Rating: 
Summary: Life of a Geisha - excellent !! ---- Love story - who cares!
Review: I really enjoyed the book as it had an unbelievable amount of information about the life of a geisha and the training that is needed to develop the young girls. It was so real that at the end of the story I still was wondering if it were a true story or not. The love story and the triangles that made up the novel could have been trashed as it was a little too 'soap opera' for me. All in all a very good book to educate those who thought geishas were "hookers".
Rating: 
Summary: Learned something about geisha but story line amateurish.
Review: I couldn't wait to receive this book but after reading fifty pages or so found I was disappointed. I was hoping to learn more about the geisha culture than was presented. I tried to get involved with Sayuri and the other characters but they were too shallowly portrayed to generate much interest. I'm not a fan of romance novels and felt this was more in that category than general literature. All in all, even though I finished the book, I kept feeling it could have been so much better. Perhaps it would have been a more effective novel if the format had been other than that of "as told to."
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Summary: THE MOST VISUAL AND LYRICAL NOVEL ..ASTONISHING
Review: I didn't expext to be drawn into a man;s story of a geisha. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE MOVIE!
Rating:
Summary: But the Emperor has nothing on!
Review: Well, I'd like to thank the author for doing all of the historical research that I would have had to do if I wanted to learn about the lifestyle of a geisha. I learned quite a bit.But when I got past the history, there was nothing else there. I could never emotionally engage with the characters. I didn't really care what happened to them (and only stuck with the book because I was curious about Japan during World War II).
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, full of information, but a bit too romantic
Review: Geisha is a souped up romance that carried me along because I enjoyed reading about a culture that was all new to me. The writing was competent and the use of the geisha as narrator kept the cultural info from sticking out like a sore thumb as it would have in an actual novel instead of a novel-memoir. But to compare it with its silly-sweet metaphors to Underworld is like comparing a lightning bug to lightning. But I digress. I enjoyed Geisha but was waiting for the main character to outgrow her infatuation with the Chairman and get out of that narrow world. Oh, well. Another problem with this book is that all the awful things that happen to geisha are presented without any outside viewpoint to note that the life was oppressive, dangerous and male chauvinistic. What about the wives of all those men who spend their evenings getting drunk at tea houses? END
Rating:
Summary: It just didn't hold my interest.
Review: I wish I could have liked this book as much as others here. It just never drew me into the story, although I felt the prose was rhythmic and the viewpoint decidedly female. Maybe I'm just not interested enough in Asian culture to savor the long story. However, the book is certainly impressive for a first effort, no matter the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: A Geisha's life drawn out
Review: The life of Sayuri as a geisha in Japan could have been told in a more efficient and effective manner. I felt that the story had been "padded" to lengthen the book, dragging out seemingly insignificant happenings that did nothing to enhance the story. However, I did learn more about the Japanese and their ideas regarding the place of women in their culture.
Rating:
Summary: Could not put this down
Review: This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I loved it and just could not put it down. I learnt a lot - i thought a geisha was just a prostitute - and really cared about the characters. Excllent.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but interesting Sayuri was "saved" by a man.
Review: I was completely drawn into the book, couldn't put it down, just like most of the other reviewers. But looking back I find in interesting that almost all the women are portrayed as without human concern for each other, and in the end we find that it was the male "Chairman" that saved Sayuri. So it becomes the typical Western Cinderella story. Even the kind Mameha was only acting on the Chairman's behalf.
Rating:
Summary: forget sleeping!!!
Review: Couldn't put it down!!! Had me totally spellbound and waiting for the next scene! Almost made me challenge the idea that this story was strictly fiction. Highly recommended. Great weekend book.
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