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Summary: the most engaging biography of the geisha lifestyle
Review: This is an excellent read, and one that I recommend to all of my friends. I read this book twice, demonstrating that it was worthy of a re-read. I have even given this book as a gift, the highest praise of all. Memoirs of a Geisha is simply the most engaging biography of the geisha lifestyle. It follows a geisha from her sale to an okiya or geisha house as a child to her triumph over a competitive housemate and ending at her retirement to New York City. The storytelling is supreme, and it doesn't matter if literary license is taken. At heart, Memoirs is a love story. It is also a coming-of-age story that most young women can relate to.
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Summary: Great Story!
Review: In my opinion, overanalyzing fiction is a complete waste of time - mine and yours. Put shortly, I read the story, and thought it was excellent. I left it on my shelf for a while, and forgot all about it. A few months later, I picked it up again, and have read it about a million times since. It's great fiction!
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Summary: fascinating details but ultimately a letdown
Review: This book is well worth reading to know more about the life of a geisha and it's full of rich descriptions and fascinating details about life in Kyoto from the 1930s to 1950s. The author sets up some interesting relationships, but ultimately disappoints. I had two main problems with the book. First, the author does an excellent job of making the reader hate Hatsumomo because of the way she treats Chiyo over the years. You long to have her get her just desserts, and she does, but it's done in such a way it leaves you feeling unsatisfied. Where was the big climax scene between her and Chiyo? The author leads us up to it and it never happens. Second, Chiyo does something at the end of the book that's revolting, and we're supposed to believe this sacrificial act is what ended up giving her what she wanted all along. I didn't believe the motivation, nor did I believe it would work. It made me think the author didn't know how to get Chiyo to achieve her big aim in life. All in all, it was an interesting book, but it wasn't one I couldn't put down.
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Summary: Memoirs Of A Geisha -love it
Review: First of all, I am a pure Russian that has grown up in Japan and moved to America. So I know how the Japanese customs and its culture and nature. This book ingulfs your soul and spits you out in the Japanese scenary. I couldn't help but smell the blossoms and see all the nature surround me while reading this book.
This book is excellent in many ways. It is truly amasing how a man (the author) can enter a woman's mind that easily. The whole book is stated from a geisha's mind and for me to accept that a male author, an AMERICAN male author, wrote this mind of a female Japanese woman is simply breathtaking. I recommend this book to EVERYBODY it is my favorite book, and can be yours=).
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Summary: Great book!
Review: This is such a great book! It was so hard to put down but at the same time, I wanted it to last as long as possible.
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Summary: Hard to set the book down
Review: I loved this book. Every page was well worth the time invested.
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Summary: So So GOOD
Review: It totally takes you to the time and place. It makes you know the real life of these women. In my case I thought a Geisha was totally the opposite of what they really were. I REALLY RECOMMEND IT!! I wish other books were as good as this one!
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Summary: Compelling
Review: I picked up Memiors as a beach read hoping that my purchase would merely give me some entertainment on the sand. I got more than I bargained for when after I had completed the novel, felt utterly moved by the story. The author writes to culturally enrich our eastern awareness by portraying the life of a geisha, but in doing so draws parallels in human life to which every race, gender, and creed can relate; the themes of love, loss, courage, intelligence, heartbreak, and most of all strength are beautifully captured and can't help but touch the reader. I suggest picking this book up; needless to say, I couldn't put it down!
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Summary: I found it to be a beautiful work of art
Review: I don't generally read novels (except more historical), but I found that I liked this one more and more as I read on. The story captivated me. I developed an admiration for the author's ability to devise the convolutions in the various subplots. I also tend to believe that no matter how clever a person may be, 99% of what happens in one's life is out of our control, even when we have the illusion of having made a choice freely. As to the historical authenticity, I take it on faith that the author did a great deal of research. And I admit that I am a sucker for happy endings. Only one part of the story stood out in my mind as a faulty contrivance and awoke me from my reverie as I was reading. That was how Hatsumomo came to her end. Only then did I become aware of the author racking his brain as to how to accomplish this. Nevertheless, despite this one flaw, I felt the book was a beautiful work of art and Sayuri and Mameha both possessed the characters of what I would like to think the great geishas had. I read this book because my wife told me she thought I would enjoy it. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of time, thought and energy the author put into crafting this truly beautiful work. Can anyone ever write a second novel of such excellence? I would imagine not. If I were to write something which were of one-one-hundredth the intricacy of this novel, I would be totally spent for the rest of my life. However, the bottom line is that it was a real pleasure being absorbed in this fantasy.
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Summary: the best book ever written
Review: I read this book 2 or 3 times. It really captured my imagination. Although it is fiction, it seems to be very real because of how the author wrote it. He used many details and seemed to really catch how the japanese life style was back then.
The story is about a girl who grew up in a very poor town but some how fate worked its way around her and she started to train to become a geisha. However It wasn't easy as 1,2,3. Her and her sister were torn away from their family, then soon torn apart from each other. The main character went through cruelty, lies, and she has to hide everything she feels. For a geisha was a woman who was only ment to entertain men. She had to overcome a very cruel antagonist, Who is beautiful on the outside but dredfully ugly on the inside.
People must read this book, it takes you to a whole new place and time, and into a mind of a rare and clever character.
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