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Dec 17, 2009

Liz rated it:

Like eating fancy dessert at a gourmet restaurant, Memoirs of a Geisha is beautiful, melts lightly off the tongue and will be forgotten shortly after it's done. The language is strikingly lovely, and Golden paints a remarkable picture of a time and place.

If you're looking to learn something deep about the psychology of Japanese culture, or meet nuanced characters, then I'd steer you elsewhere. The story only skims the top of the more complicated aspects of a Japan in decline, foc More...

6 comments like (85 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Juushika rated it:

Memoirs of a Geisha is an American novel, and as such the attempt at West does East, especially on the complex and delicate subject of the geisha, is compelling, interesting, but also heavy-handed and ultimately ineffective (even more so in the case of the film). It is a wonderful introduction to geisha, Japanese culture, and the East for the uninitiated Western reader, and I can see why the book is popular, but I found it disappointing. For the reader already familiar with the culture, western More...

16 comments like (90 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2008

Megan B. rated it:

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0 comments like (36 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2007

Khalid rated it:

Memoirs of a Geisha is an amazing novel that discusses the life of a Geisha, a Japanese artist-entertainer. Both its very exotic setting, with its extremely different value system, and its fascinating plot, which grabs your interest early on and keeps you waiting for more all along, contribute to making this novel a special book worthy of reading.

The best quality in this novel, in my opinion, is the way the narrator (Chiyo), tells the story. Her reflections concerning much of the eve More...

6 comments like (32 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2008

Denise rated it:

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0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Katie rated it:

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3 comments like (19 people liked it)

May 13, 2008

T.J. rated it:

Damn if you aren't one of the most problematic things I've ever read, Memoirs of a Geisha.

Like much of non-Asian America, I was swept up in the delight of reading this book in 2000. I was fifteen and precocious, and the narrative was arresting. I couldn't put the book down. I wrote this in 2000:

"Golden has hit pay dirt with this masterpiece. An insightful, curious, and caring look into the mysterious world of geisha, Arthur Golden peels away the ignorance and labe More...

4 comments like (40 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Fatima rated it:

I first read this book in high school, and although I remember liking it, I don't think I was paying very much attention because I seriously thought the book was just about a bunch of Japanese hookers. But I reread it a few weeks ago, and I loved the story. Memoirs is about the life of this peasanth girl, Sayuri, in pre and post-WW2 Japan who is sold into life as an apprentive Geisha, and then ultimately, an actual Geisha.

The novel is full of these really great, vivid details of a v More...

3 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2008

Jillian rated it:

The book in itself presents an interesting story, and makes for an entertaining read, but what bothers me about this book is that the vast majority of Western readers interpret it as a historically accurate memoir, when in fact it was written by an American author for an American audience, and therefore has achieved its success through appealing to and reinforcing the stereotypes about Japanese culture in America. Another reviewer on this website writes, "It is a wonderful introduction to.. More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

Alena rated it:

Golden earns points for creativity, but loses them for inaccuracy.

The "memoir" of the elegant Sayuri, whose life as a high-class geisha is disrupted by the outbreak of war, is written in an intriguing and alluring monologue -- purportedly narrated by Sayuri herself to the author -- that pulls the reader in from the very beginning. Unfortunately, the real narrator, Arthur Golden, took some dramatic liberties with history and cultural practices, and the fallacious elements s More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2007

Jessica rated it:

I can't remember what made me pick up this book -- it must have been that edition's cover, which was highly gorgeous: bright bright white with big red geisha lips. I think part of me wanted to be above this kind of thing, but you know what? I thoroughly enjoyed it. Memoirs of a Geisha was a fairytale in novel form, and completely absorbing even when it got slightly ridiculous. It's one of those chocolate cake kind of books, descriptively rich, demanding your full attention and almost too sweet b More...

12 comments like (10 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2007

Hannah rated it:

This book was well written, interesting, tasteful, and informative. It seems like the author really did his research.

