriter. There is also Leo, a dog waiting for his family to return from a family outing.
If a city thrives on dream products, there need to be dreammakers. Known as the Legendary Big Five, the popular dreammakers win awards every year at the Dreams of the Year Awards. There is Babynap Rockabye, Yasnooz Otra, Kick Slumber, Wawa Sleepland, and Doje. Other dreammakers of note are Maxim, who specializes in nightmares (who may also have a crush on Penny), and Nicholas (aka Santa), who specializes in winter dreams.
With nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout, as well as little adventures revealing interesting tidbits of this dream metropolis, fans of whimsical fiction and fantasy will find the book a pleasurable treat. Readers will find comfort in the setting and the various characters and situations Penny needs to deal with; it wouldn’t surprise me if readers find something resonate with them to some capacity.
Readers should plan to dive into this copy before the next book in the series, Return to the Dallergut Dream Department Store, which was released in November 2024.
