Rating: 
Summary: Amazing detail, stunnig images
Review: The journey with Sayuri was well worth it. I ached for her most of the time, but savoured in her tiny bit of joy too. I like to send books that I've read off to friends in far away places, but my problem here is that I know too many people who would enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting,but not great.
Review: This was an interesting look into the life of a Geisha,but not a great novel. Where is the passion? Definitely not from a womans perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Great insight into a unique culture
Review: I found the book to be funny, poignant, and surprisingly quick to read. To a non-Japanese reader, the book is very appealing for its glimpse into a secretive and unique culture - that of the geisha. Like most people, I too had assumed before reading this book that geishas were essentially just prostitutes and the book really opened my eyes to the complex and ritualized lives these women actually led as well as the power they wielded in a patriarchal society. My only complaint is that Sayuri comes across as very self-absorbed and downright selfish at many times. Although she no doubt had to learn to be that way to survive in the cutthroat world of the okiya (corporate boardroom battles were probably less intense!) it is interesting that she constantly criticized Hatsumomo for her selfish behavior, yet was equally selfish, though in a less malevolent way. Also, it was rather predictable that she would end up with the Chairman, who she had idolized since childhood - now, does real life ever really work that way?! Still, overall I found it a fascinating read.
Rating: 
Summary: Publishers, take note...
Review: While I enjoyed the novel, I kept wishing there was an accompanying photo book, showing photos of various kimonos, Kyoto before the war, pre- and post-war geishas, their environment and their patrons.
Rating:
Summary: I would strongly recommend this book.
Review: This book is beautifully and emotionally written. You are drawn into Sauyri's world from the beginning until the poignant end. You'll be up all night reading, I know I was!
Rating: 
Summary: Finish the book at your own risk
Review: The first third of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha is a fascinating look at a veiled culture - that of the geisha. Golden allows us to learn about geishas along with Sayuri, the main character, and his picture of their lives and customs is fascinating and may well be accurate, given the author's degrees in Japanese art and history. Certainly the book has an authentic feel and an eye for detail that results in a rich, textured work.Unfortunately, Golden seems much less comfortable with plotting a novel than with Japanese culture; as the plot gathers speed, the book degenerates. Memoir goes from a sublime and fascinating glimpse into a world most readers will never see to a slighty-better-than-usual treatment of an exceedingly standard and hackneyed plot. Good girl, surrounded by mean and bad people, triumphs and wins the man of her dreams - this was old hat two hundred years ago. The conclusion, in particular, is exceptionally disappointing. For the first four hundred pages, Golden convinces us that Sayuri is a woman of exceptional strength and intelligence; in the last eighty, he expects us to believe that she is neither. Sayuri deserves a better end than this. Read the first two hundred pages of this book and put it down. Anyone with a genuine interest in other cultures or a love for beautifully ornate English will enjoy the first portion of the novel. No one will miss anything by avoiding the last part of it.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it was hyped up to be.
Review: Although it was very well written and it kept my interest, I felt that Golden (a man) wasn't able to convey how the main character (a woman) truly thinks and feels.
Rating: 
Summary: A fake book. Two dimensional as a novel, superficial as res
Review: A fake book. Superficial research invalidates it as serious inquiry or social science writing, thin, two-dimensional plotting and characterizations place it low on the fiction food-chain. Genuinely conceived, resonating novels spring from somewhere real; on some level, at some point they are felt. We care about Jane Eyre; Golden's pasteboard characters mean nothing to us and, we suspect, even less to him, except perhaps as the ticket to a best-seller with an exotic theme. One doesn't even learn that much about geishas -- the facts are sprinked thru bumpily like raisins in dough. The reviewer who compared it to a bodice ripper got it right (one could add, a rather palid one...and those ever-returning grey eyes...I remember a Harlequin Romance that featured grey eyes...) Real research, real writing, real passion, real wit: not here.
Rating:
Summary: This book puts you right in the middle of the geisha world.
Review: It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a book so. It was fascinating to follow along in a little girl's life through womanhood; the personalities she encountered, particularly other geishas, and the traditions involved with being a geisha. All beautifully written with historical information tied in as a fictional novel. Wonderful reading!!
Rating:
Summary: Entrhalling, Seductive, Historical, Honest
Review: I couldnt put this book down. Stayed up all night to finish it. The day after i finished it i went back to read the last few chapters. This is one book I am sure to read again as well as share it with all of my friends. I have a wonderful respect for the Geisha, the culture, the mystery.
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