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Loading... Memoirs of a Geisha (1997)by Arthur Golden
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No current Talk conversations about this book. Saw the movie!   ClosetWryter | Mar 3, 2014 |  The best book I've read in terms of transformation. (  ) veronica_maria1023 | Dec 22, 2013 | The best book I've read in terms of transformation. ( )  veronica_maria1023 | Dec 22, 2013 | A fascinating look at what it took to be a successful geisha in the time leading up WWII, I was impressed by the vivd descriptions of the ceremonies, dances, and especially the beautiful kimonos that are more works of art than clothing. (  ) michellebarton | Dec 11, 2013 | I enjoyed the first part of Memoirs of a Geisha. It started with a preface where the elderly Nitta Sayuri, AKA Chiyo-chan, describes why she is telling her story. When Chiyo-san was nine years old, she was taken from Yordido, Japan and brought to Kyoto, not understanding what was happening to her. Through the day-to-day descriptions of living in Kyoto, the training, and organizational descriptions of the place Chiyo lived (Okiya,) this was an interesting story about how the young slave, Chiyo-chan became the Geisha, Nitta Sayuri. Then romantic triangles started to be the main focus. That was not as enjoyable to me. The time line went from 1929 to the 1990's. The romantic pieces started in the mid 1940's, so the events of World War II put a hamper on those schanigans, which I thought made a better story. I am going to add this to my recommended library. ( ) mainrun | Nov 15, 2013 |
 Golden fills the book with vivid images and subtle descriptions of the nuances of Japanese culture, and is absolutely brilliant in his description of the customs and rituals of the geisha. Through the meticulous detail the reader can fully understand the politics, rivalries, and traditions of the Japan geisha society.  Mr. Golden gives us not only a richly sympathetic portrait of a woman, but also a finely observed picture of an anomalous and largely vanished world. He has made an impressive and unusual debut.  Haarhuis's foreword and Golden's epilogue, the one appropriating the guise of a novel and the other taking it off, suggest an author who is of two minds when it comes to his work. It is not surprising, then, if his readers share this uncertainty. The decision to write an autobiographically styled novel rather than a nonfiction portrait is most obviously justified in terms of empathy, of allowing greater freedom to explore the geisha's inner life. Unfortunately, Sayuri's personality seems so familiar it is almost generic; she is not so much an individual as a faultless arrangement of feminine virtues.
References to this work on external resources.
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From start to finish, the listener is absorbed in the elegant spirit of Davis's performance, eager to hear the next chapter of Sayuri's transformation into one of the most famous geishas of the century. How unfortunate, then, to learn that book readers not only get the basic story, but a fascinating look at the intricate rules and rituals of geisha culture. Here, for example, is one of the many revelations omitted from the cassette: "Japanese men, as a rule, feel about a woman's neck and throat the same way that men in the West might feel about a woman's legs.... In fact, a geisha leaves a tiny margin of skin bare all around the hairline, causing her makeup to look even more artificial.... When a man sits beside her, he becomes that much more aware of the bare skin beneath."
We're also denied several subplots--the aborted friendship between Sayuri and a geisha named Pumpkin, for example, or much of the story involving the man Sayuri is secretly in love with. But what remains is as precious as a traditional Japanese kimono--at once artistic, suggestive, and moving. --Ann Senechal
(retrieved from Amazon Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:43:46 -0400)
In 1929, an impoverished fishing village father sells his nine-year-old daughter, Chiyo, to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and she becomes subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. As she grows older, her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo. She is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic graces and social skills a geisha must master. As a renowned geisha, she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. With the onslaught of World War II, Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed.… (more)
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