Memoirs of a Geisha

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Surprise
Review: This book is not like any I have ever read or would consider reading. I'm not really sure why I started but I couldn't stop. It still amazes me how an American man could capture the feelings of a Japanese woman but Arthur Golden does it. This book began a fascination with Japanese culture for me; I even caught myself watching a documentary about Geishas. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone no matter what your tastes are because I am someone who mostly reads teenage directed books and classics assigned in school and I loved it. Memoirs of a Geisha will be a pleasant surprise to any who read it.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book Ever..it will be your favorite too! SO good!!
Review: This novel is truly one of the most beautiful, well articulated, and descriptive stories i have ever read.. I have read it 3 times, and am amazed after every read... it is beautiful, the characters are engaging, the imagery, details are perfect.. Give it a try.. you will not be dissapointed one bit.. don't follow the negative reviews..they don't hold up against this marvel!

Rating:
Summary: Floating world
Review: We have all seen prints of the floating world. We know about Noh and Kabuki actors, traditional theater, and the white paint used on their faces. This reader has also been beguiled by stories of the aesthetes of Boston and Paris who were transfixed by Japanese art and culture. Naturally the world of the geisha is a good deal messier. This novel is a recreation of that world in the 1930's and 1940's by a scholar of Japanese art and history. The novel may have become as popular as it has basically for two reasons. The first is that Arthur Golden does a masterful job. The second is that the themes of the novel resonate in our culture. We have become intensely interested in the violation of innocence-- shades of Samuel Richardson's PAMELA. There is a third reason, too, and that is that in our classless and relatively fluid society we are enamoured of tales set in more traditional societies where considerations of caste are paramount.

Her geisha name is Sayori, her birth name Chiyo. She is one of two daughters of a fisherman. Her mother is dying. Her family cannot afford to buy the mother a beautiful robe for dying. A Mr. Tanaka, the head of the Japan Coastal Seafood Company, has already arranged a physical examination of Chiyo and her sister. Chiyo believes that Mr. Tanaka wants to adopt them. Chiyo and Mr. Tanaka's daughter sneak out at night to follow Mr. Tanaka to a tea house where he sits with the geisha.

Surprisingly, Mr. Tanaka transports the girls out of town in a direction away from his house, to be turned over to a Mr. Bekku. The sisters are separated in the city, Kyoto. Chiyo is taken to an okiyo in Gion, a geisha district. Eventually managing to contact her sister, she endeavors to escape with her the following week, but is thwarted by the increased vigilance of the okiyo workers. She does come up with a plan, but in jumping off of the roof of the building in which she is being held, she breaks her arm and is discovered. Following this escapade she spends two years being a maid and comes to realize that being a geisha is a means to other things. Through a series of complications her geisha apprenticeship resumes. The reader is led through the competitive world of geisha. Golden shows the claustrophobia inevitable in an environment relatively cushioned from the stresses of world affairs during the worldwide depression and World War II. Finally the district is closed down during the latter years of the war and its inhabitants left to find work in the factories. Sayuri sews parachutes in the shop of a kimono maker. She returns to the district several years after the end of the war and subsequently settles in New York City for reasons I cannot say without giving away the plot.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining look into the life of a geisha
Review: Memoirs of a Geisha caught my attention because I've always been very interested in Japanese culture. When I began reading, I had pretty much no background on this book, and, honestly, I had no idea it was fiction. The first half (or maybe a little less than half) of the novel was extremely believable. The characters were realistic, and I could feel the confusion of Chiyo as her life started to change. The story's delicate details, conveying elements of Japanese culture, only further convinced me that I was reading a factual account.

This was not the case throughout the entire novel. I began to wonder whether this story was fact or fiction around the time Hatsumomo was introduced. I suppose she is meant to represent the competitive, jealous nature that having to depend on others for success can bring out. She played a major role in the story, yet she was developed so poorly that I can only describe her as cartoon-like. Rather than be depicted as delicately as the details that Golden wove throughout the story, Hatsumomo was not a believable character. She wasn't human; I was tempted to believe she was the devil incarnate. It was almost as if Golden thought the reader would be stupid to pick up on certain aspects of a geisha's life if he had been more subtle. This dissapointed me greatly.

Nonetheless, I was still very impressed with the details throughout the story- the details alone earned this story 4 stars. By carefully describing rituals (the auctioning of virginity), types of makeup (and even the lead makeup that geishas had formerly worn), hairstyles, kimono (the intricate knot, the fabric, the people whose job it was to tie them), and even the business-like atmosphere that surrounded the seemingly magical geisha, Golden incorporates feeling into the novel. Using this detail, he powerfully illustrates that even though a geisha is taken care of, she belongs to other people. The pain that goes along with this reality is forcefully fed to the reader, and almost makes up for the cartoon-like Hatsumomo.

If you are interested in Japanese culture or geisha (or want to become interested), you should read this book- you will most likely find it extremely captivating. However, do not read it solely for the plot, because there are many books with more devloped characters and stronger plot lines than this.

Rating:
Summary: This is definitely a "must read" !
Review: This is a light reading and very captivating at the same time. Whether you are a reader or not, I'm sure once you start this book, you will not be able to put it down as you walk down memory lane through Sayuri's life as a peasant child to a world famous geisha.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Page-Turner
Review: Excellent book! This book has been on my "to read" list for several years now and I happened to find it in the library recently. It is an awesome book. Not only do you feel like you're taken by the hand and led into a secret society of women but you can't help caring about Sayuri, the main character, and how she develops into a very successful Geisha. Most girls experience a transformation when they leave girlhood and enter the world of women but that transformation is even more dramatic in the world of the Geisha. A wonderful book and a highly recommended read!

Rating:
Summary: well.....the ending is weak
Review: the story was well-written. what i found to be the most enjoyable is learning about the culture of geisha women. it was hard to put the book down. however, the ending was too predictable and i had a hard time finishing the last few pages, knowing there would be no surprises. i would definitely recommend the book but have no desire in reading it again.

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I thought the book was excellent. It showed the life of a girl growing up in Japan and becoming a geisha. This shows there tradition and culture which I thought was really neat. I think the author did a really great job on this and I recommend it to everyone. It is an excellent source to learn about japanese women and the life of a geisha.

Rating:
Summary: Memoirs of a Geisha
Review: I thought that this book was excellent. I couldn't put it down. It had one event after another the way I like it. It showed the life of a girl growing up in Japan and becoming a Geisha. This shows there tradition and culture which I thought was really neat. I thought the author did a great job and I would recommend this book to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: It was great!!!
Review: I thought the book was pretty good because it showed me a whole new other culture and traditions. It showed how a young girl becames a geisha and what she does after she becomes a geisha. There were lots of things that happened to her that changed her life. I would recommend everyone to read it if they can. It is a totally different country in which it is set in and during the depression and WWII