The world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may face or suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.

A historical account of a young Japanese girl and the trials and tribulations that she faces on her path to becoming and working as a geisha.

The novel mostly centres around the theme of the hardships and challenges that Chiyo Sakamoto
has to face right from a very ripe age of 8-9. The narrative is gripping, the story is engrossing, and transports you to a different time and place (off-course with the good imagination that we readers possess). However, this is a long book (longer than most), lasting 500 odd pages and it did take some good amount of time to finish it. The novel, in the first 100-150 odd pages was a bit slow, but it eventually picked up pace towards the latter half.

Overall, I'd say it is a commendable work of evoking a vanished world in great detail. And once again, as many historical fiction novels point out the struggles of a woman / girl, Memoirs of Geisha also did the same via great imaginative empathy.

This book is yet another example of how indefatigable a woman can be. Even after constantly being tormented and being unbearably suppressed, a woman can stand her ground.
Not just stand, but make her way through it with a bang!
The vivacity of a woman's spirit, portrayed in the book, is utterly commendable and shows how overwhelmingly resilient a woman can be.

Looking forward to watching the 2005 movie adaptation now; read that the movie was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won 3 out of them, which makes me more excited to watch the movie.

Coming to the rating, I'd round off my 3.75 stars to 4! (again emphasizing on the need for a decimal rating system on GR, haha!)

A Cinderella romance that unexpectedly swept me away! Memoirs of a Geisha is a very picturesque and dramatic tale of a young village girl taken from her family and raised in Kyoto as a geisha.

Usually I don't go in for romance. Don't get me wrong, I love love. But I prefer my love stories to be true. There is something immensely powerful about real love. As far as I've been able to discover, much of this story is based on the actual events of the life of former geisha Mineko Iwasaki. Why do I think so? She sued Golden for defamation of character. Apparently he included details she'd told him during their interviews that were not meant for print. Well, that's good enough for me!

I was dazzled by the details and enchanted by the well-paced plot. It's not for everyone, but if you liked the movie version you shouldn't be disappointed by the book, being that the two are identical in most ways.

Around the time I read Memoirs... I got the chance to visit Kyoto and made a point, as many tourists do, of seeking out the Gion District. The preservation of the area makes it worth the effort and cost of traveling in Japan. Almost medieval in its narrowness, the main historical road is a delight to behold, with its architecture and decor stuck in time as it is and the occasional geisha shuffling to and from buildings. I highly encourage a visit. Go when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Go see a tea ceremony. Just go. You'll be glad you did.

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.

2022
I didn't think that I'll re-read this book but Lisa of Troy's read-along group has this book selected for May so why not? I listened mostly and have a book for reference. It's such a slow story but I think it works for this fictionalized memoir.

Memoirs of a Geisha follows Chiyo's life which begins in a small fishing village. She and her older sister, Satsu were taken from their parents with the promise of a better life (their mother is terminally ill). They were shortly sold, Satsu into prostitution and Chiyo to a geisha house. Chiyo became Sayuri and trained in various traditional arts and became an apprentice geisha (maiko).

I'm not going to lie, this book has parts that made me very uncomfortable. The selling virginity to the highest bidder and having sugar daddy (danna). Bidding ceremonies and prostitution were outlawed in 1956. I try to remove my opinion and consider it part of history and old culture (pre and during WWII). It wasn't easy, but overall it's a good (difficult) story.

A ReadAlong group with Lisa of Troy.

2014
2 ⭐
DNF. Bought this paperback for a long flight, but never finished it.

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As a reader of bodice-rippers and books that are a part of the Luxury Suite Trash Experience™, I'm prepared to discuss how and when some of my favorite reads can be problematic. I don't feel bad about enjoying them but I do think it's important to have dialogues about why others might not, and why this is 100% okay for others to feel this way without having their opinions lambasted by stans. I, for example, refuse to buy or read anything by Orson Scott Card for personal reasons and once had an Angry White Mann  ™ call me names for being unable to separate my personal feelings about what Card has said about the LGBT+ from my feelings about his books. We all have those lines that can't and mustn't be crossed, so I totally understand why others choose to get political with their wallets.n

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n  MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA came under fire for multiple reasons, parts of which had to do with the book, and parts of which had to do with the film. The book has obvious surface issues, like cultural white-washing (giving the heroine blue-grey eyes, downplaying the tragedy of Hiroshima by portraying all American soldiers as fun-loving rascals who are definitely not rapey (seriously)), as well as presenting Chiyo's rise to geisha as a glorified Cinderella story shrouded in Orientalism (and some of the blurbs in this book really underscore that view with coded language, such as the Chicago Tribune's describing the book as "[a]n exotic fable" (emphasis mine) and Vogue's "a startling act of literary impersonation, a feat of cross-cultural masquerade" (emphasis mine). I'm not sure what "cross-cultural masquerade" means but it sounds unfortunately like, "literary yellow-face."n

