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Memoirs of a Geisha

Arthur Golden

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Apr 20, 2009 Armilie Mae rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Sayuri’s life has indeed been like a rock uncouthly falling on a river - for it had to struggle dodging its way through the rock-strewn cliff until it ended up maimed and defaced. Nevertheless, it still made its way, and as it swims with the current, what it thought were lethal and murky waters are actually aiding it to be renourished until it reaches a safe place – where it would choose to remain for the rest of its years.

It is known that beauty is an ephemeral entity. But now I think of it o Sayuri’s life has indeed been like a rock uncouthly falling on a river - for it had to struggle dodging its way through the rock-strewn cliff until it ended up maimed and defaced. Nevertheless, it still made its way, and as it swims with the current, what it thought were lethal and murky waters are actually aiding it to be renourished until it reaches a safe place – where it would choose to remain for the rest of its years.

It is known that beauty is an ephemeral entity. But now I think of it otherwise. Beauty is a pleasant thing that never ceases – and it just glows even further against adversity. Sayuri’s life taught us that no matter how afloat, beautiful and close to perfection you are, your place in the world is still a hairsbreadth from ashes. While the world spins and changes without us realizing it, like a ball that rolls and accumulates dust all the while, still, the beauty in it remains. It may be hidden by all the dirt that have piled up, but it’s always there.

I learned in Memoirs of a Geisha the beauty of endurance, and not just sheer endurance, but more of resilience- resilience to wherever life puts you, be it in a furnace or in the abyss of polar waters. Accepting insults and hostilities isn’t always a sign of weakness; having better thoughts in mind puts you a step upfront adversity when you use them to your advantage.

Behind the elaborate kimono and a refined countenance, amidst the clever conversations and boundless artistry – is the face of a girl who longs for a place in the world where she is not desired for what she was trained for, but for who she is when all the elegance have been stripped off her until nothing is left with her but her own person.

Nitta Sayuri’s, or Sakamoto Chiyo’s, so as to say, accounts of her life - from being all curled up in a tipsy house with her impoverished and ailing family to becoming one of the most adored geishas not only in the district of Gion but on all of Japan- was so exquisitely written in among the finest and most hilarious points that you would just find it too impossible to empathize with the heroine; you could imagine drifting through the scenes, seeing through your own eyes the kind of beauty that would leave you short of breath, but is now deceased, nothing more like an ephemeral festival.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a testament to the fact that nothing lasts a lifetime but beauty – one that is not conceited, but is timeless and genuine.

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Apr 05, 2007 Arash is currently reading it · review of another edition

Jan 25, 2008 Massimiliano Mauriello marked it as to-read

Shelves: fiction

Mar 28, 2009 LeAnn rated it it was amazing

Aug 05, 2009 Xelloss-kun marked it as to-read

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