This started so well but then it got more and more boring with each chapter.

I was hooked on this as soon as I started reading. I found myself storming through it and totally invested in the story. Then somewhere, around half-way through, I found myself growing terribly bored. My reading rate slowed down. It started to feel like a chore, and it took me almost five months to finish it.

What happened?

The story seemed to stagnate, and the descriptions felt very similar and reused. Moreover, it didn’t seem to be going anywhere other than the obvious direction. Granted, it picked up towards the but by then I had lost interest and wanted the book to be over. It seems rather trite in a book review to complain about the length of a book, but I’m going to do it anyway: this felt too long. I have no problem with big books if they need to be big. This one felt padded out and like parts needed to be stripped back and the writing made tighter. It waffled on and I grew tired of it.

It was slow, so painfully slow

I’m disappointed because I feel like I should have loved this one and I thought I was going to. I wish I had something more positive to say, but I can’t find anything else I enjoyed about it. It had a good hook but that’s it. Consider me very unimpressed.

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read it quite long time ago. i mention it sometimes to my tourists which i guide through gion area in Kyoto. but this year i will not tell the story...this year i will not wonder in Japan. nice read

فیلمش رو دیدم
بر اساس زندگی واقعی یه گیشا در ژاپن
گیشاها برای خودش زندگی نمیکند برای سرگرم کردن مردان زندگی میکند
گیشا از بچگی برای این تربیت می شود
نواختن ساز را یاد میگیرد
رقصیدن
آداب راه رفتن و معاشرت
و همه اینا برای جلب توجه و لذت بردن مردان است
آخر فیلم حرفای تلخی زده می شود:
اون صورتش رو رنگ میکنه که مخفیش کنه
چشم هایش آب عمیقی است
گیشا حق نداره چیزی بخواد
گیشا نباید احساس داشته باشد
گیشا یه هنرمنده در این دنیای مواج
می رقصه،میخونه،سرگرمت میکنه
هرچی که بخوای
بقیه اش سایه اس،بقیه رازه

این کتاب نه سرگذشت امپراطور است
نه ملکه
بلکه سرگذشتی از نوع دیگر است

Golden earns points for creativity, but loses them for inaccuracy.

The "memoir" of the elegant Sayuri, whose life as a high-class geisha is disrupted by the outbreak of war, is written in an intriguing and alluring monologue -- purportedly narrated by Sayuri herself to the author -- that pulls the reader in from the very beginning. Unfortunately, the real narrator, Arthur Golden, took some dramatic liberties with history and cultural practices, and the fallacious elements sprinkled throughout detract from a potentially fascinating story. (This may not present a major issue to a reader who has no prior knowledge of Japanese culture, but such a reader should also be warned NOT to take this book as a factual representation of life in Japan.)

Additionally, although the narrative starts strong, it loses momentum partway through the story. By the time the inevitable tremors of World War II began to shake the cultural bedrock of Japan, I was already beginning to lose interest in the artificial suspense.

Overall, the book is written fairly well, and I can see why some readers would like it... but even while I was reading, I couldn't help feeling that I should have enjoyed it more.

RTF. I started this before I went on my trip, set it aside and then brought it back out for the long air travel back home. The title is misleading, this is definitely fiction & not a non-fiction memoir, yet the structure of the story was as a memoir as related by the MC to a writer.

I found the Geisha culture pre-WWII to be fascinating and repellant at the same time. As far as the latter, I didn't know that girls were sold to an "agent" to either become a prostitute, maid, or a potential geisha-in-training. In any of those circumstances, it was just another example of slavery as many of the girls had no control over their lives.

This story follows 9 y/o Chiyo/Sayuri as she is taken from her home in a small village to the Gion district and placed in a home (okiya) as a potential future Geisha. Chiyo has unusual eyes and appears to have the right bone structure and facial features to become a successful Geisha. That potential makes the current Geisha in the Okiya fearful of losing her place in the world and she is quite clever & cruel in her machinations to un-rail Chiyo's trajectory in the life. There are quite a few very strong female characters in the story while most of the male characters are relegated to competing for a particular Geisha's time, attention & virginity.

Many reviewers felt the slow pace of the unfolding of the story was a negative; but I thought it brought the reader more fully into the daily lives as the characters which I appreciated.

رواية جميلة ومؤثرة، رغم أنها طويلة ومليئة بالتفاصيل، إلا أنها تفاصيل ممتعة، خصوصًا فيما يتعلق بأسلوب حياة فتيات الغايشا. فالغايشا المتدربة تكون للرقص ولصبِّ الشاي والساكي، أما الغايشا تصبح متوفرة للرجال لخدمات أخرى!. والغايشا تصبح مشهورة ويرتفع اسمها ونجمها عاليًا وتكون مطلوبة في الحفلات عندما يكون لديها دانا يصرف عليها وبذلك تصبح عشيقته. الغاي في كلمة غايشا تعني الفنون، لذا كلمة غايشا تعني الحرفيّ أو الفنّان. فمهنة الغايشا هي الفن والموسيقى والرقص وتسلية الرجال.