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n  The deeper issue came with one of Arthur Holden's sources, an actual real life geisha named Mineko Iwasaki, who took umbrage with the way the details of her life were mangled in the telling of this novel. I had always been aware of the controversy, and knew it had prompted her to write a memoir detailing her life with more accuracy called, GEISHA: A LIFE, but only found out today while researching the background for this book that she apparently sued both the author and the publisher on the grounds that he had allegedly promised to keep her identity secret, and yet her name features prominently in the "acknowledgements" section of the book.n

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n  The movie was controversial because Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang (Sayuri), Michelle Yeoh (Mameha), and Gong Li (Hatsumomo) were cast to play the roles of the Japanese women in the book. The response to this was the typical "white people who are of X descent play characters of Y descent all the time, and no one bats an eyelash," but the problem with that line of reasoning is that it assumes that actors of color have the same opportunities and varieties of roles open to them that white actors do, which isn't the case. Actors of color have far fewer opportunities, and when opportunities do turn up, they are usually type-cast. Memoirs of a Geisha was a beautifully filmed movie and I felt very grown-up when my mom took me to see it with her after I'd read the book for my high school book club, and it will always have a place in my heart, and I still admit that it smacks of cultural appropriation.n

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n  Getting to the book, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA is one of those rare books that I have reread several times, and I consider it the entre to my love of epic stories and bodice-rippers. There is something so exciting about following a character from childhood and seeing them evolve and grow over the course of a novel, following them as they navigate new and exciting life changes and forge new relationships. Chiyo/Sayuri was a very readable protagonist and her goal - become a successful geisha  - is a very clear one to follow, and root for, because the Cinderella story is so universal.n

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n  Upon this subsequent reread, I did notice things that somehow escaped my notice before. Chiyo's detachment from her family, and her under-reaction by the news of their deaths was very strange. I was also bothered by the fact that she never met her sister, Satsu, again, as it kind of felt like the author had left the door open for that reunion, seeing as how Chiyo/Sayuri experienced so many other reunions in her life. I also remember feeling sorrier and more sympathetic for Nobu the first time around, but now, as an educated and wise woman, I see that he is one of those "nice guys" who puts women on pedestals and cannot forgive them for toppling or getting dusty. Even when Chiyo/Sayuri was in his good graces, he was so mean to her, and it was kind of hard to read about that this time.n

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n  There were also some wtf moments, like the mizuage scene (or the virginity auction), which I guess was one of the portrayals that Iwasaki was much more upset about. Then the man who buys Sayuri's mizuage takes the blood stained towel her maidenhead dripped on and puts it in a briefcase holding his virginity collection, or vials containing blood-stained fabrics from all the geisha he has despoiled. What a creep! I couldn't believe I'd forgotten the virginity briefcase. It reminded me of a scene from a historical bodice ripper I read about this Norman invader who had a necklace made of the pubes from all the women he'd raped. You can't make this stuff up, guys. Romance novels are the wild, wild west.n

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n  To the author's credit, he wrote a somewhat convincing woman, especially with regard to sex and her views of her body and her relationships with other women. While reading this book, I couldn't help but compare this to Jason Matthews's RED SPARROW, in which the heroine didn't resemble an actual human being so much as an emotionless sex robot. Sayuri had hopes and dreams, and Golden doesn't kid himself that pretty young women dream about banging geeky older men for their personalities or their pasty looks; Sayuri does what she does to survive, but she prefers men she's attracted to on her own terms and isn't truly happy until she settles down with someone who can give her what she really wants. It's such a simple thing, but so many dudes either choose not to understand this or don't want to understand this in their writing of women and man, it shows. So, kudos.n

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n  I enjoyed this book, problematic content and all. I'm sorry it caused pain, and controversy, but I am reviewing this from my own biased, privileged perspective as a white lady, so take my opinion with several grains of salt. It helps to read this as a trashy bodice-ripper and not as 'historical' fiction.n

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4 stars

Chiyo and her sister, Satsu, live in the fishing village of Yoroido, on coastal Japan. Her father gives them to Mr. Tanaka Ichiro. He sells Satsu into a brothel and Chiyo into a geisha house. Satsu escapes but nine year old Chiyo does not. Because Chiyo tried to run away with her sister, she is demoted to a maid for two years.

