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Jan 05, 2021brangwinn rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I love words. I grew up with a dictionary next to the table where we ate our meals, so this book was written for me. Based on the premise that a multi-volume dictionary written in the 1930’s was to be digitized with no update with new words, Mallory, who is the only employee of the dictionary’s London office. It is also the story of Winceworth, who lived 100 years ago and was in charge of the “S” section of the dictionary. It took me a while to figure out that the two narrators were living in different times. Winceworth, to stave off boredom, created made up words or mountweazels. As Mallory reads the dictionary in preparation for digitizing, she begins to sense Winceworth’s personality in the words he has made up. The characters are important in the story, but first and foremost it’s the exploration of language, words and meanings that take center stage. And while, I enjoyed the book, I found myself counting the number of pages until the end.