Contains spoilers.
I originally picked up The Great Passage a couple of years back when Amazon offered it for free as part of World Book Day. At the time, I wasn’t yet into contemporary and literary fiction so I put it on hold. I then decided to read it after browsing through the ebooks I own and thinking it sounds interesting. I didn’t know it had a film and an anime adaptation an only found out about both after I started reading.
I didn’t know what to expect about a novel about a group of people making a dictionary, but it certainly blew me away. I gave this book five stars for how heartfelt, tender, and somehow cozy the book felt. It’s just a charming book and I highly recommend it.
The Great Passage features a rather eccentric cast of characters. There’s Majime who gets hired to replace the outgoing editor for the dictionary, Nishioka, who also worked on the dictionary before getting transferred, Midori, who gets transferred to work on The Great Passage and who gets introduced after a time skip, as well as several side characters we meet throughout the different chapters. The chapters in this book are quite long and tend to focus on a specific character, but we still get a sense for the lives of the different people who worked on the dictionary, their loved ones, and how their work affected their lives.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a book about the making of a dictionary, but I can say that The Great Passage is a delightfully charming and heartwarming book. There’s something touching about the passion exhibited by this odd group of characters for their work, their dedication and loyalty to each other, as well as the positive impact doing so had on their lives.
Lately, I realized that I’ve been reading more Japanese contemporary novels and I think it’s because they give off this feel of how important ordinary lives are. Even the most ordinary occupations seem so meaningful that you realize that everyone truly has a story to tell. Even ordinary lives are worth so much more than we think and even mundane things, are worth more than we know. Plus, they tend to be short so that’s a plus for sure.
A review regarding a book about a dictionary is incomplete without talking about words. Throughout the book, you will see several definitions for words and characters talking about words, lexicography, and even etymology and history of words. In doing so, it highlights how important words are. One often hears that “words have meaning”. In The Great Passage, the characters don’t simply think about the meaning of words, but also their usage and implications. A word can be political, it can be hurtful, and it can be validating. Choosing which words to include and exclude can take countless discussions. Even the meaning of the word ‘love’ can take a heated debate.
I wholeheartedly recommend The Great Passage. It’s funny, romantic, and most of all charming. Well-written and short enough you can read it in about two sittings. Plus, it will get you to think more about the words you use on a day to day basis.
The Bookworm Daydreamer 