رواية عن عبودية المرأة ماديًا وجسديًا وعن عبودية الحب للقلب والروح، بالرغم من أن بطلة الرواية سايوري بيعت هي وأختها لتصبح غايشا، وكذلك يحصل مع أغلب الفتيات الفقيرات في اليابان، إلا أنّ الحب أيضًا استعبد قلبها ومشاعرها لسنين. فلا تدري هل تشفق عليها من الرق الجسدي أو من الحب المعنوي الذي استعبدها!

أسلوب الكاتب سهل سلس وشيق، وصفه الشاعري للأماكن والملابس، والتعبير الذي رسمه للوجوه والمشاعر الإنسانية المختلفة شكّل لوحة جميلة وفريدة استولت عليّ أثناء القراءة.

سيرة مفعمة بالأسى والألم والأمل وبالحبّ والجمال والرومانسية.




اقتباسات



“نحن نعيش حيواتنا كالمياه المتدفّقة على الهضاب في اتّجاه واحد إلى حدّ ما، حتّى نصطدم بشيء يدفعنا إلى أن نجد مسارًا جديدًا”.

“أنّى لنا الهرب من البؤس الكامن فينا!”.

“أجمل لحظات العمر حين يمر فيها شخص، أو حدث، يجعل حياة أحدنا ذات معنى، ويثبت أنّ شيئًا آخر غير القساوة موجود في هذا العالم”.

“حين يختبر أحدنا أمسية أكثر إثارة من غيرها في حياته، يحزن لرؤيتها تنتهي؛ ومع ذلك يشعر بالامتنان لأنّها حدثت”.

“حين تمشي المرأة، عليها أن تترك في من يراها انطباع الأمواج المترقرقة على الرمال”.

“تذكّري أنّ الغايشا المتدرّبة التي تكون على وشك الحصول على “الميزواج” تصبح كالوجبة المقدّمة على المائدة. ولن يرغب أيّ رجل في تناولها إن سمع أنّ رجلًا آخر حصل على قضمة”.

“الحزن أمر غريب، وليس بأيدينا حيلة لمواجهته. إنّه ببساطة كالنافذة التي تُفتح بكامل إرادتها، فيسيطر البرد على الغرفة وتعجز عن الحدّ من الرّجفان. وبرغم ذلك، يتقلّص حجم فتحتها مرّة تلو الأخرى، حتى تصبح غريبة علينا، إلى حدّ لا نعرفها، ونتساءل عمّا حدث لها”.

“القدر ليس دومًا كحفلة في نهاية أمسية ما. وأحيانًا، لا يكون سوى الكفاح في الحياة من يوم إلى آخر”.

“لا نصبح غايشا حتى تكون حياتنا مُرْضية. نصبح غايشا لأنه ما من خيار آخر لدينا”.

“من المؤلم أن نرى أسرارنا قد كُشفت وهُتكت فجأة”.

“صاحب المتجر الذي يترك شبّاكه مفتوحًا لا يحقّ له أن يغضب من المطر الذي قد يُتلف سلعه”.

“أنا لا أسعى إلى هزيمة الرجل الذي أحاربه، بل أسعى إلى أن أهزم ثقته. فالعقل الذي ينشغل بالشّك لا يستطيع التركيز على النّصر”.

“سأتذكّرك كلّما احتجت إلى أن أذكر أنّ في العالم جمالاً وطيبة”.

“المحن هي كالريّاح القوية. لا أعني بذلك فقط أنّها تمنعنا من الوصول إلى أماكن نريدها، بل تقوم أيضًا بتمزيق كلّ الأشياء إلا التي لا يمكن تمزيقها، حتّى نرى أنفسنا في ما بعد على حقيقتنا، وليس تمامًا كما نرغب في أن تكون”.

“الآن، أصبحت أدرك تمامًا أنّ عالمنا ليس ثابتًا أكثر من موجة ترتفع في البحر. مهما كان حجم كفاحنا أو نجاحنا، ومهما عانينا بسببه، سرعان ما سيتلاشى كلّه، كما يتلاشى الحبر المائيّ على الورق”.

Nitta Sayuri story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We watch her learn the art of dance, make-up, and fashion. The simple flick of the wrist when pouring sake is a learned skill meant to entice. How petty jealousies can turn deadly, and your virginity is sold to the highest bidder. In this world, love is an illusion. To survive, you have to learn how to beguile the most powerful men.

This is a beautiful book. It transports you back in time. I enjoyed the movie as well. Watching Nitta dance was powerful. Highly recommend both!

I'm not sure why it's taken me this long to read this one, but I'm so glad I finally got to it.

This is decidedly a slow burn of a novel. The introduction confused me a little bit with a translator talking about meeting with Sayuri- a well known geisha that wanted to tell her story to this one person and leave her legacy behind. The reader is quickly taken back to the 1930's in Gion as we watch Sayuri become one of the most renowned geisha in Japan. The writing was beautiful and this is novel to slowly savor. It moves as slowly as I imagine Sayuri walking in her kimono across the pathway. The life of a geisha is thoroughly researched and detailed for the this novel. The characters are well drawn and I appreciated the delicate almost brutal pacing.

