With thanks to Netgalley and Shion Miura

The great passage is a book about loving books, and I really enjoy it.

An interesting read with an unusual protagonist. Thanks to Amazon for brining world literature in translation to the US.

Although I absolutely realize how good the writing was, I personally didn't connect with the story. So sorry 😞

The Great Passage will be Gembu Books hero product – a new dictionary produced in the traditional way.

It is the passion of Kohei Araki, he was inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, and became obsessed by the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years working at Gembu Books, it’s time for him to retire and find his replacement. Not an easy feat as creating a dictionary is as much an art as it is a very precise science.

Luckily he discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime—a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics—whom he swipes from his company’s sales department.

Led by his new mentor and joined by an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. But this Great Passage takes many years to complete, on the way Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work.

I loved this book. It was a heartwarming look at ordinary lives as well as a love letter to words and how they shape our society. It examines how easy friendship becomes when we appreciate each others foibles and follies rather than expecting everyone to be the same as us and being irritated when they fail. But throughout that there are little comments on society and the impact of our words. It was particularly heartening to see them discuss the definition for love as being between a man and a woman and decide it didn’t need to be gendered that way anymore.

I’ve recently read a lot of darker books and a read this straight after reading about the Black Lives Matter movement, it was just the antidote I needed to rejuvenate my spirits and remind me there is good in the world.

4 Bites

NB I received a copy of this free of charge from NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews.

The Great Passage is a beautiful tale about the beauty of words. It tells the tale of a young man who is charged with writing a d editing a dictionary while lumbering through a romantic relationship. This book draws parallels between words and relationships. I think it is a great book about the power and beauty of words and their impact on our lives.

Great Googly Moogly this was an EXTREMELY long 224 pages. O M GOSH. There were only 5 chapters in this book. F I V E. And each one was L O N G. The first two chapters I had to MAKE myself stay awake.

This is a very cerebral book. And very wordy. I get that it is a book about a dictionaries and people who love [and are rather obsessed with them], but it was still very wordy.
Around the middle of the third chapter, the book started to open up for me. And then the fourth and fifth chapter just bloomed and the book became beautiful to me and I found myself hoping that they would get the dictionary done by the release date. And found myself really caring about the character and their lives [and lack of lives] and about the dictionary in-itself. And when I finished chapter one, I never thought that was going to be possible.

If you are a wordy person yourself, have had a dictionary yourself that you have loved [think Diane Court in "Say Anything"] or are just completely cerebral, you will love this book. If you are none of these, I still recommend it; yes, it will take awhile to get through, but I bet that you [like me] will start really loving the characters by the middle of chapter three and by the end you will not be sorry you read this.

I had a hard time getting into this book because of the tone of it. It wasn't working for me and I ended up not reading it.

I really liked this book! The description sounded very interesting, so I was glad to be approved to read it. When I actually started reading it, it took several tries to get into the book, and I thought that I would not enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. However, when Araki found Majime, the story took off and I found it to be delightful.

The making of a dictionary was not something that interested me, but as I read, I appreciated learning about this topic. Words are so fascinating, and I enjoyed reading a book that so explicitly discussed the nature of words.

I really enjoyed the changes in perspective as the book went on. This kept the book interesting. I greatly enjoyed Majime’s storyline, but I was most excited to read about this world from Nishioki’s perspective. I had such a fixed, negative view of him before his chapter, but this changed as I read his chapter. I love learning that there is more to a character than is seen on the outside. I also enjoyed that each character seemed to find closure in an area of their life by the end of his/her section.

There were a few sections where the narrative drive slowed down and I was less eager to pick up the book. These mostly occurred towards the end of Kishibe’s chapter.

The translator did a great job explaining the nuances of the Japanese language to English speakers, and most of the time I understood what was trying to be said. The translation read smoothly and I enjoyed it.

If you were to look up the fictional dictionary definition of "good book", "The Great Passage" would probably be featured as an example. This translation of the 2011 Japanese book is about a team of dictionary editors, their work and private lives. It features a borderline autistic character, a lot of ambition, a lot of subtle humor, great friendships and words, words, words. Of course, it is a bit unique and may not be everyone's favorite, but I can recommend the calm and unexcited writing style. One thing I liked perhaps best was the cinematic way the scenes were described and set up.

The book made me aware of the importance of words in general and finding the right word in particular, which caused me to notice (my only problem) that the dialogues were a bit stiff and unnatural. Whether that is due to Shion Miura's style or Juliet Winters Carpenter's translation, I could not say. Other than that, this was a fast and easy read which nevertheless had lots of potential to think about language, especially language changing and having to adapt to modern times.

It has been an AGE since I read a book about books. (For those of you who are newer to my blog - this is my ultimate reading pleasure. I love reading about the power of words, the smell of old books, the peculiar exhilaration that comes with finding a book that seems to be written for you...) I hoped that The Great Passage by Shion Miura (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter) would be just the thing to get me back into that particular genre.

