The Great Passage

Kohei Araki has worked on dictionaries for all of his life and has a deep love for words and their various meanings. With his impending retirement, Araki must find a replacement to work on the dictionary that he has helped to start, an ambitious project undertaken by a department that is understaffed and underfunded. He soon meets Mitsuya Majime, discovered by another one of the staff members, who's quirks and eccentricities make him ideal for the job. <br /><br />I'm not sure if it's because this book is a translation, but I had a hard time getting into it. The characters were definitely amusing and I enjoyed the relationship between Masashi Nishioka and Majime the most. It was actually really great to see Nishioka's growth and though he's kind of a douche his relationship did make me smile, especially when he realizes he loves her and eventually seems to get past his previous emphasis on more shallow things like looks. Other than that though I did get bored while reading this book at a lot of parts. I especially was annoyed at the jump in years that felt like it came out of no where and when the new character, Midori Kishibe, is introduced. <br /><br />After that I had to force myself to keep reading, even though the book was still not that bad, I just had gotten into the characters and time line that was already established and felt irritated at this sudden jump. The book itself had some interesting aspects, especially those behind the meaning of language and the dynamics in many of the relationships. Plot wise though it felt sluggish and I wasn't really all that interested in seeing what would happen. Dictionary making is actually just as boring to read about as it sounds like it would be.

<strong>How can a book about a small department at a publishing house creating a dictionary be so wonderful? </strong><br /><br />Wrapped up in the main story about the creation of the dictionary there are three different stories about the people in the dictionary department. One is about a man who learns to connect with people, one is a woman who learns not to judge others, and the other is about a man who learns that it's ok to show that you care about things.<br /><br />The translator has done a great job. There is a lot of discussion about the meaning and origin of words and I'm impressed by how these have been translated from the original Japanese to still make sense in English. A couple of times I had to re-read paragraphs a few times to follow the meanings, but the majority of them were easy to follow.<br /><br />The geeky side of me enjoyed the bits about describing words and the look at how a dictionary is created. The three stories with their quirky characters provide a warm, human element that I could connect with.<br /><br />I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. <strong>It made me smile while I was reading it and even though the ending has some sad moments it left me happier and I'm glad I took a chance on it. </strong><br /><br />Also, I love the cover!

3.5 Stars<br /><br />Araki loved dictionaries and bought them from his pocket money. He wanted to become a physiologist or a scholar of the Japanese language so that his name could also come on a dictionary. Worked at Gembu Books for the last 37 years making dictionaries. Araki was retiring soon hence started looking for his replacement. <br /><br />He found one in the form of Majime from the Sales Department. Araki requested for his transfer which was approved instantly, so Majime became part of the Editorial Department and was given a desk beside Nishioka.<br /><br />Majime was good with words in terms of their knowledge but lacked communication skills. He met Kaguya, his landlady's grand-daughter who later became his girlfriend. Kaguya was a chef by profession and owned a restaurant, where Majime and his colleagues often met. <br /><br />The Board gave them approval on one commitment that they will revise the Gembu Student Dictionary of Japanese along with the new dictionary as students were likely to buy the revised version otherwise due to shortage of funds they were to shelf the project which was named as "The Great Passage". <br /><br />Nishioka was transferred to another department which meant the entire responsibility for the Dictionary Editorial Department laid on Majime's shoulders. Even after 13 years of work, the dictionary still required a lot of checking and rechecking of examples, usage of words and their place as space was premium with so many words trying to get a slot for itself. Majime spent most of his time in the office trying to complete the final version of the dictionary and once it was done, the dictionary was published.<br /><br />Majime who initially even struggled to strike a conversation with anyone got everything sorted: married Kaguya, worked on a ground breaking dictionary, made lifelong friends and managed a department and became its Head - all with the help of words. <br /><br /><a href="https://saadiabakhtawar.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow noopener">Blog</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcg9HVwNUIJleHeP6v4oqqA" rel="nofollow noopener">YouTube </a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/saadia_lashari/" rel="nofollow noopener">Instagram</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CritiConscience" rel="nofollow noopener">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/saadiabakhtawar/" rel="nofollow noopener">LinkedIn</a>