Life in the okiya (geisha house) is difficult. Hatsumomo, a geisha who lives in the okiya, is cruel and manipulative. She lies and twist events around so that Chiyo gets in trouble. Luckily for Chiyo, Mameha, another geisha, takes an interest in Chiyo. She becomes Chiyo's older sister. Soon Chiyo's training as a geisha begins and her name will change to Sayuri.

I found this novel intriguing and captivating. I stopped the description so as to not spoil the book for future readers. Chiyo/Sayuri's journey keeps the reader turning the pages to discover what happens next. I will tell you the ending is perfect for this story. Very satisfying. I am renting the movie next. Can't wait to compare it to the book. I recommend this novel to those interested in the life of a geisha. The story reads like an autobiography. It's hard to keep in mind that it's fiction. Happy reading!

What a disappointment. Why is it that in most books' reviews, only the marginal niche fans vote massively, upholstering the average score so unfairly. Unless, it is the romantics who do read diversely that in their unbiased way, gave the book four to five stars. Even people who gave the book the same score as me must have done so for different reasons. Maybe the ending threw them. Maybe I'll never know. I'm left scratching my head as to why this book is considered the best historical fiction on this site.

I'll pool all my misgivings from the last third of the book in this paragraph. Chiyo's outlook towards life is delusional, and is vindicated by her being united with her beau. I wonder what friends I myself would have had my life been more successful. Chiyo's memories of her past are very selective. Sometimes she wants to be a geisha, but anyway she has no choice. Her heart breaks and reseals itself over her journey in becoming one. Her infatuation with the Chairman and her laughable dressing of her repulsion to Nobu sums up the genre of romance. The book is an ungodly mess in its themes. The analogies and lesson-like counsel that passed for wisdom at the end made it all clear. This book's just an escapist dream for delusional romantics of all genders and ages. My reason for my score is mainly that at not one point did the book reel me in. I was never hooked.

I have to consider Hatsumomo, most of the book's main archenemy. She is described as stupid, but reveals herself as cunning. The latter attribute is proved beyond doubt. But her stupidity, abetted by drunkenness, only comes at the end. This was a missed opportunity to dress up a promising character. When Hatsumomo mars a kimono belonging to her rival, it's almost an act of vandalism. But we are never allowed to get the insight whether the act itself has the fuel of 30% meanness and 70% stupidity, or the other way round, or some other permutation.

I first intended to write more than I'm doing. But I want to put this book behind me quickly. I want to make two points (which is more than my favorite team can make at the moment). First, I knew that such a dishonest and cowardly book would make of the tragic Pumpkin, a mean spirited person. I knew it! Her separation from Chiyo should have been temporary. Instead, she estranges herself from joy and purpose in life in the most random way. She is very wimpy in her decision to "join the dark side". It's just not that convincing. Maybe her scavenging act early on foreshadows what the author did with her. It's not an excuse though. Second thing, the stupid and bizarre episode between Chiyo and the Baron. It should have had consequences, but it seemed like the mother of all treaties had been signed between all parties. Very inexplicable. Inexplicable but quite welcome. It's an occurrence that made me distance myself from the narrator. I don't have to be concerned with her when she troubled trouble.

This book, were it a flawed masterpiece and dealt with a genre I detest, would still have gotten more than two stars. But at no point did Memoirs reach a pinnacle or peak of sorts. No event was reciprocal, there was no theme except from a rags to riches story. Nature sometimes was described richly, but new objects of unfamiliarity and technology were glossed over, which is cool, as we're all aware of modern contrivances. It's just that everything I've mentioned makes the narrator fake. It's just sad. It means I'll never read this book again. Neither it nor I deserve it.

Loved this.
Don't know why it took me so long to pick it up.
Favourite of the year so far.

I read this many years ago but still remember how the story haunted me for weeks after I finished. My notion of a geisha was completely upended as these women, though trained to be hostesses for men, had extraordinary skills and acumen. I appreciated gaining insight into a facet of Japanese culture that was new to me. I was also unprepared for the emotional punch of the story. Highly recommend.

Memoirs of a Geisha is an American novel, and as such the attempt at West does East, especially on the complex and delicate subject of the geisha, is compelling, interesting, but also heavy-handed and ultimately ineffective (even more so in the case of the film). It is a wonderful introduction to geisha, Japanese culture, and the East for the uninitiated Western reader, and I can see why the book is popular, but I found it disappointing. For the reader already familiar with the culture, western influences are all too clear and the book comes off as a bit clunky and imperfect. I also had some problems with the general perception of the characters by readers versus the way the characters were actually portrayed in the book--Memoirs is far from the good-willed fairy tale that people assume it is. By all means, read it, but leave it open for critique and remember that a more authentic representation of eastern culture, especially in the details, will come from the east itself.

