I decided to listen to this book on a whim. I was trying to find an audiobook available on Scribd that wasn’t too emotionally demanding but was still well written and spotted this in “related reading” to another book I was considering. I saw that it focused on lexicography and dictionaries and that was enough for me!

This short novel follows a team of dictionary editors in a somewhat forgotten corner of a publishing company in Tokyo. It starts with the director, in the face of retirement, looking for someone to replace him and take on the task of producing a new dictionary, The Great Passage, that he and his friend, Professor Matsumodo, have been dreaming of for a long time. As the book progresses, new people join the mission to produce this dictionary, each person eventually discovering the beauty and significance of dictionaries and the subtle meanings of words.

‘“A dictionary is a ship that crosses the sea of words,” said Araki, with a sense that he was laying bare his innermost soul. “People travel on it and gather the small points of light floating on the dark surface of the waves. They do this in order to tell someone their thoughts accurately, using the best possible words. Without dictionaries, all any of us could do is linger before the vastness of the deep.”’

I often chuckle at books but this one had me laughing out loud several times. The characters are so idiosyncratic and the way their personalities bounce off each other often produce moments of comedy for the observer (less often for the characters involved). It also reminded me a little of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman in the way the characters are so passionate about their work and how this causes some to find them strange. Miura clearly shows an appreciation for people who are conscientious and dedicated to their craft or pursuit.

While there is a driving plot – the mission to complete The Great Passage – and a number of romantic side stories, this book really is about the intricacies of language and dictionaries. It demonstrates the amount of work involved in producing a dictionary and the economic implications that come into play for a publisher. At a deeper level, it explores the power of words and how people can influence the way meanings are expressed and words are defined.

When I started this book I thought about the challenges that must have been involved to translate a book that is founded on nuances in words and associations. I’m sure there are elements of this that could not be rendered in English, but the translator, Juliet Winters Carpenter, has still managed to produce a work that allows the Anglophone reader to appreciate some of these lexical reflections. Since I listened to the audiobook, I had the added pleasure of hearing the words being said in Japanese by the narrator, Brian Nishii, which further enriched my experience of indulging in a topic I always find exciting: the complexity of language. This book is a warm wave to anyone who loves words and wants to spend a few pleasurable hours in the company of others who feel the same.

Quotations I liked

““Okay. Then how would you explain shima?”
“‘Stripes’…‘island’…the place name…the suffix in words like yokoshima“–evil–“and sakashima“–upside down–”‘conjecture’, as in the four-character phrase shima okusoku“–conjecture and surmise–“the four devils of Buddhism…”
As Majime reeled off possible candidates, Araki hastily cut him short. “Shima as in ‘island’.”
“All right. Something like ‘a body of land surrounded by water’? No, that wouldn’t do [ … ] Then how about ‘land set apart from its surroundings’?”
He was the genuine article. Araki looked on with admiration. It had only taken seconds for Majime to work out the underlying meaning of shima.
Back when he’d put the same question to Nishioka, the results had been dismal. Nishioka had never considered any possible meaning but ‘island’ and his answer had been “Something sticking up from the sea”.
Appalled, Araki had yelled “Idiot! Then the back of a whale and a drowned man are shima, are they?”
Nishioka had looked flustered then laughed foolishly, “Oops, you’re right! Gee, that’s a tough one!””

“What’s your hobby, Majime?” Nishioka boldly asked, searching for friendly overture. […]
“If I had to pick something, I guess it would be watching people get on the escalator.”
Silence descended on the table. “Is it interesting?” Mrs Sasaki asked evenly.

“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.”

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