Memoirs of a Geisha in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jul 02, 2012 Chaitra rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: made-into-a-movie, literary-fiction, 1001-books, historical-fiction, manners

I was genuinely interested in this until Hatsumomo was around. She vanishes from the book with about 100 pages left, and those last 100 pages are some of the most excruciating I've ever read. There was nothing left to make Sayuri interesting after that, in fact, she was a boring thing to begin with, and so Golden spends it on her love for this elusive man called Chairman who she has been in "love" with since she was a little skinny girl of twelve. Never mind that he gives her no clue that he eve I was genuinely interested in this until Hatsumomo was around. She vanishes from the book with about 100 pages left, and those last 100 pages are some of the most excruciating I've ever read. There was nothing left to make Sayuri interesting after that, in fact, she was a boring thing to begin with, and so Golden spends it on her love for this elusive man called Chairman who she has been in "love" with since she was a little skinny girl of twelve. Never mind that he gives her no clue that he even sees her until the end reveal after she's done something so hideous that it brings her even lower than Hatsumomo. At least Hatsumomo never pretended to be anything but the vicious thing she was, and even then she didn't try to destroy a man who had done everything for her. Sayuri, on the other hand, arranges for the one man who kept her safe and healthy during the war, who regards with such high esteem that he will go to any lengths to protect her honor, to see her fucking a man he hated. All so that she can become a kept woman for a man she doesn't even know likes her, and who definitely hasn't helped her on the level Nobu has. Nobu doesn't see her, of course, due to the machinations of another evil person, but the Chairman sees her instead. What happens then? Oh, Sayuri is such a wonderful thing as she faces absolutely no consequences, and lives happily ever after with this Chairman.

I hated the last part enough to reduce my rating from a high 4 stars to the final 2. That anyone would see that and still think that it has anything to do with love, with honesty, with even affection, sickens me. I've never been fond of love at first sight stories, and during the first three quarters of the book her moaning and pining for this guy was minimal. Her battle with Hatsumomo took center stage, and that was at least fun, even while Hatsumomo is completely depicted as evil. Mameha and Sayuri retaliate against Hatsumomo almost as viciously as Hatsumomo herself, but oh, they're battling on the side of the good! I don't really discriminate between male portrayals of women, but this is one book where I think a female author would have done better. When Golden stays on the level of describing kimonos he does ok, but as for everything else... I also thought that the writing was too Asian to be true. How many times can you talk about water motifs everywhere and cherry blossoms and other nature stuff? You don't see that in Haruki Murakami's books. Thankfully, my eyes glazed over the excessive similes other reviews have mentioned, so I didn't get too bothered by that. But even then, the Memoirs of this particular Geisha seems to remember too much of her sex life all the while protesting that she was no prostitute. Oh, and her kimonos. She remembered too much of that. Nothing about the war, other than how her beautiful hands were stained by totally removable dyes. Yes, I can see how this was catastrophic. I don't even think she mentions Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

It would have been easy for me to like this book, to be honest. I'm fascinated by Japan, it wouldn't have been hard to satisfy me. In fact, had it ended with Hatsumomo, I would be here ranking it highly. But since it devolved into a sappy, wholly unbelievable infatuation and made it seem like an epic romance that needs to triumph against such unbearable odds as the only decent man in the book, her I am decrying it loudly and not recommending it to anyone. I will go find a Haruki Murakami book and lick my wounded Japanese literary sensibility. ...more

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