Why compare Shimada to Murakami? I'll tell you why: its all you've got to go on! I agree with the other reviewers that this is not the best of what Shimada has written. The reason that its in English is b/c it was a prize-winner. The translators go by what sells as well as their own interests and Dream Messenger obviously hasn't sold or there'd be more of Shimada's novels translated. He's (Shimada) a much more important novelist though... Why are there only two books by Nakagami Kenji translated? Same reason.

Sometimes I just wish Murakami would just go write in English! That's where his primary audience is. But maybe that's just his ultimate parody.

I have read much of Shimada's work in Japanese, mostly short-stories, and I have to say that the English translation of Dream Messenger falls flat. Philip Gabriel's translation captures Shimada's unique cadence only very infrequently, losing much of what makes Shimada's work a joy to read. To Gabriel's credit, Shimada tends to twist and contort Japanese grammer frequently, and he often turns traditional idioms on their heads. His metaphors, too, are very original and very provocative in Japanese. Unfortunately, very little of this translates well into English, and I don't envy Gabriel his job of having to try.

Aside from the difficulties of the translation, Shimada is, I feel, a much better short-story writer. His quirky style tends to lose steam in longer works, leaving you, by the end of the narrative, grasping for something concrete to wrap your mind around.

I was disappointed by Dream Messenger, considering how much I enjoyed his other works (the reason why I couldn't stand giving him any less than 3 stars in this review). With the right work and the right translation, Shimada could easily be ranked alongside Murakami Haruki. Unfortunately, this is the only piece of Shimada's that has been translated into English thus far. Maybe Gabriel will do better with some of Shimada's short-stories.

Unless I beat him to it...;)

when one encounters this unusual novel by shimada, one's mind needs to be kept open. one of the readers' review said the story wasn't organized. i think it was very deliberately done.
this novel is a literary jazz. it constantly wanders yet gets pulled together.the whole concept of the story is based on the wanderers and wandering. it is about defying everything that devides the world in dualism and all the institutional cliches we have in mind. this is about reinvention and re-integration of the existing world in order for us to evolve into the next step. matthew is a wandering soul. the rental child who, instead of being raised in a stable warm family, wanders about from one set of parents to another to fulfil their heart's content. dream messenger wanders all over with no discrimination of borders--between reality and dreams, self and alter-egos, continent to continent, person to person.

this book is so completely on a different level. without an open mind it will be hard to accept it let alone understand. but i do agree the japanese version of the book was definitely much more inclusive of shimada's concepts. english translation does very much fall flat.