Rating: 
Summary: Incredible!!
Review: A friend of mine recommended this book to me and I was a little put off because it is a genre I am not used to. I am a fan of horror so to switch from that to "Memoirs of a Geisha" was a big step. I needed a breather from horror so I sat down and read this book. I was certaintly not disappointed! I found this book intriguing and beautiful! I have always been fascinated by the Japanese culture and reading this book was very satisfying in my quest to understand. I felt enrichened and want more! The atmosphere was wonderful and the characters very rich. I noticed a few negative comments on this book but please do not let that deter you from reading this magnificent novel! I find that it was an experience that I will cherish for a long time!
Rating:
Summary: Fact or fiction?
Review: Powerful, well researched and written book. The story grabbed me from the beginning and I followed the main character's life religiously. I was very disappointed to find out at the end it was fiction. Did anyone else think they were reading a true story? I have recommended this book to many of my friends who have also been enthralled. Buy this book! (by Brenda)
Rating: 
Summary: Orientalist Opportunism
Review: Arthur Golden is not a horrible writer and certain passages here are quite beautiful; the problem is that this book is not an act of literature but an act of opportunism. Writers must deal with and present either experiences or ideas or a combination of both. Ideas are in the public domain and one needs no qualification to traffic in them except for the ability to do so convincingly. This is not an issue here because Golden is not an "intellectual" writer and this is not a novel of ideas. Which brings us to the domain of "experience." Now, I would never argue that authors must rigidly hew to the parameters of their own experience and turn out one autobiographical book after another. When writing a character-filled book in the third person, for example, an author is called upon to imagine other minds, other realities, other lives, and this exercise of the empathetic imagination can be a wonderous thing. The problem comes when an author, like Golden, attempts to write an entire novel in the first person from the vantage of a person who is completely removed from himself in time, space, culture, and gender. This does not spring from a desire for authenticity: it is, in fact, nothing more than literary machismo. "Look!" he's shouting, "look what I can do!" And it simply doesn't ring true, except to people who know even less about the subject than the author does. I am neither a geisha, nor Japanese, nor a woman, but I have lived in Japan longer than Golden has and I would wager my Japanese is just as good or better. Although Golden gets many of the factual details right, there is so much about the tone and the psychological sketching here that simply "stinks of butter," as the Japanese used to say of Westerners a century ago. As a very serious student of Japanese literature, I can assure you that no Japanese would ever write like this, that is to say, like Dickens in a kimono. The novel is just too busy: too many characters, too much plotting, too much incident, and most damningly, too much naivete about the workings of the human heart. In fact, it should be made publicly known that the woman on whom Golden based this story sued him for misrepresentation and is in fact writing her OWN book to set things straight. She has her own pecuniary motivations, no doubt, but her criticism still stands. It's her life after all. It's good for Golden that so many people found this novel so ravishing and so interesting. He is a capable entertainer, and he knows the secret of entertainment: pander to your audience. Give them exoticism, but don't challenge their misconceptions. He spotted a market niche, he pulled off his high-wire act, and he's been amply rewarded. But if anybody thinks that this concoction attains the mighty beating heart of literature, let him or her think again.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite readable, but is it just a soap opera?
Review: I think I'd look more favorably on this book if I felt that it knew what it wanted to be. Is it ``literary"? If not, then why does the narrator always speak in vaguely poetic tones? Perhaps it's because the narrator is a geisha, so this is how she was trained. If that's the character's true voice, then why I feel as though there wasn't anything real behind the text? Why did I feel like the author was trying to give me a lecture on Ancient Japanese Traditions? And why does it seem that these Lectures are so low-quality? The translator appears at the beginning of the book, then disappears, never to serve any purpose. Was this just another of the author's attempts to be literary? Again, he seems confused. I rarely believe that the author's background makes him incapable of rendering accurate portraits of his characters. Here I do. Here's an American male who spent some time in Japan, writing a story from the perspective of a Japanese geisha. It all seems so academic: let's construct a portrait of the geisha - maybe just so that we can combat the perception that geishas are high-class prostitutes - and wrap it inside fiction so that it will sell well. The result is often confused. If anything comes out clearly, it is that the author wants to display life as a stream carrying us to our destiny, even though that destiny may be nothing like we had planned. The narrator proceeds through various struggles in her life, all of them like vortices in a stream (as she herself might call them). She conquers each of them, of course, and eventually wins - as we expect her to. Along the way, one of her only enemies is vanquished. Never do we feel as though she has won some war; instead, she's merely conquered one of the little stumbling blocks that life has thrown before her. This is a book about little conquests that doesn't try to be about anything more. Along the way, I must give the author credit for telling a very compelling story. It's written simply enough, and the little battles are sufficiently captivating, that I tore through it. If you're looking for a quick, engrossing read, this book is for you. The thing is, I was looking for more, and I don't think I'm out of line in suggesting that the author's tone suggested it *would be* more. Like I said, at points he wants to be ``literary," but he never follows through. The result is that I felt for at least 300 pages as though I were reading a soap opera, and was constantly trying to ask myself what was so much better about reading this book than watching television. Maybe the presence of more Japanese words. And at points the book is downright creepy: here's a middle-aged man describing the sex lives of teenagers with more than the requisite amount of salacity. I really felt as though the author were enjoying the sex himself, and it made me feel rather dirty to be reading it. Keep in mind that I had just finished reading Nicholson Baker's book _The Fermata_, which is nothing if not pornographic, so it's saying a lot that _Memoirs of a Geisha_ was uncomfortably sexualized. (And yes, I realize that one of a geisha's main tasks is sexual. The author's creepiness is still a fact.) I guess I'm feeling ambiguity about having read a book like this and having enjoyed the read, but feeling as though there were better uses of my time.