The culture of this book is what interested me the most. The role women played and their place in society. Although this is merely "based on actual events", I kind of took a lot of it as what really went on. I've always thought of a Geisha like a prostitute, not as a companion/entertainer. I never thought about it being a career that they would have had spec More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 19, 2008

Anoud rated it:

Breaking my promise of keeping myself away from dramatic novels, I made up my mind to read this one, and just lucky me …….it was really worth it.

Memoris of a geisha is an astonishing novel that exposes the questionable secretive life of geisha specifically, and the superb Japanese culture in general. It's a story of Chiyo, a-nine-year-old girl, who had happened to be driven away from her own family, town and the spontaneous innocence of childhood, to be thrown in a curst, sickening More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2007

Marianne rated it:

I read this lovely novel on the plane home from Japan, finishing it upon my return to the US. I was surprised - given that it was written by a Western man - how accurately the Japanese culture was portrayed (at least from the limited knowledge I gleaned during my short time living there, and given that it was set in a time when Japan was, in many ways, very different from today).

Perhaps it was because I'd just left this beautiful country, but I was clearly able to imagine the vivid More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

May 31, 2007

Budd rated it:

Golden transports you back to the 20's to a time when the Japanese culture revered the women called Geisha. These are the memoirs of on such geisha Nitta Sayuri. These memoirs follow Sayuri from her sad youth were she is ripped away from her fracturing family to her being the proprietor of a tea house in New York in old age.

Sayuri, Chiyo in her youth, is adopted as her mother is on her death bed. She is sold to the Nitta Okiya, where she will one day train to be a geisha. Her sister More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Wilson rated it:

Alright, so if white people are not allowed to put on make up to try and make themselves look somehow like they are black people in movies (unless you're Ted Danson) without being wholloped on, why is it OK for Arthur Golden, who I don't know but I wager is not a Japanese geisha, to write a book that he passes off as the actual memoir of a Japanese geisha? And then have people say, "You know what, Arthur really captured the essence of the Japanese geisha." Why? Because he eventually ha More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 24, 2007

Meirav rated it:

How honest and true a picture can an American man paint on the world of a geisha? Not much, in my opinion.
True, until the second world war starts, the book's a pretty nice window into that hidden world (as much as Golden's resources allowed him to know) but beyond that this book becomes another piece of American romantic kitsch trash as everything the main character ever wanted becomes reality and she moves to the mighty and wonderful America, to the country who flattened two of her nation' More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Michi rated it:

Very entertaining, but kind of made me gag. Everything was written in this faux-asian "My heart ached like cherry blossom petals floating on the river..." bullshit.

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

ηicolε rated it:

As much as I thoroughly – thoroughly – enjoyed this book, I definitely won’t try to convince anyone that it is perfectly researched. As much as some people may believe, this book is a complete work of fiction (with affiliation to the characters, story, and overall plot), despite how convincing the translator’s note at the beginning may appear. Although it is fictitious, the author did befriend a native by the name of Mineko who answered many question and corrected wrongs that he had come across More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Abdullah rated it:

It's my favorite novel. I consider it the best I have ever read. I love it so much that every time I read it I find myself living within it, as if I was one of the characters.
The movie wasn't as good as the novel. In fact it wasn't even that good ! I advise you to read the novel FIRST !

I highly recommend you to listen to the audio book for the novel, read by: Carole Boyd.
She did a great job. It's amazing the way she interacts with the characters, and also I love her acce More...

10 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

Jen rated it:

My friend Robin sent this book to me shortly after I moved to Tokyo. It was hard to find English-language books at first, so she sent me a couple to keep me reading. I probably would not have been interested in Memoirs of a Geisha had I not just moved to Japan. But I found it to be one of the best books I've ever read.