And oh goodness, it was. Nearly every character in The Great Passage has that obsessive love for books that I adore. This was made especially interesting because of the centrality of dictionaries to the novel. Now, I'm not going to say that I've always been fascinated by dictionaries, but The Great Passage really made them come to life in ways that I'd never thought of before. For example, multiple characters question the dictionary definition of 'love', particularly in the difference between romantic and non-romantic love. There's also quite a lot of talk about how dictionaries can be used for social change - 'love' does not have to be defined as being 'between a man and a woman', for example. Because of this, I really understood why so many of the characters found dictionaries to be their life calling. (It also really made me wish I understood more about how Japanese works as a language!)

However, I did think that the blurb was quite misleading - it implies that Majime is pretty much the main character of the book. Instead, his story is just one section of the novel. We follow at least two other narrators throughout the course of the book. While I liked the other sections, I did kind-of wish that Miura had stuck to Majime's point-of-view. Because of the multiple points of view, the book felt a little bit disjointed. However, I am not usually a fan of multiple narrators, so that might just be me being a nit-pick.

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed diving into the world of The Great Passage. I can only hope that when I go into publishing, I can do Majime and the other book obsessives proud.

Samuel Johnson defined lexicographer as “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words” (Dictionary of the English Language). Shion Miura’s The Great Passage (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter) is full of such harmless drudges. This short novel rotates among a cast of characters united in creating a great Japanese dictionary and their fondness for the oddball editor.

When the novel begins, The Great Passage (the name chosen for the dictionary) is just a glimmer in the eyes of its creators. Araki is about to retire from Gembu Books, but he finds the perfect replacement in Majime. Majime has the same obsession with words and teasing out all of their meanings. Unless you’re a word nerd, too, spending time with them can be a little aggravating because Majime, Araki, and the other lexicographers can’t let questions go until they’ve got all the answers. Other characters (who take turns being the focus of different chapters) who aren’t harmless drudges are bewildered by them.

The dictionary takes years to put together because, aside from the amount of work it takes to select words, research and define them, and proofread everything, the publisher keeps side-tracking them to work on other projects. The dictionary department has a reputation for being a money pit and, for most of the book, Majime et al. fret that Gembu will pull the plug on the project. In the end, it takes more than ten years to finish the dictionary.

Being a word nerd myself, I enjoyed Majime, Araki, and the other’s conversations about word origins and meanings. Other readers might not be so enamored of all the etymology. Majime is a sweet character to follow because of his oddness and the fact that he succeeds in spite of himself sometimes. This book was the perfect literary lightness I needed after the atomic weight of Radium Girls.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 1 June 2017.

I quite enjoy this novel. To me it taught me that you need to work hard on everything that you do in life, whether be it big or small responsibility. The story is about Kohei Araki. Araki was always fascinated with words. However, his parents wouldn’t allow him to go to college because they think that he should just help his mother with the store. Thankfully, Araki’s uncle convinced his father to send him to school. Almost four decades later, Araki is retiring from Gembu Books publishing while a new dictionary being compiled, however, Araki wouldn’t be able to continue the new project with Professor Matsumoto therefore Araki promised Professor Matsumoto that he will find someone to replace him that loves dictionaries more than he does. I really enjoyed this book and I recommend this book to anyone.

A book about compiling a dictionary sounds boring to the highest extreme but this book I found totally fascinating.
The main story is about a new dictionary being compiled but also covers the lives and construction of the new work.
I found this book totally amazing and it kept my attention for the whole book and has become my favourite novel of the year so far. A fantastic read and I am only sorry my review cannot do it justice.
I was given this book by Netgalley and the publisher. This is my voluntary review.

I enjoyed this little novel, which is an English translation of a novel originally published in Japanese.

The story follows three generations of publishing house staff working in the Dictionary Editorial Department of Gembu Books. Faced with the reality of a publishing world that prefers books with quick turnover and big profits, the work of the small staff compiling dictionaries is seen as uniquely laborious and unprofitable. It therefore takes this staff more than a decade of work, squeezed into the minimal down time between more profitable dictionary revisions and second editions, to compile a brand new masterwork dictionary, which they have titled The Great Passage. This novel follows the ins and outs of work in lexicography as well as the personal lives of those working on the dictionary.

For readers like myself who enjoy books about books, and especially about words, this novel is a treasure. It's biggest weakness is that the characters lack depth, especially the secondary female characters. I was constantly desiring to know more about their backstories and explore their depths, but they all receive cursory development. Nevertheless, this novel is an enjoyable treat.

Thank you to AmazonCrossing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance review copy. The English translation of this book is expected to publish on June 1, 2017.