Rating:
Summary: Memoirs of a Geisha
Review: This book is wonderful, there are so many different aspects to it that make it great. It shows the inner and outer struggle of a girl that justs wants to survive. Its shows her progressing from a young child to a women, and it talks about the role she is forced to play. This book is inspiring and I belive it should be read by every women including every women who belives that women deserve to be treated equal.
Rating:
Summary: Unspeakably Ammmmmazing.
Review: Memoirs of a Geisha is the kind of book that changes your perspective and doesn't leave you the same as you were. It made me cherish the life I'm living now. I want to thank Arthur Golden for taking me somewhere I've never been berofe, Japan. Also, to thank him for inventing such real characters that are very remarkable, and how they each beautifully symbolize something. I felt cruelty of life each time it took me away from the book, for I never wanted to stop reading it. I wish that everyone who can should experience the pleasure of the book as I did. I recommend it to every adult.
Rating: 
Summary: A Story of Beauty and Charm, with Enough Power....
Review: A Story of Beauty and Charm, with Enough Power to Last Through Torment
Memoirs of a Geisha is a story written by Arthur Golden. This novel is like taking a trip back in time to another world. This book was recommended to me by one of my teachers. I really had no idea what it was about when I first held it in the palm of my hands. From the moment I began reading it, the story grabbed my attention. The book first takes place in Yoroido, a small town in Japan. Two young girls are the main characters; Chiyo-chan is the youngest sister of Satsu-san. The girl's mother is dying, and the father is having a hard time supporting the children. A very prosperous man, named Mr. Tanaka, sees that the children should not be living where they are. He then takes them away from their home, very far away, to begin their life as Geishas. The two sisters are torn apart from each other and sent to different places to be taught the ways of becoming a Geisha. Chiyo-chan is sought to be far more beautiful than her older sister Satsu-san, and is therefore being sent to a higher ranking Okiya than her sister. If they do anything wrong there they will get beat. After much time spent at Okiya, the girls change drastically. This book is worth reading because it teaches you about a completely different cultural history.
The only two things that caused my lack of interest for this book are; the in depth detailing, and the length.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I found the book to be amazing and fascinating. What started out as just another Lit assignment, left me mesmorized. I spent the first half of the book thinking it was non fiction. Arthur Golden's tale is just too emotional and detailed to be fiction. I highly recommend this read!
Rating:
Summary: An Eye Opening Experience
Review: I had been recommended this book time and time again, but to be honest, I am not a big fan of [Asian] culture, and wasn't all too sure I wanted to read it. So, one day I was in an airport, with nothing to read and saw this book just waiting for me.... well... it will at least give me something to do on the plane, I thought, and got it..... I will never regret reading it! Simply put, I loved this book!!! It had a very well developed and believable plot, it had enough malice to make me mad, romance to make me happy and funny episodes to make me smile. This book just lays down a road into an unknown and secret world, and lets you walk it yourself, experiencing everything, from the sweetest smells to the most horrible sights. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I read and I found the book constantly pulling me in, letting me experience Japan, Gion, and being a Geisha.... All in all, a very entertaining and satisfying read, five solid stars.
Rating:
Summary: Glorified romance novel...
Review: For me, this book was a disappointment. It was just another ''Romance novel'', not a totally bad one, just not what I expected. The author provides a very detailed insight into the world of Geisha's in the 1930-40's but he failed to convince me this was the true picture.
The childish and amateurish style of writing was somewhat annoying. Because the characters, are never fully developped ,unfortunatly they remain superficial page after page and become to some extent very predictable.
The 400 pages are overburdened with repetitive and descriptive details ( from how to apply make-up to tying an obi). The ending is so typically Harlequin romance...Come on...
To me, it seems Golden is trying to convince the reader (or himself) that he has done his homework by writing an extensive description of the Japanese culture and adding a dash of American romance to it.
If you fancy Harlequin romances, buy it, you will love it! On the other hand if you relish and appreciate distinctive and well written books such as White Oleander, Poisonwood Bible, Cold mountain etc...Skip this one!
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