I have wanted to read Shion Miura’s ‘The Great Passage‘ ever since I discovered it last year.
‘The Great Passage‘ is about the making of a Japanese dictionary. The main characters work for a publisher which brings out dictionaries. The editorial department decides to bring out a new, big dictionary of the Japanese language. They recruit a person called Majime from the sales department, who is unsuited for his current job but who is a word-nerd. The rest of the book is about how the dictionary project proceeds through different phases and what challenges the main characters face. There are also a couple of romantic stories which form part of the book.
I enjoyed reading ‘The Great Passage‘. This book is a beautiful love letter to words and the art of making dictionaries. I learnt a lot about dictionary projects and the art and science of lexicography through the book. It is amazing how long it takes to compile a dictionary from scratch. In this story it takes 15 years. One of my favourite parts of the book was about the paper which is used in dictionaries and how the paper company designs the right kind of paper for this particular dictionary. It is very fascinating. The book inspired me to dip into a dictionary I have and order a couple of more dictionaries 😁
One of the things I love about contemporary Japanese literature is this. Sometimes Japanese authors take a field of study or a thing or an activity or a profession and write a beautiful love letter to it and shine a light on its glorious beauty. Yoko Ogawa’s ‘The Housekeeper and the Professor‘ is about the beauty of mathematics and baseball, Ito Ogawa’s ‘The Restaurant of Love Regained‘ is about the pleasures of food, Natsu Miyashita’s ‘The Forest of Wool and Steel‘ is about the beauty of piano tuning. Shion Miura’s ‘The Great Passage‘ follows in this beautiful tradition and sings an ode to the beauty of words and dictionaries.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite passages from the book.
“Words were necessary for creation. Kishibe imagined the primordial ocean that covered the surface of the earth long ago—a soupy, swirling liquid in a state of chaos. Inside every person there was a similar ocean. Only when that ocean was struck by the lightning of words could all come into being. Love, the human heart . . . Words gave things form so they could rise out of the dark sea.”
Have you read ‘The Great Passage‘? What do you think about it?
Vishy's Blog 
A beautiful review! I love Japanese literature for the reason you mention as well! I haven’t read The Great Passage, but for a long time now I have been meaning to watch the film The Great Passage based on this book, which promises to be funny and romantic.
Glad you liked the review, Diana 😊 Japanese literature is fascinating, isn’t it? I have heard about the film adaptation of The Great Passage. Hope you enjoy watching it. Will look forward to your film review 😊 I want to watch it myself.
Definitely one I’d like to try 🙂
Hope you get to read it and like it, Tony ☺️ It is a wonderful book!
Wow, this sounds like a very interesting book! I’ve always found dictionaries fascinating, and this being written by a Japanese author only makes it even more intriguing.
It is a wonderful book, Michelle! Hope you like it if you decide to read it. Nice to know that you like dictionaries 😊 Fascinating things they are!
This is definitely a book I need. I love the passage you’ve chosen to quote – if the rest of the book is anything like that, I know I’ll really enjoy it.
Hope you get to read this book and like it. It is a wonderful book. Glad you liked that passage. So beautiful, isn’t it?
Sounds fascinating Vishy!
It is a wonderful book, Kaggsy! Hope you like it if you decide to read it.
Vishy, I think I have mentioned this before, but let me say it again because it’s a new year, and I get to repeat a compliment. The quotes, which you choose to include in your reviews, should become a book by themselves. They are ALL so beautiful. I enjoyed your thought on how Japanese authors choose one gorgeous field, and explore it in their literature. I particularly loved the math in ‘The Housekeeper and the Professor’. Thank you for this review, Vishy.
Thank you for your kind words, D 😊 Glad you like the quotes that I include in the reviews. When I started out, I used to share only my favourite quotes from the books I was reading. Later I expanded them into a review 😊 I love sharing quotes because they show the beauty of the book more than my review ever will. Glad you liked ‘The Housekeeper and the Professor’. Such a beautiful book, isn’t it? I want to read it again.
Hi Vishy, I enjoyed this review! I read The Great Passage last year and enjoyed it very much. I liked your links to other novels based on simple activities. I’ll have a look at those!
Glad you liked the review, Andrew 🙂 So nice to know that you read the book last year and liked it 🙂 Will stop by your blog and look for your review. Hope you get to read some of the other books and like them.
This was an unexpectedly enjoyable book, mainly because of the details of how they create the dictionary. It made me think about the paper especially, something I had never really considered previously but now it makes perfect sense. .
Yes, I agree! I was so inspired by this book that I went and got a few dictionaries 😁
Wow this sounds fascinating. I’m adding it to my next read list 😊 thanks for sharing the review
Hope you like it 😊 Happy reading!