Warning: While I don’t go into many plot details, there are a few lines that hint at some developments. So, those wanting to know nothing about character development can consider this a slight spoiler warning.<br /><br />A while back I started my review of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/32919876.The_Nakano_Thrift_Shop" title="The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami" rel="noopener">The Nakano Thrift Shop</a> with the following: “This is the type of book that pretty much all my friends would expect me to hate, but that I always love. A slice of life novel, more on the humorous than serious side and with little to no plot. Strange for someone who is usually found reading horror or fantasy…”<br /><br />I begin again with that as I can pretty much copy/paste the exact same reaction here. I find that Japanese literature captures slice of life moments better than any other country I’ve read. It’s the combination (for me at least) of mundane life, but with the added twist in all the ways Japanese lifestyle is different from my own (as someone from the US). The little differences are fascinating, and the major ones even more so. <br /><br />This novel, from what I gather, was a huge success in Japan. After its release, it had both a film adaptation and an eleven episode anime adaptation; both of which were received fairly positively around the globe (though I confess I have not seen either yet).<br /><br />The plot follows the staff of a publishing house as they work on creating a new dictionary, The Great Passage of the title. It’s a multi-year project, and staff comes and goes as the dictionary takes shape. Though the main story follows the progress of the dictionary, we get many side stories along the way. From newcomers to the project and their reaction to the rest of the office, to people leaving and following their last days on the project. Through these almost short story chapters we get to see the lives of our cast evolve. Life goes in many directions for them, and I’d be lying if I said some didn’t work better than others from a plot standpoint, but all around it leads to some well-developed characters. <br /><br />The best of these characters, in my opinion, is Majime, who starts off as a new editor in the department at the beginning of the novel. He’s a character I related to a bit more that I was probably supposed to. He enjoys company, but finds it difficult at first to associate with his co-worker, and can more often than not be found with his nose in a book. "No matter how poor he was at communicating with people, with books he could engage in deep, quiet dialogue." His plot is thoughtful, and we see the most development from him… though thankfully the book never tries to “fix” his personality, and his flaws remain consistent. <br /><br />One area of this book I must praise is how it treats its cast. It’s a common cliché to have academics be humorous, stuffy characters. This book avoids that completely, with one of the early scenes of the novel being a professor and an editor discussing their first dictionaries and joking about how the professor never looked up “dirty words.” While the novel is not an outright comedy, there are many of these humorous moments of dialogue that humanizes the characters and keeps them far from the classic academic cliché. <br /><br />I find it hard to find many flaws in this novel, as it does pretty much everything it sets out to do successfully. The funny bits are genuinely amusing; the emotional bits succeed and feel earned. If I had to come up with something, I would say that the character of Kishibe changes a bit too fast. It seemed almost as if her attitude towards the job flipped as I sat the book down for the night. I get that there was a time-skip, but it seemed to happen a bit too fast. But that is a very minor complaint. <br /><br />All around, this is one I greatly enjoyed and would highly suggest to fans of Japanese literature or those who enjoy a slice of life story. A solid 4/5

First of all, I thought this is a travel story. <br /><br />I was wrong and this is a story about making up a new dictionary title "Great Passage." <br /><br />This book tells about love, friendship, landlord, workmates, and jobs. <br /><br />The making process of this new dictionary by a publisher involves a few stories and it took many years to complete it. <br /><br />You will roughly know the process to compile a new dictionary from looking for word definitions, topics, design, sales promotion, and the selection of quality papers and ink to print this new dictionary. <br /><br />It takes a lot of effort and time to complete the Great Passage.

