Return To The DallerGut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee

 

Return to the DallerGut Dream Department Store by Mi-ye Lee.

Translated by Sandy Joosun Lee.

Published 1st November 2024 by Wildfire.

From the cover of the book:

It has been a year since Penny first walked through the doors of DallerGut Dream Department Store, and surviving a year at the store means one thing . . . She is now an official employee of the dream industry! She can finally take the express commuter train to the Company District, where all the dream production companies are located and discover how all raw dream materials and testing equipment are produced.

But the Company District is not quite what she expected, it hides the darker underbelly of the magical industry that Penny thought she was a part of.

Penny discovers the Civil Complaint Center, full of people filing complaints about their dreams. She also learns about the regular customers who have stopped coming to the store. As she gets to the bottom of each complaint, she begins to expand her horizons, transforming from just selling dreams to understanding what lies in the hearts of their lost regulars.

Return to the DallerGut Dream Department Store delves deeper into the dream industry and its customers. Why do some of them buy a dream and never return? Will Penny and her colleagues be able to bring their regulars back?

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A year has passed since Penny fulfilled her dream to become an employee at the magical DallerGut Dream Department Store. She has learned a lot about the art of selling dreams, the requirements of the store's customers, and the workings of the dream industry, and she is now ready for the next step in her career - to take the commuter train to the Company District, where dreams are made and tested.

The Company District holds a whole new world of wonders for Penny to explore, and knowledge about things that she is unprepared for - such as finding ways to tackle the difficult issues of the people who contact the Civil Complaint Center in respect of dreams that have not performed as they should. Can Penny and her colleagues find a way to bring these customers back to the store and make them regulars once more?

This original little novell picks up a year on from the beginning of the first book in the duology, The DallerGut Dream Department Store, to delve deeper into the goings on of the magical place in our collective  subconscious where people and animals go to purchase their dreams. Penny has now earned a promotion which allows her access to another part of this fantastical world, but this also brings new challenges to be faced in terms of the customers who are desperately unhappy about the dreams they have experienced.

As before, this is all about speculative flights of fancy in a colourful, highly-imaginative setting full of intricately described wonders, and creatures from all walks of fantasy. Its whimsical charm provides fertile ground for Lee to guide you in a multi-layered exploration of the psychological and philosophical aspects of dreams in a really insightful way, through the idea that they can be designed and sold. It is such a clever story device that you find yourself pondering some really complex ideas almost by accident as you get caught up in the antics of the quirky characters.

If you have read the first book (which I recommend you do before tackling this one), then you will already have an idea about how Lee makes this work - but hold onto your comfy pyjamas, because she ups the stakes this time by providing fresh problems for Penny and her colleagues to work through about the dream industry, and with them, new ways to make abstract concepts about the subconscious and the impact of dreams on the psyche accessible, particularly when it comes to those darker dreams that merge into nightmares. Can nightmares actually be valuable experiences? Perhaps they can...

There are lovely themes that run through this book about loss and yearning that make this story intensely poignant, and the impressive translation work by Sandy Joosun Lee helps you feel every ounce of emotion. The power of memory is explored incredibly well too, especially when it comes to healing and balance, and the sensuous delights of a whole new host of flavoursome foods are something to behold.

Without a doubt, this is not your average fictional tale, but if you are up for something that takes you on a journey, while making you ponder some very big questions about life, the universe, and everything, then you will find it highly rewarding.

Return to the DallerGut Dream Department Store is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Widlfire for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Miye Lee was born in Busan in 1990. After graduating from the Busan National University School of Materials Science and Engineering, she worked as a semiconductor engineer at Samsung Electronics. Her debut novel Dallergut Dream Department Store published entirely funded through a crowdfunding service in Korea in 2020 and has since drawn many enthusiastic responses and favourable reviews.

About the translator:

Sandy Joosun Lee is a translator and interpreter based in Seoul. Her translations include Won-pyung Sohn's Almond (HarperVia 2020). She also works in animatronics, translating and developing animated content, which includes The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021) and Star Wars: Visions (2023).