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Memoirs of a Geisha

By Arthur Golden

(743)

| Paperback | 9780099771517

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Book Description

According to Arthur Golden's absorbing first novel, the word "geisha" does not mean "prostitute," as Westerners ignorantly assume--it means "artisan" or "artist." To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard and Columbia--and an M.A. in English--he met a man in Tokyo who was the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years charming the very rich and famous.

The result is a novel with the broad social canvas (and love of coincidence) of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen's intense attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to a Western "trophy wife" than to a prostitute--and, as in Austen, flat-out prostitution and early death is a woman's alternative to the repressive, arcane system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or a vicious rumour spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider."

Golden's web is finely woven, but his book has a serious flaw: the geisha's true romance rings hollow--the love of her life is a symbol, not a character. Her villainous geisha nemesis is sharply drawn, but she would be more so if we got a deeper peek into the cause of her motiveless malignity--the plight all geisha share. Still, Golden has won the triple crown of fiction: he has created a plausible female protagonist in a vivid, now-vanished world and he gloriously captures Japanese culture by expressing his thoughts in authentic Eastern metaphors.

Critics

Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden

Arthur Golden's luminous novel debuts on the big screenA dapting any book for the screen is a tricky process, but surely no material has presented a greater challenge than Arthur Golden's brilliant debut novel, Memoirs of a Geisha. First published in ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

Memoirs of a Geisha

Desert Isle Keeper Review Memoirs of a Geisha This is the fictional tale of a geisha, the high-class counterpart of a Japanese prostitute, who rose to fame in the city of Gion in the late 1930s. Plucked from a tiny fishing village when she was nine, ... (read full critics)

likesbooks published on Tue, 31 Aug 2010

30 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

Sceptical

I doubt Golden's novel is an accurate depiction of geisha's life, coz in the book geisha impresses me as nothing more than a sex object - albeit a high-class sex object. Of course I don't think the line between a geisha and a prostitute is that thin. Seriously, I am digusted by the book. I think I s ... (continue)

I doubt Golden's novel is an accurate depiction of geisha's life, coz in the book geisha impresses me as nothing more than a sex object - albeit a high-class sex object. Of course I don't think the line between a geisha and a prostitute is that thin. Seriously, I am digusted by the book. I think I should read the autobiography by Mineko, a true geisha whom Golden based his character(s) on.

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larukucafe said on Jun 14, 2006 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Sad and dark story. By the time I finished the book I had come to the conclusion that Geishas are just exploited girls..call whatever you want but in the end it is just pitiful how the whole system work to exploit women..

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Annam_Mathews said on Jul 6, 2006 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

The novel is beautifully written, about a girl's journey becoming a Geisha in Kyoto.
I read the novel around 2002/3, with the movie releasing a few years after. The movie is quite disappointing when comparing to the book.

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Angelamaris said on Mar 30, 2011 | Add your feedback

Below expectations.

Surprisingly rather boring and shallow. Characters don't arch and tend to be rather flat. The reader can have an idea about what was Gion before the Second World War and being a geisha, but all in all not too interesting.

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Clara Mazzi said on Feb 28, 2011 | Add your feedback

Beautiful Novel

I read this book a few years ago and I simply loved it. Unlike the movie, the book goes into deep details on the life of a Geisha and its historical facts. Besides being beautifully written, it also made you search for more about Geishas.

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MirianSilva said on Feb 2, 2011 | Add your feedback

One of my favorites - simply exquisite!
A fascinating story with rich characters in a fascinating time & place!!

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Nini said on Nov 17, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback