Rating: 
Summary: A very good read...but the ending was cliched
Review: This book really allows you to step into the Japanese geisha culture, and experience what it must have been like - a very interesting storyline, too. However, the storybook ending was contrived and did not really fit. Despite the ending, I would recommend this book - Golden's writing is very vivid, and is good stuff!
Rating: 
Summary: AmosT GooD
Review: Okay, i gotta say the book was deeply fascinating until the ending. The ending just destroyed the whole geisha affect I thought. I loved the description, i love the way i was drawn into Sayuri's magnificent life but then, the ending just ruined everything. It just shows how american golden is, and it just proves that writers (americans) nowadays must add a bit of their egotism in there. I would have prefered Sayuri to stay in japan. Other than that,I found the book almost astounding, and at times disturbing.
Rating: 
Summary: Catty and only marginally interesting
Review: Cat fights set up like Joan Collins versus Linda Evans, brief cultural references, and then back to more back-biting plotting and night time soap stock plots. Two stars only because of some of the facts gleaned. A huge disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Enticing even though the story was harsh.
Review: This was overall a solid book - above average and well written. The knowledge that you received regarding the extensive training and difficulties of a geisha made this book worth reading. The travels through a young girl's life made you feel for her and in the background you were cheering for this woman to succeed. I couldn't put this book down.At the same time there were some things that were missing. That the author is a man and the main character is a women is typically a problem. For example, there is a part of the book that describes the woman loosing her virginity. To her it seemed almost a giggling matter. Yet to the average woman it was an insecure and painful experience. The woman didn't tell us what first time sex felt like, and I think it's because a male author cannot adequately describe it. The second problem has to do with the asian culture. Only someone who has an American/asian family understands the male/female dynamics and how it really stinks for the female. That you are not a son is one strike. You start in the negative and have to work your way to the positive side. It is also a culture that seems to thrive on pain and difficulties. Your best is never good enough. It didn't seem that the author actually felt the anger the woman must have felt due to the sexism (or maybe it is because I am American and she was not therefore the woman didn't understand that it could be any different). Regardless, this book made me glad that I am American. I do not respect the asian culture any more or less after reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing
Review: Once I started reading this story, I couldn't stop. It's about the life of a young Japanese girl named Chiyo, how she went from being raised in a small town called Yoroido by her old, depressed father to how she became a successful geisha they call "Sayuri." Through her life she has found and lost friends, been manipulated and humiliated by Hatsumomo, the geisha as cruel and sneaky as a snake, you can experience her triumphant moments and cry with her through her tough times. The only people she really found trust in since she was literally torn away from her famiily was Pumpkin and Mameha, and the one true enemy would have to be Hatsumomo (she may be beautiful on the outside, but inside she's a horrible, nasty, evil creature). Nothing in this review will make sense to you if you've not read the book yourself, so read it, I highly recommend it, it's absolutely magnificent!!!
Rating:
Summary: Initially interesting with a cliche ending.
Review: I couldn't put it down until I threw it across the room on page 417. What a terrible disappointment!
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, please.
Review: Only a miracle of marketing hype could have produced such rave reviews for so shallow a book. Yes, Golden appears to have done his research on the geisha lifestyle, which is (I suspect) the only reason it was published in the first place. Beyond that, it's basically a male fantasy about a young girl who can't get a man out of her head--and why? Because he once bought her an ice cream! Sayuri has all the depth of a PBS documentary narrator, and the men--particularly the Chairman, for whom Sayuri is supposedly pining throughout the book--are one-dimensional bores. Golden studied creative writing at Boston University, which seems to be at the forefront of the cookie-cutter, take-no-risks school of writing these days. (And a man writing as a woman is hardly a risk when done so poorly.) Occasionally one sees glimpses of genuine promise in this book when he just forgets the pretense and lets himself write, but this reads as if he has a stern workshop teacher looking over his shoulder, about to criticize him if he actually risks anything. A disappointment, to say the least.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't want this book to end
Review: My friends and I have just started a book club and we chose Memoirs of a Geisha as our first selection. What a great choice. There is so much to talk about after reading this book and think about while reading it! It is absolutely wonderful. The descriptions are beautiful and the characters become so real. I loved every minute.
Rating:
Summary: This book is Amazing
Review: This book was wonderful!! Upon reading it, a reader has to wonder how a man can truely get inside a woman's soul the way Mr.Golden has. He had me hanging on his every word. Phenominal!
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.
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