When I first started reading the book, I wanted to see what Sayuri looked like, so I did a Google search. It was then that I realized the book I was reading was not More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2007

Amy rated it:

I loved this book until I came to the end. And then I was ambivalent. It has now been some time since I finished it, but I seem to recall feeling as though the ending was a man's notion of how a woman would have wanted the story to end. Not that all men are incapable of writing an ending to a woman's story, but maybe just THIS man is oversimplifying things. I could be way off base (who has read this?? help me out), but after pining away for a man that she had a crush on as a girl--a man that she More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2007

ima rated it:

Cerita tentang memori seorang geisha terkenal di Gion sekitar tahun 30-an, Nitta Sayuri, dengan nama kecil Sakamoto Chiyo. Bukunya bagus, karena saya suka cerita tentang memori kehidupan seseorang. Saat kecil ia sangat menderita, yang kemudian dia dan kakak perempuan satu2nya dijual untuk dijadikan geisha oleh Tuan Tanaka, lelaki yang dikagumi Sayuri. Disamping wajahnya yang cantik, Sayuri yang memiliki mata abu2 memikat banyak lelaki di Gion saat ia menjadi geisha. Ternyata untuk menjadi geisha More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2007

Amanda rated it:

An aside: it did take me a long time and great puzzlement what the Author's Note was about. I felt downright daft when I figured out the author was merely trying to justify the title of "Memoirs" and give background information that otherwise did not fit into his grand vision of the "memoirs" themselves. I must admit, the beginning of this book swept me away into Chiyo's world. However, as the book dragged on, I felt bored more than anything. She rehashes the same feeling More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2007

Annalisa rated it:

What I love most about this book is how well it puts you into Japanese culture in the early 20th century. The characters, both loved and hated, are deep, multi-faceted embodiments of that culture. Sometimes while reading a book the stage set by the author becomes more real than your own surroundings. You become so enthralled in the story that you almost believe if you visited the era you could walk into a scene from the book. Even years later the details remain firm in your mind. This is a well- More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2010

Tara rated it:

What a wonderful book! I am half Japanese and I hate to say that I never really knew that much about the Geisha culture. Golden did a wonderful job telling the story of Sayuri as well as educating the reader of the traditions and the culture during the WWII era in Japan. At times it was almost too hard to read for me, since I felt so deeply for the characters.
I would recommend it to anyone that is a little curious about the Geisha Culture, but wants to have a little love story mixed i More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2007

Christina rated it:

this book was the typical depressing story of the submissive-wimpy-asian-girl who always gets screwed at the end. this book reaffirmed in my head why i hate reading these kinds of books (like all the those amy tan books) and will never pick one up again. it always happens, it's a great story, you can't put the damn book down, and in the end the character pisses you off beyond belief because she ALWAYS has to save face or can't dishonor her family or some other BS. i have enough drama in my life, More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Natalie rated it:

Loved this book - there is just something amazing that happens when people write in the style of Asian storytelling - I forgot it was fiction. I love how it opened my eyes to a culture, time and station that I (and most of America, I would wager) didn't have a clue about. I absolutely loved this book.

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2009

Uniquely Tahira rated it:

this story is a fictional story of a female japanese entertainer named chiyo sakamoto.
the story set in japan tells about the life of Chiyo, who is sold into alife of servitude by her parents when she iis nine-years old.Chiyo is taken in by the proprietress of a geisha house,Mother,where she works to pay off the debt of her purchase and the soiling of a silk kimono owned by a well known geisha-Mameha,which Chiyo was blackmailed into defacing by the geisha,Hatsumomo.

one day while More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2009

L rated it:

I found this book enthralling. This tale gave me exposure to a different society. A historical fiction and Arthur Golden uses the central character Chiyo to narrate the story. Throughout the book poverty and institutionalization of exploitation of women were obtrusive. If you remove the geisha culture and replace that with a similar custom from one's own culture or society (i'm sure there are so many out there with similar patterns), you would be able to relate to chiyo more easily. Sometim More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

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