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.

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!

Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha is set in Japan from The Great Depression through just after World War II. A young girl named Chiyo moves from her small town in Yoroido to the big city to become a geisha. However, Chiyo misses her family, and an older geisha is determined to destroy her. One day, a man notices Chiyo crying in the streets, inspiring Chiyo to become Sayuri, a remarkable geisha. Will Sayuri have a happy ending?

Memoirs of a Geisha is this month’s May Readalong, and I have mixed feelings about this book. First, the pace is really slow. Usually, this is a detriment, but it is perfect for reading this over a month and having in-depth discussions.

The most enjoyable part of the book is the gamesmanship between the warring geisha, Mameha and Sayuri against Hatsumomo. Mameha knows how to perfectly extract herself from situations gracefully, and she is a true chess player, always thinking a few steps ahead.

I also enjoyed learning more about geisha. The women are entertainers, skilled in conversation, singing, dancing, and playing a musical instrument called the samisen. There are also certain hairstyles and clothing indicating different stages in the life of a geisha.

Now for the bad……

Memoirs of a Geisha has one of the most disappointing endings. It doesn’t even make sense, and for dragging on for ages, the ending is extremely rushed.

At the end of the book, I have more questions than when I started. Each of the geisha could have had their own book, and I felt that some of the characters were left a bit unfinished such as Sayuri’s sister.

And for the really bad….

I wanted to know if Memoirs of a Geisha was based on a true story. In the acknowledgements, Arthur Golden thanks Mineko Iwasaki, who is a real geisha. However, Iwasaki spoke to Golden on the condition of anonymity. She alleges that the book is her life’s story except that Golden falsely sexualized the book. Two years later, an out-of-court settlement was reached.

Overall, this book is great for discussion, but it made me feel sick. Thank to everyone who participated in the Readalong! See you in June for Little Women!

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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I read this a long time ago ---(a favorite) --- Its amazing a 'male' wrote this book. (sure 'felt' like a female speaking).

I remember watching the film when I was in my 2nd or 3rd year high school for a movie review. I barely remember what happened and decided to finally pick the book as it sits on my shelf for more than 3 years.

I didn't expect to like it because historical fiction isn't my usual kind of read and I find it refreshing. The premise of this book is compelling and beautiful. I was hooked from the very beginning and I can't seem to stop. The story tells about the journey of Nitta Sayuri/Chiyo being a Geisha. She came from a small town in Japan and came from a less fortunate family. Her mother became sick and her father is too old to sustain her and her sister, Satsu. They were offered to a business man and left with no choice but to take the sisters in Kyoto where they must find a great opportunity of being a Geisha/ an entertainer.

What Chiyo have been through during the course of her training to be a Geisha is really difficult and harsh. Hatsumomo, a Geisha in okiya, put her through hell because she was a failed Geisha and was insecure with Chiyo's beauty. After all the efforts, she survived. Chiyo was rewarded with many things and surpassed her. Thanks to Mameha for training her to be a refined, beautiful and well-mannered woman.

Getting to know the Japanese culture is pretty challenging but I love how Arthur Golden thoroughly explained such details and it kept me fascinated. It was a nice historical fiction to explore to. The mizuage (a deflowering ceremony) quite shocked me in some ways. It was unbelievable. There is a little love story in this book which I enjoyed as well.

Overall, it's a great historical fiction. It's nice to explore something different from my tastes.

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.

We can never flee the misery that is within us.

Sakamoto Chiyo was only 9 years old when in 1929, out of desperation her father sold her and her older sister to a man who took them to Kyoto to work as entertainers.

When in Kyoto, Chiyo is separated from her sister and is taken to a geisha boarding house to be trained and eventually become a geisha.

The story itself was beautifully told, but for me, it sounded too American if you know what I mean. It felt like the characters in the book were only playing at being Japanese.

Despite the elaborate language and rich description, something important was missing: Authenticity.

Imagine if a Chinese author were writing a book about a 20th century Armenian woman. It may convey the story, but no amount of ‘dolma’s and ‘manti’s would be enough to make it sound authentic.

And that brings me to the book not being able to choose if it was fiction or non fiction.

On one hand the author professes penning the memoirs of a real geisha, who by the way, categorically asked him not to mention her name in the book, which he very unprofessionally did and was sued for and paid the price eventually.

And on the other hand, the facts are changed to the extent that the story sounds completely fictional, in which case the author didn’t have to mention the geisha’s name at all, which would have saved her the distress.
In a word, I liked the movie better.

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!

“If you aren't the woman I think you are, then this isn't the world I thought it was.”



Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha is a beautifully written novel about one of Japan's most famous geisha. I just wasn't sure I trusted the immersion into geisha life that the novel purports to represent. I enjoyed the read, but everything, all the dramatic tension from Sayuri becoming a geisha to auctioning off her virginity, fit way too nicely into a competition between Sayuri and her rival, Hatsumomo. It gave Memoirs of a Geisha a page-turning quality (and maybe that's just good writing), but here it struck me as a little false. I need to remind myself that it is fiction, but this prevents me from accepting the world of the novel. 3.5 stars

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

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نه ملکه
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I first read this book in high school, and although I remember liking it, I don't think I was paying very much attention because I seriously thought the book was just about a bunch of Japanese hookers. But I reread it a few weeks ago, and I loved the story. Memoirs is about the life of this peasanth girl, Sayuri, in pre and post-WW2 Japan who is sold into life as an apprentive Geisha, and then ultimately, an actual Geisha.

The novel is full of these really great, vivid details of a variety of characters: gorgeous but evil rivals, the heinous older ladies who run the Geisha houses and practically enslave these girls, and the Geishas' patrons. Readers discover the world of the Geisha through the eyes of Sayuri, as she struggles to find her place in this society and at the same time, follow her heart
(very cliche, I know, but I don't want to give away the story!).

So the Geisha are women in Japan who are trained in the arts - playing music, dancing, acting, performing tea ceremonies, etc. They make their living entertaining wealthy Japanese men (business men, doctors, political figures), usually in large groups, in tea houses. In pretty rare cases, some of the most popular Geisha undergo a binding ceremony where the geisha is hooked up for life with a Dannah- a very wealthy man who supports her and takes care of her, in exchange for intimacy with her. There are some pretty disgusting scenarios in the book where they just come off like highly-paid prostitutes, but for the most part, the girls in the book are very colorful, strong-willed, and interesting. It's just a very fascinating look into old Japanese culture.

Incluso 4.5. Ha sido una maravilla seguir el camino de la protagonista desde niña y conocer el mundo velado de las geishas (o al menos tan tergiversado en occidente), y tantos términos, usos y palabras desconocidas para mí. Mundo todo él que me ha resultado muy interesante; libro didáctico y de lectura entretenida. Letras con vida. Para mi su protagonista es un ser que siente, padece (y mucho) y respira. Así como todos los personajes que deambulan en la novela. Y sin querer desvelar nada, el final es lo que menos me ha convencido. Pero nada grave, simplemente un gusto personal.