Review: The Great Passage

The Great Passage by Shion Miura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a delightful book. I admit, I had this on my wishlist, but couldn't remember why, and, had I looked into the subject matter I may have skipped this. The idea of an entire novel centered around creating a dictionary seems a tad boring, quite frankly. 

But it turns out this was really nice. Each chapter is from the point of view of someone different, and every person seems to be a bit quirky in their own way, and it all fits in together nicely at the end. 

In terms of the translation, obviously a choice had to be made. Many references are made to Japanese terms, the definitions and the etymology, as well as expressions that, for one reason or another, are odd and need explaining. The translator could have decided to find equivalents in English (or as close to an equivalent as possible), or to stick with the Japanese terms and add explanations for the reader. I think the choice to stick with the original Japanese worked quite well. My Japanese isn't good enough to know any of the words, but I enjoyed the explanations and nuances. 

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