<b>A dictionary is a ship that crosses the sea of words.</b><br /><br />This is the surprisingly fascinating story one man's nearly impossible feat - to assemble a comprehensive dictionary. While I loved the bits about the planning of the dictionary: which words to cut, the choice of paper - not too thick, and not too thin - the story became bogged down with too much backstory, and too many characters' love lives. I'll mostly remember this one for the fantastic quotes I jotted down:<br /><br /><b>Words and the human heart that creates them are absolutely free, with no connection to the powers that be.<br /><br />No matter how poor he was in communicating with people, with books he could engage in deep, quiet dialogue.</b>

Que historia más bonita, sencilla y especial. Sus personajes permanecerán conmigo y también ese amor por las palabras tan importante siempre.<br />Más por aquí: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9E0hjBkJtg&amp;t=860s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9E0h...</a>

This definitely was an unusual read from my World Literature section on my Kindle. <br />Set in Japan this was about a publishing company’s, ever decreasing dictionary department. The type of dictionary a company publishes has kudos, is shows them as a serious concern, even though it may not be a money spinner. <br />The story opens with Kohei Araki on the brink of retirement trying to find his replacement to carry on his passion to put together a new dictionary called The Great Passage. <br />This dusty little department is in the annex, a department most employees didn’t even know existed, but through this story we follow this small group of employee’s lives and loves. <br />I loved the feel of this book, the language and the discussion about Japanese words. <br />It’s so excitement finding an gem of a book full of surprises. This may not for everyone but it certainly held my attention. Great read.

"Gathering a huge number of words together with as much accuracy as possible was like finding a mirror without distortion. The less distortion in the word-mirror, the greater chance that when you opened up to someone and revealed your inner self, your feelings and thoughts would be reflected there with clarity and depth. You could look together in the mirror and laugh, weep, get angry."<br /><br />Words are powerful tools and The Great Passage wields them well.

One of the benefits of owning a Kindle and having an Amazon Prime membership is that they give you a free book each month (from a selection of six). This month, I downloaded <i>The Great Passage</i> and was pleasantly surprised at its depth and sincerity. If you had told me that I'd enjoy reading a book about writing a dictionary, well I'd probably believe you. But this book is so much more than that.<br /><br /><i>The Great Passage</i> has two primary themes: the complexity of language and being passionate about a project.<br /><br />Language is all about trying to convey ones thoughts and feelings as accurately as possible. To do so, we must use the imperfect vehicle of words. Words have subtle nuances, differences in both connotation and denotation, that makes finding exactly the right word a challenge. When talking with a friend or writing a speech to be delivered before millions, we use our words to help others understand what we are thinking. Even now, as I write this review, I am cherrypicking my words to help you understand what I think about this book. Dictionaries, therefore, help us by allowing us to find words that can effectively share our message with as little misunderstanding as possible. But this is a constant battle between the gradual changes of language and the desire to keep things static. Any language is a complex and dynamical system. Over time, languages change and evolve as people use words in novel ways. And that is why we must constantly be on our guard for new words, and new ways of using words.<br /><br />The second theme Miura explores is how it feels to be truly passionate about something. In this story, the members of the team are all devoted to seeing the creation of their dictionary through to the very end. And that kind of enthusiasm can be infectious when shared correctly. Even for doing something like reading through definitions of thousands of words, if you love the work, it will be truly enjoyable. And it's more than just enjoying the work itself. If the people around you are enthusiastic and help teach you their joy, you can partake of it too.<br /><br />Ultimately, I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Japanese is a nuanced language, with a great amount of wordplay. The translator did an excellent job of explaining the meanings of things without interrupting the narrative flow. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in communication, be it written or spoken.<br /><br />Some of my favorite quotes from the book:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Gathering a huge number of words together with as much accuracy as possible was like finding a mirror without distortion. The less distortion in the word-mirror, the greater chance that when you opened up to someone and revealed your inner self, your feelings and thoughts would be reflected there with clarity and depth. You could look together in the mirror and laugh, weep, get angry."</blockquote><br /><blockquote>"Awakening to the power of words—the power not to hurt others but to protect them, to tell them things, to form connections with them—had taught her to probe her own mind and inclined her to make allowances for other people’s thoughts and feelings."</blockquote><br /><blockquote>"He says that memories are words. A fragrance or a flavor or a sound can summon up an old memory, but what’s really happening is that a memory that had been slumbering and nebulous becomes accessible in words."</blockquote>