A lot of my critique stems from the fact that this movie has attained such wide-spread fame and been made into a movie, to be sure. I feel like it is being perpetuated as something it is not. Even the introduction to the book (a faux translator's note) perpetuates the myth that Memoirs is an accurate, beautiful, in-depth reflection of the life of a geisha, when in truth it is no more that historical fiction and is written by an outsider. Golden has done his research and is well-educated on his subjects, and I have no problem with people reading from, taking interest in, and even learning from this book; I do, however, think it is important that readers don't conflate the American novel with Japanese reality. They aren't the same thing, no matter how much research Golden did, and if we take the book as an accurate representation we're actually underestimating and undervaluing geisha, Japan, and Japanese culture.

Because Golden attempts to write from within the geisha culture, as a Japanese woman, he must do more than report the "facts" of that life--he must also pretend to be a part of it. Pretend he does, acting out a role as if he has studied inflection, script, and motivation. He certainly knows what makes writing "Japanese" but his attempt to mimic it is not entirely successful. The emphasis on elements, the independent sentences, the visual details are too prevalent and too obvious, as if Golden is trying to call our attention to them and thus to the Japanese style of the text. He does manage to draw attention, but to me, at least, what I came away with was the sense that Golden was an American trying really hard to sound Japanese--that is, the effect betrayed the attempt and the obvious attempt ruined the sincerity of the novel, for me. I felt like I was being smacked over the head with beauty! wood! water! kimono! haiku! and I felt insulted and disappointed.

The problems that I saw in the text were certainly secondary to the purpose of the text: to entertain, to introduce Western readers to Japanese culture, and to sell books (and eventually a film). They may not be obvious to all readers and they aren't so sever that the book isn't worth reading. I just think readers need to keep in mind that what Golden writes is fiction. Historical fiction, yes, but still fiction, therefore we should look for a true representation of Japanese culture within Japanese culture itself and take Memoirs with a grain of salt.

I also had problems with the rushed end of the book, the belief that Sayuri is a honest, good, modest, generous person when she really acts for herself and at harm to others throughout much of the book, the perpetuation of Hatsumomo as unjustified and cruel when she has all the reason in the world, and in general the public belief that Memoirs is some sort of fairy tale when in fact it is heavy-handed, biased, and takes a biased or unrelatistic view toward situations, characters, and love. However, all of those complains are secondary, in my view, to the major complain above, and should be come obvious to the reader.

Memoirs goes quickly, is compelling, and makes a good read, and I don't want to sound too unreasonably harsh on it. However, I believe the book has a lot of faults that aren't widely acknowledged and I think we as readers need to keep them in mind. This is an imperfect Western book, and while it may be a fun or good book it is not Japanese, authentic, or entirely well done.

A beautiful story that explores the secret world of the Japanese geisha (if you think that geisha = prostitue, you need to read this book just to learn how wrong that assumption is), told in the style of an interview with a woman named Sayuri Nitta, who used to be one of the most famous geisha in Kyoto. My favorite parts of the story were the detailed descriptions of geisha beauty rituals (they wax their hair and sleep with their necks resting on wooden blocks so they don't mess up the hairstyles) and tradtions (when a geisha leaves her okiya, or geisha house, a spark is struck against her back for good luck). The descriptions of the kimono worn by Sayuri and the other geisha in the book are also gorgeous.
The only part of this book that I didn't love was Sayuri's constant adoration of a man know only as the Chairman. Sayuri meets him when she's eight, and because he's kind to her and buys her a flavored ice, she decides that she's going to become a geisha just so she can meet him again. Did I mention that the chairman was about forty at the time? I didn't have a lot of faith in the level of Sayuri's love for him, and just couldn't wrap my head around the idea of an eight-year-old girl falling in love with a man more than thirty years her senior.

UPDATE: So, I wrote this review when I was in high school and didn't know much about the actual writing process of this book. Turns out Arthur Golden didn't actually do that much real research and had a bad habit of just making shit up. This book apparently pissed off a real geisha so much that she wrote her own book in response.

I'm writing this update now because today in my literature class we were talking about how we all basically read only British and American books, and this one girl starts talking about how she used to only read American books and then one day read Memoirs of a Geisha and it just, like, totally opened her eyes to other cultures. And everyone is looking at her like she just said that watching The Godfather helped her understand Italian history.

So basically what I'm saying is, don't come to this story looking for historical accuracy. It's still a good story, just not necessarily an accurate one. Think of it as fiction, and you'll be fine.

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”.