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Memoirs Of A Geisha

Average rating: 5/5

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Memoirs Of A Geisha

by Arthur Golden

November 15, 2005 | Hardcover

In this literary tour de force, novelist Arthur Golden enters a remote and shimmeringly exotic world. For the protagonist of this peerlessly observant first novel is Sayuri, one of Japan''s most celebrated geisha, a woman who is both performer and courtesan, slave and goddess.

We follow Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child''s unusual blue-grey eyes. From there she is taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto. She is nine years old. In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha''s elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow. She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival. Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and Scarlett O''Hara. And Memoirs of a Geisha is a triumphant work - suspenseful, and utterly persuasive.


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This item is found in: Fiction and Literature

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Reviews

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Captivating

    Dana

    6 weeks ago

    This is a story about the trials and tribulations of a young girl sold to a Geisha house in the first half of the 20th century in Japan. As Sayuri, an extraordinarily beautiful Geisha, grows into a great success, she also creates a powerful rival that seems bent on making her life miserable. Secretly falling in love with the Chairman, a high ranking executive working for an electrical company and a patron of the Geisha house, not only adds to the torments of her daily life but wills her into a moral struggle that may cause her to betray a friend as well as cause her ultimate demise.
    Wonderful! Looking forward to watching the film.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 3/5

    Not bad

    Spider boy

    4 months ago

    I actually liked this book. The problem is that I was told the book was a true story and I took that as a fact without giving the book much scrutiny. a few chapters in I was shaking my head. This is a great book, but it is not a true story. it is historical fiction--well researched, but fiction none-the-less. after I got over that hump, the book came into its own. and I started enjoying it. I didn't like the ending but overall I'd say this book is worth the read.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    AMAZING!

    ariess

    7 months ago

    http://bookwormchronicles14.blogspot.com/2011/11/memoirs-of-geisha-arthur-golden.html

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?
    Crista

    Rating: 4/5

    A worthwhile read.

    Crista

    13 years ago

    I was misled to believe that this novel was a biography of a renowned Geisha, when it was in fact fictional. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, the characters and the history lesson surrounding the role and life of a Geisha. I was inspired to learn that the novelist is a professor and reseacher of Japanese history. The history lesson that is "Memoirs of a Geisha" is both an entertaining and informative read.

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From the Publisher

In this literary tour de force, novelist Arthur Golden enters a remote and shimmeringly exotic world. For the protagonist of this peerlessly observant first novel is Sayuri, one of Japan''s most celebrated geisha, a woman who is both performer and courtesan, slave and goddess.

We follow Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child''s unusual blue-grey eyes. From there she is taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto. She is nine years old. In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha''s elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow. She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival. Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and Scarlett O''Hara. And Memoirs of a Geisha is a triumphant work - suspenseful, and utterly persuasive.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

Arthur Golden was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at Harvard College, where he received a degree in art history, specializing in Japanese art. In 1980 he earned an M.A. in Japanese history from Columbia University, where he also learned Mandarin Chinese. Following a summer at Beijing University, he worked in Tokyo and, after returning to the United States, earned an M.A. in English from Boston University. He resides in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.


--


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Edition Details

Large Print Edition

Hardcover

768 Pages, 6.52 x 9.59 x 1.58 in

November 15, 2005

English


0739326228
9780739326220

From the Critics

"Astonishing . . . breathtaking . . . You are seduced completely." -Washington Post Book World

"Captivating, minutely imagined . . . a novel that refuses to stay shut." -Newsweek

"A story with the social vibrancy and narrative sweep of a much-loved 19th century bildungsroman. . . . This is a high-wire act. . . . Rarely has a world so closed and foreign been evoked with such natural assurance." -The New Yorker


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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