Book info

• Title Memoirs of a Geisha
• Author Arthur Golden
• Year 1997
• Genre Historical

From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold as a servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. Telling her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York, each page exquisitely evokes another culture, a different time and the details of an extraordinary way of life. It conjures up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of geisha: dancing and singing, how to wind the kimono, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the most powerful men.

Thoughts

Somewhere, in the dusty corners of my mind, I recall watching the film of this book and not being particularly bothered about it. The book, I’m glad to say, is much better. Written as a memoir, and told from the perspective of an older woman looking back on how her life unfolded, there’s a friendly and casual air to the story - but with a hint of something still being held back.

The author pertains to have done plenty of research, and I can’t say I know very much about the world of geishas, so I learnt a lot as I went a long. It’s not really a mindset I could ever fathom, so it was hard to relate, but I don’t think that mattered in this book. It was about the story, and it was told very well.

I really enjoyed the characters, their interactions, and how they developed. The slow breakdown of Hatsumomo, the thawing of Nobu, the growing bitterness of Pumpkin, it was fascinating to be an insider looking in. I also liked the twists and turns of the relationships, how the geishas manipulated the men they served, and each other!

The whole thing was tinged with sadness, so that even though there was something of a happy ending, it wasn’t contrived or disappointing. It also didn’t leave me with a warm contented feeling, either, so it’s a good job I wasn’t looking for that in a book!

Overall, I really liked it, and I can almost imagine it’s the type of book I might read again in a few years time.

Rating: 4 / 5