Memoirs of a Geisha : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading - Slow Ending
Review: After repeated recommendations, I finally decided to give this book a try. I was completely engaged almost immediately. The description of this aspect of Japanese culture and the life of this poor girl sold into a life that is a bizzare mixture of luxury and slavery was fascinating. Once the conflict with the other geishas in her house was resolved, however, the story degenerated into a somewhat predictable love story. Still an enjoyable read, and a great source of information about a very foreign world.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read for the connoissuer of Japan.
Review: A fictional piece that chronicles the life of geisha Nitta Sayuri. Born in Yoride, a fishing village on Japan's east coast, around 1920, she was sold to Gion in Kyoto as an apprentice geisha. The memoires are alleged to have been recorded in Sayuri's New York appartment over a period of two years in the 1990's. Golden provides us with an account of the mysterious life a geisha leads at the height of its popularity before WWII, the way it survived during the Great Depression and its temporary closure near the end of the war. The Western perception of this antiquated art form is largely mistaken and we are provided with an explanation that is both harsh and forgiving. Golden is a Japanophile and his research has produced a novel that is enjoyable and eye opening. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in Japanese culture and/or is intending to visit Japan.

Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: It reminded me of another boring soap opera with an extremely predictable ending. I'm sorry I wasted my money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: It reminded of another boring soap opera

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I was surprised to learn that some people didn't adore this book as much as I did. I thought it haad nothing boring, the story kept up, I couldn't put it down! I learned so much from it and it touched me so deeply. It was eloquent and beautiful and I would recommend this book to anyone!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Journey
Review: I have just recently finished reading "Memoirs of a Geisha". It took me two weeks to read and I must say that having to put it down to go to work was a challenge. I simply couldn't put the book down. It was brilliantly written. I find it amazing that a man can write so beautifully from a woman's perspective especially a woman who is from a land that tends to be so foreign to us. I found myself wondering many times about what Sayuri would be up to next. It was a joy to read this book, I am so glad I bought it. I have recommended this book to several of my friends and they are enjoying it as well.

Rating:
Summary: Does not live up to the hype
Review: Though Mr. Golden constructs a reasonably good story, he fails to energize his characters with any purpose or spirit. Sayuri's love, the driving force of the book itself and the only reason I kept reading, remains unexplained and unfulfilled right to the end. Why did she love him so much? Why did she love him at all?! Why did her rival geisha hate her so much? Sayuri herself is an unintended dichotomy. The other characters say repeatedly what a clever, witty woman she is, but the reader only sees an undecisive and pliable girl whose ultimate fate is a matter of dumb luck, not will. In an odd turn, I hope that the film version is better than book.

Rating:
Summary: Corny Corny Corny
Review: The information was fascinating but the groaners! They kept coming and coming and coming like the waves breaking on the shores of our island, Japan. Like a hungry tiger at the edge of a herd. Like the hummingbird dipping at the nectar of a beautifully blooming flower....

Rating:
Summary: Well researched and full of details.
Review: I found the book to be very good over-all. The research and attention to detail was excellent. I probably could not have found a better book to read, if I wanted to learn about the Geisha culture. I was disappointed, though, that although 'written' as a true story, it was, in fact, purely fiction. Also, the book was fairly predictable, and full of cliche. Still, overall I found it enjoyable reading.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: When I visited the US recently, my friend told me that Steven Spielberg planned on making a movie about this book. I finally bought the book last week and I was totally engrossed to the detriment of my job and family (luckily I read fast). If you have any idea of what life was like for a wealthy family during that era, you will understand this book. My hat is off to you Mr Golden for causing me to constantly ask if this book really had been written by a young American male. My husband will read it now and when he is finished I will send it to my mother who was born and raised in Japan at this time. Maybe she is the better one to pass an opinion on this book.