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A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable.

Amazon.com
According to Arthur Golden's absorbing first novel, the word "geisha" does not mean "prostitute," as Westerners ignorantly assume--it means "artisan" or "artist." To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties, and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard and Columbia--and an M.A. in English--he met a man in Tokyo who was the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years charming the very rich and famous.

The result is a novel with the broad social canvas (and love of coincidence) of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen's intense attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to a Western "trophy wife" than to a prostitute--and, as in Austen, flat-out prostitution and early death is a woman's alternative to the repressive, arcane system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or a vicious rumor spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider."

Golden's web is finely woven, but his book has a serious flaw: the geisha's true romance rings hollow--the love of her life is a symbol, not a character. Her villainous geisha nemesis is sharply drawn, but she would be more so if we got a deeper peek into the cause of her motiveless malignity--the plight all geisha share. Still, Golden has won the triple crown of fiction: he has created a plausible female protagonist in a vivid, now-vanished world, and he gloriously captures Japanese culture by expressing his thoughts in authentic Eastern metaphors.

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beautiful
The author does an incredible job at keeping the reader "hooked." i could not bring myself to put it down....when i finished the book, i wanted to learn more about geishas and their cultures.....this is a must read.

Very Well written.
This book was thrilling and quite detailed. While it may not be considered an accurate depiction in the views of a true geisha it is still quite entertaining and very well written. Hard to put down once you start reading it. The movie did not do it justice.

Artful and Captivating
Memoirs of a Geisha / 0-679-78158-7

This artful, veiled look into the hidden life of the geisha is incredibly captivating. The realism grips the reader instantly, as we read of a young girl's coming of age in a world where she must compete with her beauty, skill, art, and conversation in order to be a worthwhile companion to men. Our geisha correctly reminds us that her art is really no different from what many women practice, this careful battle to be a man's companion and mistress is just applied to the rigid rules and careful beauty of the society of which she is a member.

Realistically, Sayuri guides us through her training, shows us her fears and hopes. Her hopes are the simple hopes of the poor - she hopes to have enough food, money, and shelter to be comfortable. She does not dare to hope to buy her freedom, nor does she know what she would accomplish with this freedom. After a chance meeting with the only man who ever treated her kindly without hoping for something in return, her hopes expand to include being a geisha for this man - the only interaction she can imagine with him. Her fears are more complex - she fears the tyranny of the people who own her and live with her, she fears that she will be a failure as a geisha and will be forced to become a prostitute, she fears that she has no worth or value.

How much of this is real and how much is fiction? It is difficult to say. Certainly, the glimpses inside Sayuri's world ring true. It is hardly a stretch of the imagination that upper-class mistresses would be frequented by rich gentleman - certainly, this phenomenon has been a normal part of many societies and there is no reason to assume that the practice could not be generalized into a rigid business. I think that it misses the point, however, to belabor the "truth" of the story, though, for such a question posits that there is only one truth to be had. I think that this story is true for Sayuri, and that there are other stories, just as true to their tellers, which would show a different image to us.

Fantastic glimse...
I read this book on a business trip and almost missed all my meetings because I didn't want to put it down. Forget the movie...or at the very least...READ THIS BOOK before you see the movie. It was amazing and I'd say a good read for both men and women.

Amazing novel
This is not the kind of book that I really thought that I would enjoy. I picked it up at the airport for a long trip. I could not put this book down. It was fantastic!!! Highly recommended

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