Rating: 
Summary: wow what a story!
Review: it's the story of how a young girl and her sister are sold. chiyo, the youngest, tells her story of how she grew up as a maid in a okiya into sayuri, a geisha.its a wonderful book and i found it so hard to believe it was fiction! and written by a man! i never really liked the idea of geisha and that there job was to serve men but i acually found myself wishing along with chiyo that she'll become one.
it's beautifully written and has convinced me that i'd like to see Japan, something i've never wanted to do before.
there was one thing i wasn't sure about, the ending. i won't give it away, but it's happy and i just think maybe it's too perfect.
chiyo/sayuri's struggles, optimism and never ending determination just add to the complete beauty that surrounds her.
definitly one of my favourite books!
Rating: 
Summary: A joyful story and exquisite writing style...
Review: This book is two things: a entertaining, insightful story about a young woman on a journey and a tremendous work of literature. Sayuri's story is fascinating. Her life and her struggles captivated me. She is a real, yet magnificent woman. Following her life teaches the reader how to dream, how to deal with hardship and how to be a friend. I purchased the book from an Indian woman at the Toronto airport, she said to me, "This is a great book. I still miss the main character." The detail and description of the way of life of a geisha is extremely informative and interesting. The metaphorical language used by Golden flows through the book as water flowing down a stream. The book is a true work of art, as beautiful as a French Impressionist painting.
Rating:
Summary: An intricately woven masterpiece
Review: I finally finished reading "Memoirs of a Geisha" and now I am wishing for more. Arthur Golden does an amazing job of describing, to the smallest detail, the life and culture of Geisha in Japan. This story is so full of detail and remembrance that you forget it is fiction altoghether. The story of Chiyo/Sayuri's life from childhood to elderly woman is often heartbreaking and yet filled with hope all at the same time. Just when you expect a certain outcome, and long for another, you are surprised by what really occurs, and just how you feel about it. I highly recommend this book. I was less than interested when it was recommended to me, but I agreed to give it a shot. I am so glad I did!!
Rating:
Summary: amazingly well-done
Review: Arthur Golden consulted one of the last geishas trained in the old traditions and worked several years to produce this book which reverberates with authenticity as he writes of Chiyo, a young girl who is sold to an okiya (house for geishas) as a young girl when her mother is dying and her father cannot care for her. She is seperated from her older sister Satsu and put under the terror of Hatsumomo, a successful geisha who earns the income for the entire house, and so she must be put up with. Here too is another little girl named Pumpkin, the only pseudo-ally she has. The book traces Chiyo's destiny as a geisha, from apprentice to raving success. Hatsumomo is never far behind, trying to ruin Chiyo as a geisha before she even starts. Chiyo becomes the geisha Saruyi, under the tutelage of the kind Mameha, and in love with the Chairman, as she calls him, who once showed her kindness when she was crying as an 11-year-old girl. The book winds through the years and comes full circle ina startling manner that the reader cannot suspect. Golden's description of traditions and settings is extrordinary.
Rating:
Summary: A secret world
Review: Hundreds of people have reviewed this book, but I haven't yet, so here's my contribution. This is a book that ordinarily would not have read had I not had a little push from someone whose opinions I respect. "Memoirs" could have been fluffy and soap opera-ish, but it avoids most of those literary traps by eschewing romantic cliche and sticking to a fairly realistic, believable tone in which characters make hard choices with unexpected consequences and don't always get what they want. They grapple with making the best of their lot. In other words, a lot like Real Life. "Memoirs" is written as an actual confessional, and if you don't read between the lines, you could almost believe that it was dictated to the author. It's an interesting look inside the world of the geisha and of life in early to mid-20th century Japan. The characters are involving and the plot is sprinkled with interesting plot twitsts. Some of them are a little pat at the end, but not terribly so.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful, stolen pleasure
Review: This will make you want it to never end!! I was never interested in Asian culture before this book, but I felt as though I had actually been to Japan. The story of girl's journey into an unknown world, her sudden appreciation of her circumstances, her entrance into womanhood--it is simply outstanding. This is a story that truly could have been a tear-jerker, depressing tale is transformed into one of hope, perserverance, and the human spirit. The fact that this was written by a man is nothing short of amazing. He researched this book for 15 years prior to ever sitting pen to paper. And his diligence shows. There are many themes running through this book. Love, sacrifice, survival, friendship, pride, honor, acceptance. Just a tremendous book. Excellent literature!
Rating:
Summary: Truly Fantastic
Review: This book is vibrantly and honestly written you find yourself feeling the textures, smelling the aromas and being lost in another world and time. The story of a girls journey to first a geisha and then to a woman is written in a form that is universal.
The most amazing thing was that a man was able to write the in such detail the emotions and anxieties of a complicated woman with such accuracy. I could read this book time and time again and still find myself wistful for more.
Rating:
Summary: simply the best
Review: I was 17 years old the first time I read this book, I'm now 22.. we all know a great deal of change occurs in those years of our lives, so reading nearly 5 years later... I can state loud and clear with 100% certainty that this is the best book I have ever read! It's story unlike any you will ever read. Taking you to a time and a place you have never or will ever see in your life time no matter how far and wide you travel.. Even should you travel to the very places in this story. It is a culture now gone... vanished. But should you become as taken with this book as I am.. By it's end you will have seen! You will have been there! Memoirs Of a Geisha will always remain in my mind like a distant memory of a place I had been myself. Characters who are not like characters to me now but rather memories of people I once knew.
This book is a lush soap opera of tragedy with moments of deep sadness, dispair, great joy, and triumph. * Soon to be a film directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago) *
Rating:
Summary: pretty good!
Review: I really liked Memoirs of a Geisha. I was angry when she was sold to the okya. I wondered what happened to her sister and her father. The only thing I didn't really like was when she deceived a man just to have her precious chairman. Other than that, it was an excellent book and I would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting
Review: Can't recommend this book enough. The author has done a fantastic job of researching the subject matter and the time period. The end product is a throughly captivating, intricately woven tale that still haunts me four years after I first read it. Easily one of the 'best' books I have ever read.
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