Memoirs of a Geisha

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and flowing storyline...hypnotic
Review: I bought "Memoirs of a Geisha" one Friday afternoon while buying textbooks. By Sunday morning, I was finished. The story was sweeping, engrossing, funny....truly a book you couldn't keep closed. You feel sorry and happy for Sayuri, the protagonist, all at once. The other characters are well-defined, and you feel as if you're living in Sayuri's okiye getting a bird's eye view of her life as a geisha. Read it... you will be totally hypnotized.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! Has your attention from the first page.
Review: I found this book so compelling and hard to put down. It was a most interesting story of a culture that I really don't know much about. I tried to read it slower so that the story wouldn't end but I was so wrapped up in it, that I had to keep reading. I read it during my vacation and found that I was thinking about the characters and the situations throughout my vacation.

Rating:
Summary: Golden disguises typical plot as Geisha culture exposition
Review: Looking at the many positive reviews of Arthus Golden's"Memoirs of a Geisha" I was shocked at the level of positivefeedback. Golden is a good writer, drawing stong, sypathetic characters and flavoring his descriptions with lots of detail about the Geisha life, using the narratorial strategy of having an aging, Americanized Geisha tell the tale of her childhood in Japan. However, Golden often dissmissed important aspects of Geisha culture and life, dismissing the important or even central aspects of singing, dance and sexualized behavior. Instead, Golden offers an excruciatingly detailed memoir of personal catfights, typical growing-up feelings, and a romance-novel sensibility instead of the insightful look at an obscure aspect of Japanese culture. As I read, I was shocked at how often important aspects of the culture were dismissed by a narrator so deeply invested and interpolated into the Geisha culture that she could hardly have resisted speaking of them--one can only assume that Golden would rather have his character dismiss the details than have to do his homework to write a decent novel. I invite other reviewers to think about what they learned about Geisha culture and Japanese culture from this novel; what they will find is that they know an awful lot about how young women forced to compete socially and sexually in any culture at any time will behave. Golden could have changed only a few details, called this "Memories of a Nevada Bordello" or "Memoir of a Roman Slavegirl" or even "Space-Geishas of Mars" and the basic content would remain the same--because there is so little truly insightful cultural detail in this ultimately schlocky romance.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic story! Most of us have been curious about geishas
Review: Memoirs is a fantastic book regarding a little-known part of Japanese culture. Golden,a very capable author, weaves story and history. One is very involved in the life of his characters. In a strict culture, this book has many suprises. One of the best!

Rating:
Summary: An awesome read
Review: Although this book was a little hard to get into, once I got through the beginning of it, I could not put it down. The whole culture surrounding geisha was completely foreign to me and I learned an incredible amount about the geisha lifestyle by reading "Memoirs of a Geisha." The story begins by describing the life of a young girl sold by her parents in hopes of becoming a geisha. The girl's life is a roller coaster ride drenched with heartache, revenge, and finally triumph. I won't spoil the ending but I just want to say that this is the best part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: High-end trash
Review: Everyone in my Book Club raved about this book (I may now have to find myself a new Book Club). The writing was bland and simplistic and the book was far too long for the simple story it was telling. The characters left me cold; there was not a sympathetic one among them. The women were all scheming and duplicitous; the men unfaithful to their families and driven completely by the basest urges. If this is what constitutes a best-seller, remind me to stay away from them.

Rating:
Summary: Felt as if I lost a frien when I finished.
Review: This was a true privledge to read. Such a beautifully told story. I honestly could not put it down! Felt a true privledge to see into this secret life. Truly a wonderful read for men and women. It is as if I lost a friend when finished the book...more more.

Rating:
Summary: An enthralling book you will not be able to put down.
Review: This is a wonderful read! You really care about the characters, and the historical details (1930-present) include the Japanese side of World War II. The plot centers upon a poor girl from a fishing village, and the fateful people and events which catapult her to become one of the most famous Geishas in Japan. It is a fascinating book, and I still think about the characters several weeks after reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Worth Re-reading, an re-reading...
Review: I read this book some time ago, a library copy, actually. I'd been waiting for it to come out on paperback, so I could get my own copy and read it again. It was completely engrossing, and I learned a lot about my own Japanese heritage. It taught me a lot about my own family's sort of patriarchical order. Unfortunately for the reviewer before me, Global Management should be reconsidered, as Geishas are JAPANESE, NOT CHINESE. Perhaps you may have picked up on that in the book somewhere...

Rating:
Summary: Totally Absorbing
Review: I have not read a book that held my attention this much in a long time. I had no knowledge of geisha before I read this book, but feel much differently now. This book is educational, interesting, fun, absorbing, and fascinating. It is so hard to put down, that I read way past my bedtime! Oh, for more books to be this good!