At times this just went too slow for me, and at other time, I couldn't get enough. This book was so engrossing and I can appreciate the extra time it took for me to have the relationship I did with it. Now, I plan to watch the movie.

A timeless genre picture of a strong woman making the best out of terrible circumstances.

Not just the personal story of the main protagonist is very well written, it´s how Japans´culture and history are shown in a new perspective one wouldn´t have ever thought of because of the stigmas and prejudices the same men haunting the poor women are imposing on them with their conservative, misogynic policy.

The Asian way
Sexist male dominance manifested in many different forms and how the Japanese culture arranged prostitution has hardly ever been described in such memorable words, metaphors, and pictures. The strange thing is that all that glitter and glamour around it, letting it seem cultivated and less primitive, creates the disturbing impression that it´s not as bad as it is, something so cognitive biasy that it´s hard to stomach, understand, and put in context to the cultural impact, especially when comparing the very different approaches towards it around the world.

Prostituion by region
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostit...
As so often, the Scandinavians set the best, new policies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostit...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostit...
, with „Neo-abolitionism - illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex“ (that´s once a word with Neo that is not evil)
thereby making it illegal for the clients to buy sex and not criminalize the prostitutes. That´s an important approach away from victim blaming and slut shaming, the punishment of the female victims, and offender protection that is law in many other bigoted, conservative, sexist states, towards a more enlightened society. Critics like to claim that this would increase sexual violence and rape, but maybe just every sexual offender should be facing life imprisonment without any chance of probation, maybe including permanent chemical castration so that he can´t all the time happily masturbate to his snuff rape fantasies in his cell.

Traditions and culture of exploitation
According to the stereotypical calm, silent, mindful, and introverted Asian mentality, even the sex business is full of ceremonies, traditions, and elements that couldn´t have developed in other cultures with less focus on elegance and aesthetics. Of course, it´s still sick and disgusting, but at least it goes with the option for women to reach a certain status and adds art, culture, and class to the perverted mix.

Talent and obsession
It´s one of the greatest fiction without fantasy novels I´ve read, one of the rare cases when talent meets the lifelong interest of an author in a topic or culture and is distilled to something so amazing that it isn´t exaggerated to say that there might hardly be ever a similar novel written that has the same intensity in dealing with this theme.

Sociocultural impact of prostitution
What´s more bigoted, letting it all seem shiny, noble, and cultivated, hiding it or making it illegal or the open, direct, strangely still somewhat illegal, Western way? There is so much behind this, parts of it already mentioned in „Prostitution by region“, and it would take far too long to mention all the complexity, and especially misogyny, behind it. And who is causing and promoting it for millennia, and I don´t mean the male sex drive alone, but to what institutions, that make sex and love punished, abolished, or dominated by crazy, stupid rules full of sexism, hate, and misogyny, its degeneracy has mutated. The faithful creating hell on Earth for multi k years since the neolithic, first agricultural revolution to install bloody dictatorships, what a slogan.

Drugs
I don´t know if there are hidden implications and innuendos about Western trade traditions, especially how to get bestselling products into the Chinese market,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_W...
I don´t get, but it seems quite probable that there is something deep lurking in the big history meta background. However, even without that, and me overanalyzing and seeing things that aren´t there as if high as heck, it´s always a great trope to get someone insane in the membrane to get the plot started, show ones´ brain on whatever, and how people slowly fall to pieces.
t
Subjective insecurity
This is absolutely not my genre, so my impression and subjective review might be more than incompetent regarding established rating standards, but I definitively like this different, character focused style of storytelling that teaches much about foreign cultures. Hopefully, the writer did his research and it´s accurate, because some reviewers seem to be critical regarding this fact. But, as said, I am an absolute amateur in reading protagonist´ focused stuff and just loved the show.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

Si les soy completamente honesto, me cuestioné por mucho tiempo la calificación que merecía esta novela. Me senté a pensar en los personajes, la ambientación, los diálogos, la narrativa, las descripciones y todo me encantó.

Es de esos libros que aprendes mucho conforme disfrutas de la historia. Además me encanta que se nota la buena investigación que conllevó este libro porque a la medida que vas viendo que sucede con Sayuri o Mameha, te van describiendo el mundo Geisha.

¡Fascínate!

Si te gusta la cultura japonesa y las novelas históricas este es un básico. Si podría decir que es de las mejores novelas historias que he leído.

So some have issues with this book. Even the former geisha who consulted on it. There was some cultural kerfuffle.

Whatever. It's good. I liked it. Sure, it's no handbook to feminism, but the title is Memoirs of a Geisha, not Memoirs of a Subversive Warrior Lady Light Years Ahead of Her Time.

So. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Fine holiday fun.

Allowing for the author's creativity, this book is a brilliant telling of Chio's life in her own words. I was immediately drawn into her story to make a moving thought-provoking memoir. Told in such a way as you the reader can almost palpably feel every emotion. From overwhelming sadness, fear, to tears of joy and elation. I loved everything about this book. The characters are interesting and well developed and the plot is riveting.