Rating: 
Summary: A Journey
Review: This book is enchanting and exciting. It paints a very vivid picture of the life of a geisha. The Character's emotions cut into your soul.
It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. I have a lot of time on my hand right now, and I read this for 7 hours straight. I literally couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: Simply Awesome
Review: This is one of my all time favorite books. From the beginning I had this negative outlook on Geisha women, however this book really delt with a young girl growing up and living the Geisha lifestyle. In their culture, a geisha was envied by all. This book is well worth reading. A good novel to travel with.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read
Review: I stopped reading this book after page 50 at my first go because I found it a bit slow. Then after a couple of months, picked it up again because it was the selection in the book club I had just joined. I'm so glad I did! This book is absolutely fantastic. I loved it. I'm not normally into wordy books with pages of description, but Golden's writing is beautiful and flowing and just... great! I felt that I was an apprentise geisha alongside Chiyo. Sharing her heartbreaks, beatings, revenge and glory. My only complaint is I felt that the book was going in a very "Gone With The WInd" direction... which I liked. Go to Rhett, Scarlett. Ashley has never truly loved you. (You may know what I mean when you've read it). All of a sudden I wasn't sure what was going on and perhaps Rosemary Rogers had taken over the writing for a "neat" ending. But that little disappointment is hardly enough to take away from the overall enjoyment of this book. Highly recommended to all.
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Summary: Took my breath away.
Review: This book is the best piece of Modern Fiction I have read in a long time. I had just finnished suffering through a handmaids tale when someone recommened Memoirs of a geisha my thought were only that it was modern fiction (like handmaids tale), had sex in it (reading graphic decriptions of sex is not my cup of tea) so I thought I was plunging head first into a handmaids tale set in Japan. My friend assured me that I would love it so I began. I am a very stubern person but I came out after finishing the book with tears. It is a magical book with characters that are so real I could almost hear their voices speacking. The sex in it is well done, with the story about a geisha it's kind of hard for there to be none, but it is tame. I know it happend and thats enough. I would strongly recommend this book to every one, it is a book you will love and read again and again. If you are thinking of giving it as a present I would not give it to anyone younger that 14.
Rating:
Summary: Like a fairytale..exquisite!
Review: An absolutly beautiful story looking at not only the pretty painted faces, but the torture as well. So wonderfully written and engrossing. It was the best book I have ever read.
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Summary: Utterly fascinating -- the life of a fledgling geisha.
Review: This book had me utterly fascinated from page 1. It surprises me that it's written by a man (no offense to the men out there) because it strikes me as a particularly feminine subject, and it's handled with the utmost of taste and decorum to the feminine sensibilities without being crude. Bravo to the author! I never once doubted his ability to take me deep into the realms of such a feminine story. "Memoirs of a Geisha" is the story of Chiyo, a young Japanese girl from a poor fishing village. When their family falls on hard times, she and her sister are sold off in Gion, where Chiyo enters into a geisha household because people find her looks fascinating, thanks to her unusual grey eyes. Originally a rebellious, sullen child, we see her transform into a promising, famous geisha under the tutelage of her Older Sister. I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but I didn't expect it to have such a dreamlike quality. The way Gion is described, and the lifestyle of the geisha makes it seem like a world very far away from our own -- it's hard to believe it's half a world away rather than galaxies away. Gion reminded me of a fantasy world, or perhaps even fairy-tale. There were a few things that I didn't like about this book, but they are very minor nitpicks -- you should read it anyways. Every so often, the author leaves the first person point of view to 'teach' you about a particular japanese custom. You can always tell when this is happening because the paragraph will start off with "If you don't know what ____ is, let me tell you about it." Storywise, the only thing I really wished the author had included was more of the latter half of Chiyo/Sayuri's life. The entire book seems to lead up to her beginnings as a geisha, and then as soon as she becomes one, it feels like the entire storyline speeds to the end. I guess I would have liked to hear more about her lifestyle after she becomes the big "G" but perhaps that was interesting only to me.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Unforgettable!
Review: If you enjoy getting lost in a novel, being transported to a different place and time, becoming absorbed in the characters, and eagerly returning to a book you can barely stand to leave, you will love this book. It is far and away one of the best and most enjoyable novels I have ever read. While reading the first part of the book, I thought it was so depressing I might stop reading it. Chiyo's life is overwhelmingly sad, and you wonder if she will ever see any happiness at all. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because soon I became so absorbed in the story and had come to care so much about Chiyo that I absolutely hated to put the book down. When you read the story, it's hard to believe Golden is not a young Japanese girl. The language he uses is beautiful, spare, and most of all, poetic. Everything he describes is easily imagined because the word pictures are so vivid. And it's incredible to think of the research he had to have done to describe geisha life in such detail. If you are worried about foreign words or ideas and don't want to have to periodically flip to some reference guide in the back - it's not an issue. You don't have to know any Japanese, and Golden doesn't hassle you with footnotes, asterisks, or glossaries. No Cliff's Notes required. The ending was a bit less than fully satisfying, but it is a minor complaint, completely overshadowed by the otherwise page-turning plot, vivid characterization, and beautiful language of the story. I wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommend this book!
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Summary: Great Book
Review: This book was excellent - a real page turner! The descriptions were beautiful.
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Summary: exotic memoir
Review: I think this is a reasonably interesting and challenging read, though it is wordy. I thought the recollections of the World War II era and the other historical sidelights added to my knowledge. I thought the first half of the book, in which the girl is torn away from her family in her little fishing village (also from her sister),while very sad, was a little better- told than the second half, though this is actually a straight line success story, from abject poverty to great success, since in the latter half of the book her relationships are with notably successful Japanese businessmen. Her apprenticeship, beset by jealousies, was interesting, with its many informative pages about the geisha's necessary talents, such as dancing and tea-service. There are many scenes in teahouses throughout. Her elaborate coiffure, while not comfortable for her, also caught my interest. The book is tediously wordy, however. I thought the scenes with the baron were amusing.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book Ever!
Review: I can not tell you how much I loved this book. I have read it twice and even have the book on tape. I understand that a movie might be in the works and I am curious to see how the novel is painted on screen. I use the work painted because this book is truly a work of art. While reading it I would stay up late in the night and get up early just to get a few more pages in before work. I have given this book to numerous friends as a gift and they have all loved it. I can't wait for Mr. Golden's next novel!
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