Geisha, A Life

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Critics

• Geisha, A Life

  Who are the mysterious Japanese women behind the painted faces of the geisha? Who are these women whose role is to pamper and provide intelligent and charming conversation with enigmatic smiles to largely, but not exclusively, male clientele? There h ... (read full critics)

  asianreviewofbooks published on Tue, 31 Aug 2010

5 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  To learn about the real life of geisha

  this is the book you should read. Forget about Arthur Golden's fiction (Memoirs of a Geisha), it's crap - its account of geisha life is mere fabrication. This book by Iwasaki Mineko has done justice to the geisha profession. After reading this book you simply will no longer be confused by the differ ... (continue)

  this is the book you should read. Forget about Arthur Golden's fiction (Memoirs of a Geisha), it's crap - its account of geisha life is mere fabrication. This book by Iwasaki Mineko has done justice to the geisha profession. After reading this book you simply will no longer be confused by the difference between geisha and prostitutes!!

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  larukucafe said on Jun 21, 2006 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Insightful and compelling.

  There's been a bit of criticism about this book, that the main character, and therefore the writer, is hard to empathise with.

  No doubt she has a very certain way of looking at things, she was driven like no one I know to be the best at what she did, but, given that she was brought up in such ... (continue)

  There's been a bit of criticism about this book, that the main character, and therefore the writer, is hard to empathise with.

  No doubt she has a very certain way of looking at things, she was driven like no one I know to be the best at what she did, but, given that she was brought up in such a strange situation and from the age of 3, 'groomed' to play a very specific role, with it specific responsibilities and attitudes, I found it compelling.

  I'd read The Tale of Murasaki before, and loved all the attention to detail, the ritual, the observance of season and custom so this was more in the same vein, albeit in the 20th as opposed to the 11th century! Fascinating.

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  goldtop said on Jul 6, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  The Real Deal

  Forget about the ghastly movie, this is the real deal... A book full of insight into the art and fascinating attitudes against a contemporary background that has the past lost too fast too soon.

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  iljlee said on Aug 6, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• Not one I enjoyed.

  This book just did not do it for me. It does not compare with other 'Geisha' books on any level being more a biography than a story. I disliked the tone of voice towards the end. Just a little too self-congratulatory. Its rare I dont finish a book. But I just couldnt bring myself to pick it up any m ... (continue)

  This book just did not do it for me. It does not compare with other 'Geisha' books on any level being more a biography than a story. I disliked the tone of voice towards the end. Just a little too self-congratulatory. Its rare I dont finish a book. But I just couldnt bring myself to pick it up any more.

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  Ella Williams said on Jan 8, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Kind of disappointed, the narration is plain and boring, partly due to the poor translation. An other disappointment is frequent editorial mistakes such as wrong spelling and so forth.

  For the writer (Mineko), she is a dancer after all, I'm perhaps a bit demanding if am expecting a great piece ... (continue)

  Kind of disappointed, the narration is plain and boring, partly due to the poor translation. An other disappointment is frequent editorial mistakes such as wrong spelling and so forth.

  For the writer (Mineko), she is a dancer after all, I'm perhaps a bit demanding if am expecting a great piece of literature. A great book to know about Geisha, but not for literary enjoyment.

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  Miranda said on Jun 27, 2007 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Hardcover 297 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0756781612
• ISBN-13: 9780756781613
• Publisher: Diane Pub Co
• Pub date: Jul 02, 2004
• Also available as: Paperback and Others
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Slovenske knjige

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