Rating: 
Summary: A thoroughly capitvating but ultimately empty novel.
Review: This is a very readable book. It will captivate and hold almost anyone. It is especially rich in its descriptions and love of Japanese culture. I, however, was a little disappointed in its lack of depth, true intimacy, and a everything will turn out alright philosophy. Very Dickensian, even down to its first page homage.I would recommend Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World for a novel of significantly greater depth and social meaning.
Rating: 
Summary: Romantic, beautiful writing, great story.
Review: I am amazed by the fact that this male American writer was able to write a book from a Japanese female's point of view that seems so authentic. This is a wonderfully romantic story, and takes you into a the world of pre-war Japan and the life of a Geisha. A great adventure.
Rating:
Summary: This book knocked me out!
Review: This is the sort of book that one hopes for...completely engrossing, enlightening, and entertaining. I found myself thinking about the characters during the day, and wondering what would happen next. This kind of experience is what I read books for. It absolutely transported me.
Rating:
Summary: Characters and Setting are Superb; Memoirs is Haunting
Review: The setting and characterization are superb in this first by Golden. You could feel the stiff kimonos and quiet movements on the tatami mats. I could hear the wind and see the vivid colors and the wrinkles in their faces. No other author has been able to entrace me into a story like so, this was so realistic that it was scary. This is just one of those stories that give you goosebumps down your arms after finishing it. When the suspense and surprises end, you feel full, happy (sad) for the characters, and feel like the time spent on this massive book was worth it. This story is very memorable, whether a real memoir or not, it is unforgettable.
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Summary: I Loved This Book
Review: I loved this book because Arthur Golden captured the essence of the Geisha. This essence is at once beautiful, subtle, unfulfilled and lonely. So many of the admirable traits associated with Asian women are personified in the Geisha: gracefulness, control, and generosity. The very traits that many American men hope for with Asian wives (and sometimes do not find) are also present in the perfect Geisha: impeccable timing, unselfish behavior, soft spokenness, ageless beauty, subservience. All I can say is that those readers that gave this book a poor reading must not appreciate Mr. Golden's talent for captivating readers on so many different levels. Perhaps some readers need the scientific, the obvious, the crude or the formula story to feel complete.
Rating:
Summary: A book you can't put down
Review: I was hooked on this book from the very first page. Golden did an excellent job of bringing the reader inside the life of the geisha, like we were walking right beside her through all her journies. I've read it twice!
Rating: 
Summary: a mockery to the japanese culture
Review: This was the most shallow and superficial attempt of a cultural novel I have ever read. I read that Golden wrote another poor novel before this one, also set in Japan, and the man had not even been to Japan before! When that novel failed, he decided that maybe it would be a good idea to understand what he is writing about. Good idea! I'd hate to see how it would have turned out if he hadn't. If the Japanese culture interests you, than please read Tanizaki's "The Makioka Sisters" and I promise you that you will realize what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: AN EXTREMELY WORTHWHILE READ
Review: This eye-opening book taught me so much about a culture that I was previously completely unaware of. I was intrigued by the lives of the characters- something I'd never want to experience- and couldn't wait to find out what happened. Oh, and it wasn't just a tedious string of facts, either. I'm in 9th grade, and I didn't find it boring at all. A great book!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, insightful and 110% accurate!
Review: Rarely has a book captivated me like this one. And I'm NOT easy to please. Why? One reason may be that I have lived in Japan for over 13 years, most of it just a brief train ride away from Sayuri's home of Gion. And every time I turned a page of "Geisha" I expected Arthur Golden to take the easy way out and deliver the all too familiar and irritatingly biased, westernized, syrupy-sweet, made-for-people- who-have-no-idea-what-Japan-is-about goo that is churned out all too often by the western media. And he never did. The simple and delicate narrative may have put some off, but I assure you that that IS how a girl of that time would think and act. A trademark of Japanese design is its complete devotion to a captivating simplicity that often produces achingly beautiful results. A. Golden seems to understand these and other often unspoken yet essential Japanese principles as he skillfully weaves together the simplest events to create a riveting and incredibly realistic story/world/mosaic. May I also add that my equally critical Japanese wife (an English literature major in college) read this book almost as quickly as I did (4 days) -something she has never done before and was equally captivated by each page. Simply put, he got it right.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: I couldn't put this book down, but for all the wrong reasons. I kept waiting for Sayuri wake up and realize that Nobu was the "good guy".
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