Memoirs of a Geisha

Rating:
Summary: TOP TEN book of ALL TIME
Review: I was so sad when I finished this book-- I literally looked forward to reading it every night before bed. I couldn't believe how beautiful the language is-- I felt as if I too were living such colorful experiences. It made me laugh out loud and shed tears.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT till....the ending
Review: I was engrossed in this book and like many found it fascinating and very compelling. However, I couldn't help but think that the ending was far too neat, too conciliatory. Throughout the book she was so Japanese, so totally Japanese, yet in the end she seemed perfectly content to spend the rest of her days in a foreign city. What REALLY happened to most Geisha and why didn't that happen to our heroine? I thought the ending reaked of "hopes of Hollywood."

Rating:
Summary: Well, they wear nice frocks . . .
Review: Now I know all about kimonos, a little about Kyoto, something about geishas, but that's all I have to show for reading this disappointing book. Period detail alone does not a good story make. The characters never came to life. If the author hadn't gone to an Ivy League school, would this book ever have made it into print?

Rating:
Summary: Work Of Art!
Review: After reading this book, it felt like no other book could hold my interest for very long. Authur is amazing...his descriptions,his feel and his imagination all merged together to write one of the best books I have ever read in my life. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Metaphor Factory must have run double shifts to keep up
Review: with Golden's demand for Metaphors with Extra Velveeta. Memoirs does not have one redeeming quality. Cartoonish characters; trite plot, tedious dialogue; contrived ending. It took Golden over 400 insufferable pages just to say that Cinderella-san lived happily ever after. I feel like a reader adrfit in a salty sea of really bad writing. (Mr. Golden, PLEASE don't use my metaphor in your next book!)

Rating:
Summary: Sorry: Over-rated
Review: Sorry, but I couldn't finish the book. By the time I realized I was over half way through and I still wasn't hooked to the story line, I bailed out. There was one too many "Oh, but the Chairman", "Look what pretty eyes she has", and "It was years later I learned". I really expected more of a cultural insight vs cat-fighting perspective. I had hoped for more insights to the "artisan" aspect of geisha life, vs the bidding war for the mizuage.....I must say on the positive side that there are many clever descriptive passages (but even these wore thin as the pages dragged on). (Ref below reviews: Can't believe it was written by a man either...)

Rating:
Summary: Fiction pretending to be a memoir.
Review: First, I have to say that the book has merits. One senses that the author has done a lot of research to bring us the details of life as a geisha. With the simplistic prose of a geisha telling her story, we almost believed that it was dictated by her. But, the neat happy ending reeks of a novel wanting to go to Hollywood, which is a real sad thing since I almost bought the memoir theme only to be treated to just so-so fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down.....
Review: I looked forward to getting a seaton the train to work not just so I could sit, but so I could read this book! I couldn't put it down, it was sort of like a history lesson, but the most intruiging one I have encountered.

Rating:
Summary: gREAT bOOk!
Review: An excellent book that keeps u so engrossed in reading it that u can wait to go on to the next page!

Rating:
Summary: A glorious book, an opulent work, I'm so glad I read it!
Review: I am captivated with the Japanese and their culture afterhaving read this book. It is hard to believe that the author is a maleand that it's his first published work. This is a book you get lost in, a book that causes you to think and feel things you may never have experienced before. I highly recommend it to men and women alike!