The lucky ones among us with a healthy sleep pattern spend a third of our lives in bed. And if we’re even luckier, we even get to dream. Sleep researchers claim that under normal circumstances most people do in fact dream in their sleep, but we remember very few of them.

     Lee Miye has invented a world in which we not only remember our dreams, but we can purchase them in and have them custom-made for certain occasions or even bequeath them to bereaving loved ones after our death. Lee describes such a world in the novel Das Kaufhaus der Träume. The young Penny dreams of working in the prestigious Dallergut department store, where dreams of all shapes and sizes are sold on four floors to interested customers. Dallergut himself is said to be the direct descendant of the third and favourite disciple of the God of Time. Whereas the first disciple chooses to care for the future of all time and the second decides on sweet memories of the past, the third disciple, Dallergut’s ancestor, decides when people sleep – because in sleep, you neither hang onto your past nor worry about your future.

     Penny, the protagonist of the book, lands a job interview with Dallergut but does not think of herself as bright or qualified enough to work at the famous department store. During her interview, in answer to one of Dallergut’s questions, she mentions the old myth about the God of Time – a risky move. But she is hired and becomes one of his favourite employees due to her diligence and insatiable curiosity. She loves working in the department store and her many questions lead us through the dream landscape with its many philosophical implications. Is the dream life of people we see on television really a life that we would want to live with all its consequences? How can we preserve our dreams? And what does that entail? What is the difference between a “good sleep” and a “lovely dream”?

     With this novel, Lee has in many ways fulfilled her own dream. She quit her job as an engineer to become a writer and her debut novel became a huge success in South Korea. Korean readers could not get enough of her stories about this unique department store, which may or may not be set in Seoul. The characters in this book not only know Dallergut’s department store and the many famous producers of dreams, but many of them wear pyjamas all day, constantly ready for sleep. There is even a live televised award ceremony for the best dreams of the year. The employees of Dallergut’s watch this ceremony together and place bets on the winners. The novel consists of many instances of people in need of dreams who are able to purchase them at the department store. This changes theirs lives, usually for the better. 

     It is obvious that Lee loves dreams and has a very interesting philosophy about them, but unfortunately the characters of the novel might have profited from a bit more depth. Penny receives excellent advice from Assam, a very good friend. Without this advice, she may have never gotten the job of her dreams. But for the rest of the novel, we never hear of Assam again. Also, Penny behaves somewhat unusually for an employee, as her colleagues constantly tell her. However, nobody ever gets angry or cross with her. Everybody loves her as she seems to always be in a great and welcoming mood. Penny never seems to sleep herself – she’s never cranky and has no other desires other than to work long hours. And though the customers trust the store and its employees and fall deeply into unusual dreams, nothing ever seems to go wrong with this spectacular arrangement. This sometimes makes the novel seem a little mechanical.

     Still, Lee has constructed an elaborate world of magic realism that is easy to understand and navigate. The translation into German by Kyong-hae Flügel is very good, written in highly readable prose that goes very well with this interesting mixture of realism and fantasy. Das Kaufhaus der Träume reminds each of us of our own dreams and of the most important philosophical questions that matter in life – whether we are awake or asleep.

Jakob Hein

Psychiatrist,Spoken Word Performer

Author, HerrJensen steigt aus (2006)

Wurst und Wahn (2011)